When a subscription renewal can't be charged, for example because a card has expired or there isn't enough money in the account, the customer usually still wants their subscription. Failed Payment Recovery (sometimes called dunning) tries the payment again on a schedule, keeps the customer informed, and decides what happens to the subscription if the payment never goes through.
Where to find it
In Appstle Subscriptions, go to More > Failed Payment Recovery. The page has two tabs:
Strategy: your retry settings, customer emails and automatic recovery options.
Results: how much failed revenue you're winning back.
At the top of the page, Watch guide opens a short video about the tab you're on. Activity Logs shows the history of changes to these settings.
What happens when a payment fails
This example uses the settings new stores start with: 8 total payment attempts, 1 day between attempts, and Skip this order, keep the subscription active if every attempt fails.
Day 0: The charge on the billing date fails. This is attempt 1 of 8. The customer gets the payment failed email.
Days 1 to 6: Appstle retries the payment once a day (attempts 2 to 7).
Day 7: Appstle makes the final retry (attempt 8).
If it's still unpaid: Appstle skips this order and keeps the subscription active. The next order is charged on its usual date.
As soon as an attempt succeeds, the retries stop and the order goes through. New stores also start with Email the customer after each failed retry turned on, so the customer is emailed after every failed attempt.
You don't have to work this out yourself: the Recovery schedule on the Strategy tab shows this timeline for your own settings.
Your settings
Recovery method
Enable payment retries turns retries on or off. When it's off, failed payments aren't retried, but your If every attempt fails choice still applies to the failed charge.
Next, choose how Appstle retries. Only the method you select runs:
Fixed schedule: one steady rhythm. You choose how many attempts to make and how many days apart they are.
Phased campaign: several stages, each with its own number of attempts and spacing. For example, retry quickly at first, then wait longer. See Phased payment retry campaigns.
Fixed schedule settings
Total payment attempts (2 to 10): this number includes the original charge on the billing date. For example, 8 attempts means the original charge plus 7 retries. The recommended setting is 8 attempts.
Days between attempts (1 to 10): how long Appstle waits before each retry. The recommended setting is 1 day. Longer gaps give customers more time to add funds or update their card.
If every attempt fails: what happens to the subscription when the last attempt fails.
The choices for If every attempt fails are:
Skip this order, keep the subscription active (recommended): the unpaid order is skipped and the next order is charged on its usual date. The customer gets your order skipped email.
Pause the subscription: the subscription is paused, and no further orders are charged until it's resumed. The customer gets your subscription paused email.
Cancel the subscription: the subscription is cancelled and no further orders are charged. The customer gets your subscription cancelled email.
Recovery schedule
Below your settings, the Recovery schedule lists every attempt by day, from the charge on the billing date (Day 0) to the final retry, and then what happens if the payment is still unpaid. A phased campaign gets the same schedule, with each phase's retries on one line. A line underneath tells you when the customer is emailed.
Recovery discounts
You can offer a discount after a failed payment, so the customer has a reason to update their payment method before the next retry. If the subscription already has an active discount, Appstle keeps it and skips the recovery discount. If every attempt fails, the recovery discount is removed. See Recovery discounts in Appstle Subscriptions.
Customer & automation
Edit email opens the payment failed email, so you can change its wording and design, or turn it off.
Email the customer after each failed retry: the first failed charge always sends the payment failed email, unless you turn that email off. Turn this setting on to also email the customer after every failed retry. If a retry earns a recovery discount that has a customer message, that email is sent even when this setting is off.
Retry as soon as the customer updates their payment method: when the customer updates their card, Appstle retries the failed payment within minutes instead of waiting for the next scheduled retry. This works for active subscriptions.
Try another saved payment method when a charge fails: when a retry is due, Appstle can switch the subscription to another of the customer's saved payment methods and charge that instead. Each saved payment method is tried once. This only applies to customers who opt in from the payment details section of their customer portal.
What your customer experiences
The renewal charge fails and the customer gets the payment failed email. By default, it explains that the payment didn't go through and links to their customer portal so they can update their payment details.
In the customer portal, a banner at the top of the subscription says the last payment didn't go through, with an Update payment method button that opens their payment details. They can choose another saved payment method, or ask for an email with a secure link to update their card. Customers who paid with Shop Pay update their card in their Shop Pay account.
Once the card is updated, the next retry charges it. With Retry as soon as the customer updates their payment method turned on, Appstle retries within minutes instead. If the customer switches to another saved payment method, the next scheduled retry uses it.
If every attempt fails, the customer gets the email for your final action: order skipped, subscription paused or subscription cancelled.
If a Shop Pay customer can't update their card, follow Workaround: Updating a Customer's Payment Method When Shop Pay Fails.
Track your results
On the Strategy tab, Recovery performance shows three numbers for the last 90 days:
Recovery rate: the share of failed payments that were recovered.
Recovered revenue: the money won back by successful retries.
Still recovering: the money from failed payments that are still being retried.
The Results tab goes into more detail:
Retry insights suggests changes to your retry settings based on the last 90 days, once enough retries have succeeded.
Payment recovery analytics shows Attempted revenue, First-attempt success, Recovered revenue, Still recovering, Lost revenue and Recovery rate. You can choose a date range, compare with the previous period, and filter by recovery status, attempt count, failure reason, subscription status, product or variant, and selling plan.
Charts and tables show how payments move through recovery, which retry collects the money, and which failure reasons are most common.
Recent failed payments lists the latest failed orders that match your filters, with each order's recovery status and a link to the subscription. Use Export to get every matching order as a CSV file by email.
For a walkthrough, watch How to Monitor Failed Payment Recovery for Subscriptions.
Which plans include what
All plans: Fixed schedule, the final action, the Recovery schedule, recovery discounts, customer emails and Recovery performance.
Business Premium, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus: Phased campaign, Retry as soon as the customer updates their payment method, and Try another saved payment method when a charge fails.
Payment recovery analytics on the Results tab needs a plan that includes analytics. Otherwise, you'll see an upgrade option there.
To compare plans, go to Billing.
Good to know
Retries only run on active subscriptions. If a subscription is paused or cancelled while a payment is being retried, Appstle stops retrying it.
If an order fails because a product is out of stock, the customer gets your out-of-stock email instead of the payment failed email, the customer portal doesn't ask them to update their payment method, and no recovery discount is applied.
To see what happened to a single subscription, open it and check its activity. Retries and final actions are recorded there.
Changes to these settings apply to retries that haven't happened yet.
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Need help?
Email us at support@appstle.com or message us from the chat in the app.