Shopify Payments Declines Tanking Your Sales? Troubleshooting & Solutions
Why Did My Sales Plummet After Activating Shopify Payments? (And What To Do About It)
Hey everyone, it's [Your Name], and I've been helping folks migrate to and optimize their Shopify stores for a while now. Recently, I saw a really interesting thread in the Shopify Community that I wanted to unpack because it highlights a challenge many store owners face: a sudden drop in sales after switching to Shopify Payments.
The original poster, Jbabb, noticed a significant 46% drop in sales after activating Shopify Payments, even though their traffic was up by 22%. Add-to-carts were fine, but checkout completion tanked. Sound familiar? Jbabb suspected Shopify Payments' fraud prevention, powered by Stripe, was the culprit.
Is Shopify Payments the Problem? Digging into the Data
The first step, as suggested by nayeem99, is to confirm whether Shopify Payments is indeed the source of the issue. Nayeem99 pointed out that a drop in checkout completion, despite healthy traffic and add-to-carts, often indicates a payment problem. Makes sense, right?
Before jumping to conclusions, you need to look at the hard data. Unfortunately, as Jbabb discovered, getting detailed authorization rates and decline codes from Shopify Payments isn't straightforward. They contacted support but didn't get the logs they needed. The suggested workaround? Manually review abandoned carts, one by one. Ugh. Not ideal, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Investigating Decline Reasons & Potential Solutions
So, what could be causing these declines? Here's a breakdown of the potential issues and solutions, drawing from the community's insights:
- Stricter Fraud Rules: Nayeem99 mentioned that Shopify's updated fraud system (Stripe-powered) can lead to stricter approval rules, resulting in more card declines, 3D Secure verifications, and automatic fraud blocks.
- Address Verification System (AVS): darongmean suggested that static fraud rules like the Address Verification System (AVS) might be getting triggered, especially for new or unrecognized customers. You can try disabling the AVS rule (find it under Shopify Payments fraud prevention settings – https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/shopify-payments/configuring-shopify-payments#fraud-prevention-settings), but darongmean wisely advises keeping 3D Secure enabled.
- Preorder Models: If you're running preorders, nayeem99 noted that these can appear riskier to payment processors.
Actionable Steps to Recover Sales
Okay, so you suspect Shopify Payments is the problem. What can you *do* about it? Here's a consolidated plan based on the forum discussion:
- Analyze Reports: Tim_1 suggested checking relevant reports within Shopify. Look for patterns in declined transactions. Here's an example of the kind of report to look for:
- Enable Alternative Payment Gateways: This was a common suggestion. Nayeem99 suggested enabling PayPal alongside Shopify Payments to compare conversion rates. Jbabb was hesitant because they'd lose multi-currency checkouts, highlighting a key trade-off to consider.
- Contact Customers: darongmean emphasized the importance of contacting customers whose cards were declined. They even developed an app, PayPager Card Decline Recovery - Enable direct outreach when customer cards are declined. | Shopify App Store, to facilitate this. Asking customers to contact their banks or providing alternative payment methods can help recover lost sales.
- Adjust Fraud Prevention Settings: As mentioned earlier, consider temporarily disabling AVS, but proceed with caution and monitor the results.
- Monitor Order Timeline Events: Nayeem99 recommended checking order timeline events for clues about why payments are failing.
The Multi-Currency Dilemma
Jbabb's situation highlights a common challenge: the desire for multi-currency support versus the potential downsides of Shopify Payments. Creating a separate store for each currency, as Jbabb considered, is a drastic step. Before going that route, exhaust all other troubleshooting options.
Ultimately, figuring out why your sales dipped after activating Shopify Payments is about detective work. It's about digging into the data, understanding the potential causes, and experimenting with different solutions. There's no one-size-fits-all answer, but by following the steps outlined above, you'll be well-equipped to tackle the problem and get your sales back on track.