arc

Payment recovery

Retry failed payments on a schedule you control, with separate rules for each kind of decline.

AvailableShown for the least mature part of this page.

Request early accessHow it works

Payment recoveryHearth Coffee

  1. Card declinedSoft decline, insufficient funds
  2. Retry scheduledThursday evening, store time
  3. Payment recoveredSame billing cycle

Hard declineEmail a single-use update link

Payment recovery

What it does

  • Failed subscription payments are retried automatically on a default schedule, and merchants can change the retry schedule, the attempt limit and which customer notifications are sent.

  • Each decline is sorted as soft, hard, an inventory problem or unknown, and you can set different retry rules for each.

  • A retry after an insufficient-funds decline is moved into the evening in your store's timezone.

  • The subscriber gets an email when a payment fails and another when it recovers, and both the subscriber and you are notified when the attempt limit is reached.

Step by step

How it works

  1. The decline is soft

    After a soft or unknown decline, Arc schedules the next try from the shortest interval on your retry schedule, and does not charge again before that date.

  2. The decline is hard

    After a hard decline such as an expired card, Arc does not retry the payment. The subscriber gets an email with a single-use link to update their payment details.

  3. The attempt limit is reached

    When the attempt limit is reached, Arc stops charging that subscription. The attempt count comes from Shopify, not from a local counter.

  4. A retry works

    A payment counts as recovered only when it succeeds for the same billing cycle as a failed attempt Arc was retrying, and each recovery is counted once. An ordinary renewal is never counted as recovered.

What it does not do yet

Limits are listed plainly so you can judge fit before you start.

  • Retry timing follows your schedule and the decline type. Arc does not yet learn which retry time suits each subscriber.

  • Decline types come from a documented table of Shopify billing error codes. A code that is not in the table is treated as a soft decline.

Try it with your own subscribers.

Request early access and tell us about your store. Arc is not listed in the Shopify App Store yet.

Request early access