Definition of checkout recovery
Checkout recovery covers everything between a started checkout and a completed payment: knowing who the buyer is, telling them clearly why a payment failed, giving them another way to pay and reminding them with consent. It is distinct from failed payment recovery for subscriptions, which deals with renewals that fail after the sale (dunning), and from an abandoned cart in e-commerce, where the buyer is often anonymous.
The capture step
Recovery is only possible if you know who left. The FitCoUp checkout has a capture step with name, email and a separate consent for reminders before the payment step. Without consent, no recovery email is sent; the buyer still completes the purchase normally. The consent text says what will be sent and that it stops at any time.
The failed payment page
When a card is declined the buyer should not see an error code. The FitCoUp failed payment page explains the reason in plain words (insufficient funds, a bank decline, an expired card), opens a new payment with the email already filled in and lists other ways to pay. On Enterprise and Agency this page can carry a downsell when a one time offer was declined and can redirect to your own URL.
The email series and its rules
Every plan sends the first two emails: other ways to pay when the bank declined the card, and a personal note 45 minutes, 2 or 3 hours after the checkout depending on the price. Enterprise and Agency add the full series: a message after 24 hours, another after 72 hours, an optional late incentive on day 6 for programs from 49 EUR and a separate segment for bank declines.
- Only with consent from the capture step.
- Quiet hours 22:00 to 08:00 in the buyer's time zone; a message due at night waits for the morning.
- Stops on payment, unsubscribe, bounce, refund or a newer checkout by the same person.
- At most once per email address in 14 days.
- One person in ten is held out as a control group, so the dashboard shows what recovery earned against doing nothing.
Measuring checkout recovery
Checkouts started, checkouts paid, recovery emails sent, payments completed after an email, and the difference against the control group. FitCoUp attributes recovered revenue in the Revenue from mechanics card. The control group matters: some buyers would have returned anyway, and the card shows only the lift.