Configure payment recovery and dunning
Choose what happens when payment fails for an automatically-collected subscription. You can turn on tactical retries, send optimized email notifications, and show retry payment forms in your app or website.
When payment fails for an automatically-collected subscription, the subscription status changes to past due and Paddle Retain gets to work to automatically recover the payment for you. This process is called dunning.
You can configure how Paddle Retain notifies customers about failed payments, turn on tactical retries, and choose what happens to past due subscriptions where the payment isn't recovered.
How it works
Paddle Retain combines world-class subscription expertise with algorithms that use millions of data points to recover failed payments for you. Paddle Billing is fully integrated with Retain, meaning it handles payment recovery for you.
With Paddle Retain, you can:
Automatically pause or cancel past due subscriptions
When all payment recovery attempts are exhausted, Paddle Retain automatically pauses or cancels subscriptions for you.
Send optimized payment recovery emails
Email customers when a payment fails, with messaging that's been optimized across hundreds of thousands of transactions.
Push payment recovery notifications
Prompt customers to update expired credit cards when using your web app — securely handled by Paddle.js.
Retry payments at the best time for success
Turn on tactical retries to automatically retry failed payments at optimal times.
Send payment recovery messages by SMS
Reach customers by text message to further boost payment recovery rates.
You can simulate some Paddle Retain payment recovery interventions using your browser console.
Before you begin
Set up Retain
If you haven't already, connect Paddle Retain to your billing platform and set up Paddle Retain.
Use Paddle Billing? Billing automatically integrates with Retain, so you're ready to get started. Click the Paddle > Retain link to jump to Retain to review your setup.
Check your Retain email settings
Emails sent from Paddle Retain are designed to look like they come from you or someone on your team. Review the email sender and reply-to addresses for your email addresses in ProfitWell > Retain > Control Center.
Pause or cancel past due subscriptions
When all payment recovery attempts are exhausted, Paddle Retain can automatically pause or cancel subscriptions for you. You can choose whether subscriptions should pause or cancel.
Choose "Pause subscription" or "Cancel subscription" from the dropdown under the subscription status heading.
Click Save when you're done.
Send optimized payment recovery emails
Paddle Retain sends emails to customers to let them know that their renewal wasn't processed successfully.
You can preview messages, but we handle the content for you. Our team of experts have sent millions of messages, testing and optimizing the content and cadence across hundreds of thousands of transactions. We found that plaintext, personal emails work best.
Toggle Payment Recovery Emails on to send notifications by email.
You can preview emails by clicking the eye icon.
Turn on payment recovery notifications
Payment recovery notifications reach your customers when they're using your product, maximizing the likelihood of payment recovery. They prompt your customers to update expired credit cards in your web app or on your commercial website with an unobtrusive notification.
When customers click the link to update, they're presented with a secure form to enter their details there and then — no need to go to another page.
Toggle Payment Recovery Notifications on to prompt customers to update their payment details in-app.
You can preview a payment recovery notification by clicking the eye icon.
Turn on tactical retries
You only have so many chances to retry a credit card payment. Tactical retries analyzes billions of credit card transactions across the Retain network and uses algorithms to retry payments at the best time for success. We look at product type, card type, customer location, and more than fifteen other factors to boost payment recovery by an additional 10 to 15 percent.
Toggle Tactical Retries on.
Send payment recovery messages by SMS
SMS is a reliable way of reaching customers, with 90% of text messages being read within three minutes of receipt. Retain can send text messages to customers to further boost payment recovery, targeting your customers at the right time in a highly personalized way.
Messages include a link to update payment information — all handled by Paddle.js on your website, with no sign in required.
Grab a copy of the Retain SMS phone number template and fill it in. Send it to us at pw_product@paddle.com.
Fill out the Retain SMS recovery form. We use this information to register your details with Twilio, our SMS provider.
We'll take care of the rest and reach out when you're ready. This may take fifteen business days.
