Disclaimer: This article was first published on August 15, 2019. Since then, it's been updated in order to provide accurate and up-to-date information.
Subscriber churn poses a significant challenge for direct-to-consumer subscription services. Whether it’s a streaming platform or fitness app, retaining customers remains critical to long-term growth and profitability. For many subscription-based businesses, involuntary churn, caused by declined payments due to issues like expired cards, accounts for a substantial portion of lost revenue.
To address this issue, Cleeng has integrated Adyen’s Real-Time Card Updater into its Subscriber Retention Management (SRM®) strategy. This feature offers a smarter, more seamless way for D2C services to retain subscribers, reduce churn, and optimize the payment experience.
What does the real-time card updater by Adyen do?
Adyen’s Real-Time Account Updater is purpose-built to tackle one of the most frequent pain points in subscriptions: failed payments due to expired cards. Here’s how it works:
- The system automatically updates the card details (such as expiration dates) for Visa and Mastercard transactions, ensuring payments can proceed without interruption.
- When a payment for a subscription is authorized, Adyen runs a real-time check to verify if the card on file is still valid. If the card has expired, it updates the details instantly.
- Cleeng then syncs this updated information with its payment database to ensure future transactions proceed smoothly.
This automation eliminates the friction often associated with manual card updates, allowing D2C businesses to focus on delivering value to their subscribers.
Why this matters for D2C subscription services
Payment declines are a silent churn driver that can significantly impact the growth trajectory of any subscription business.
With Adyen’s Real-Time Card Updater, we’re addressing this issue head-on by ensuring payments are processed without interruption. According to Adyen’s research, this functionality can recover up to 10% of revenue typically lost to failed payments. For subscription businesses, that can equate to thousands of dollars saved and hundreds of subscribers retained each month.
Key benefits for your D2C business
The integration of Adyen’s Real-Time Account Updater offers several clear advantages for subscription businesses:
-
Reduce involuntary churn
By addressing one of the leading causes of failed payments, this feature ensures subscribers stay engaged with your service, avoiding service disruptions that lead to cancellations.
-
Enhance subscriber satisfaction
Subscribers expect a seamless experience. Removing the annoyance of manual card updates ensures they remain immersed in the quality of your offering without unnecessary friction.
-
Boost recurring revenue stability
Fewer payment failures mean more predictable cash flow, enabling your business to reinvest confidently in growth strategies.
-
Strengthen compliance with the SRM® strategy
At Cleeng, we’ve designed our SRM® to focus on retention at every step of the subscriber lifecycle. Adyen’s solution is now a critical component of this framework, helping D2C brands optimize retention in a competitive space.
Seamless integration, effortless results
Cleeng has fully activated Adyen’s Real-Time Card Updater for all our Merchant accounts. Here's how it works in practice:
-
Simple Merchant activation: If you’re using Cleeng Payments with Adyen, this feature is already operational for Visa and Mastercard users.
-
Payment authorization flow: Whenever a payment request is initiated, Adyen automatically retrieves updated details from card networks like Visa and Mastercard, ensuring seamless payment authorization.
-
Instant database updates: Once Adyen updates the card details, Cleeng syncs these changes in real-time, ensuring no disruption in future billing cycles.
This solution requires no technical expertise from merchants and works unobtrusively in the background, delivering clear results without adding complexity.
A smarter way to retain subscribers
The subscription economy is growing rapidly, but with this growth comes increased competition. Retaining existing customers is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity for staying ahead. By leveraging tools like Adyen’s Real-Time Card Updater, D2C subscription services can improve both their customer retention rates and their financial predictability.
If you’re ready to explore more strategies to tackle churn and grow your subscription business, check out how Merchant can help you reduce payment processing costs by up to 34% or contact us for more information.
