First Renewal Report

The First Renewal Report measures what happens when your subscriptions reach their first rebill cycle. This is the most critical moment in the subscription lifecycle — the point where you find out if a customer will stick around or churn. By tracking retention rates, churn timing, dunning recovery, and post-billing adjustments, this report gives you the data to improve first renewal performance and maximize customer lifetime value.

What This Report Includes

Subscriptions Included:

• Recurring subscriptions only (one-time sales are excluded)
• Tracks each subscription from initial sale through first renewal outcome
• Test orders are excluded
• Date range is based on Subscribed Date (when the subscription was created, not when the first renewal occurred)

Why This Matters: The first renewal is the single biggest drop-off point in the subscription lifecycle. A customer who survives their first rebill is far more likely to remain a long-term subscriber. Understanding why customers churn before or during their first renewal — and how effectively your dunning process recovers failed payments — directly impacts your retention and revenue.

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Revenue calculations depend on your Company Profile settings for shipping and tax inclusion.

Report Metrics

Subscriptions

The total count of all recurring subscriptions created during the selected period. This is your baseline — every subscription that will eventually face a first renewal decision. Subscriptions are split into Pending (haven't reached their first renewal date yet) and Non-Pending (have already taken action).

Pending Renewals / Pending Renewal Rate

Subscriptions that haven't yet reached their first renewal billing date. These are still waiting — they haven't been charged, skipped, or cancelled. As time passes, Pending Renewals naturally decrease as subscriptions move into one of the outcome categories. When analyzing recent date ranges, a high pending rate is normal; for older date ranges, high pending rates may indicate an issue.

Non-Pending Renewals / Non-Pending Renewal Rate

Subscriptions that have already taken action on their first renewal — they've been charged, skipped, or cancelled. Non-Pending is the denominator used for most rate calculations (excluding "Overall" rates), giving you an accurate picture of outcomes among subscriptions that have actually reached their renewal date.

First Renewal Churns / Overall Churn Rate / Churn Rate

Subscriptions that churned before or during their first renewal. This includes both active cancellations and passive churn from failed payments. The Overall Churn Rate divides by total Subscriptions (including pending), while the standard Churn Rate divides by Non-Pending Renewals only. Use the standard rate for accurate performance measurement; use the overall rate for forecasting against your full subscriber base.

24 Hour Churns / 24 Hour Churn Rate / 24 Hour % of Churn Rate

Subscriptions that churned within 24 hours of being created. The Churn Rate shows the percentage of total subscriptions lost within 24 hours. The % of Churn Rate shows what portion of all churns happened within this window. A high 24-hour churn rate often indicates buyer's remorse, misleading marketing, or customers who signed up only for an initial deal with no intention of continuing.

72 Hour Churns / 72 Hour Churn Rate / 72 Hour % of Churn Rate

Subscriptions that churned within 72 hours of creation. Similar to the 24-hour metric but with a wider window, capturing customers who cancel after their first product experience or upon reviewing their bank statement.

First Renewal Active Churns / First Renewal Active Churn Rate

Subscriptions that actively churned — the customer or a system process cancelled the subscription before the first renewal attempt, or a dispute was filed. Active churn reflects deliberate customer decisions and is the type of churn most directly influenced by product quality, customer experience, and expectation-setting.

First Renewal Passive Churns / First Renewal Passive Churn Rate

Subscriptions that passively churned due to reaching the maximum number of declined payment attempts. Passive churn is a payment processing problem, not a customer satisfaction problem. Reducing passive churn requires better dunning strategies, card updater services, and payment routing optimization.

First Renewal Dunning / First Renewal Dunning Rate / Overall First Renewal Dunning Rate

Subscriptions currently in the dunning process — their first renewal attempt was declined, and the system is actively reattempting charges. The standard rate divides by Non-Pending Renewals; the overall rate divides by total Subscriptions. Monitor this to understand how much of your subscriber base is at risk of passive churn at any given time.

Dunning Recovered

Subscriptions that initially had a declined first renewal but were successfully recovered through dunning reattempts. This metric directly measures the effectiveness of your dunning strategy. Compare this against First Renewal Dunning and Passive Churns to calculate your dunning recovery rate.

First Renewal Skips / First Renewal Skip Rate / Overall First Renewal Skip Rate

Subscriptions that skipped their first renewal cycle. A skip delays the renewal without cancelling the subscription. Track skips to understand if customers are delaying their renewals due to timing or product delivery issues.

First Renewal Auth Declines / First Renewal Auth Decline Rate

Subscriptions where the first renewal authorization was declined. This tracks authorization-specific declines separately from sale transaction declines.

First Renewal Auth Success / First Renewal Auth Success Rate

Subscriptions where the first renewal authorization was approved.

Successful First Renewals / First Renewal Retention Rate / Overall First Renewal Retention Rate

The number and percentage of subscriptions that successfully billed their first renewal. This is the primary retention metric for this report. The standard rate divides by Non-Pending Renewals for an accurate view of actual retention performance; the overall rate includes pending subscriptions in the denominator for a conservative estimate.

Successful First Renewals Revenue

The total revenue collected from successful first renewals during the period. This represents the actual money generated by subscribers who retained past their first billing cycle.

First Renewal Full Adjustments / First Renewal Full Adjustment Rate

Successful first renewals that were subsequently fully reversed through a refund, chargeback, void, or alert. These transactions appeared successful but the revenue was ultimately returned. The rate is calculated against Successful First Renewals.

First Renewal Full Refunds / First Renewal Full Refund Rate

Successful first renewals where the full transaction amount was refunded (at either the offer level or charge level).

First Renewal Refund Revenue

The total dollar amount refunded (including partial refunds) from first renewal transactions. This includes both offer-level and charge-level refunds, with charge-level refunds prorated to the offer's share of the total charge.

First Renewal Voids / First Renewal Void Rate / First Renewal Voided Revenue

First renewal transactions that were voided (cancelled before settlement). Void revenue represents the full transaction amount that was reversed.

First Renewal Chargebacks / First Renewal Chargeback Rate / First Renewal Chargeback Revenue

First renewal transactions that received a chargeback dispute. High chargeback rates on first renewals are a serious warning sign — they may indicate that customers didn't understand they were signing up for a recurring charge.

First Renewal Alerts / First Renewal Alert Rate / First Renewal Alert Revenue

First renewal transactions where a chargeback alert was processed. Alerts give you a chance to proactively refund before a formal chargeback is filed, helping protect your merchant account standing.

First Renewal Adjustment Revenue

The total combined revenue lost from all adjustment types — refunds (partial and full), chargebacks, voids, and alerts.

Net First Successful Renewals / Net First Renewal Retention Rate / Overall Net Renewal Retention Rate

Successful first renewals minus those with full adjustments. This is the truest measure of first renewal retention — subscriptions that renewed and kept the charge. The rate metrics divide by Non-Pending or total Subscriptions respectively.

Net First Renewal Revenue

Successful First Renewal Revenue minus all adjustment revenue. This is the actual revenue retained from first renewals after all refunds, chargebacks, voids, and alerts are accounted for.

Available Dimensions

Use these dimensions to slice and filter your first renewal data for deeper analysis.

Key Business Insights

1. First renewal retention rate is your most important early retention metric. It tells you whether your acquisition is bringing in customers who actually want to continue. Compare this across offers, campaigns, and traffic sources to identify which acquisition channels produce the most durable subscribers.

2. Active vs. passive churn breakdown reveals where to focus. If most first renewal churn is active (customer-initiated cancellations), the fix is in product, pricing, or expectation-setting. If it's mostly passive (payment failures), the fix is in dunning strategy, card updater services, and payment routing.

3. 24-hour and 72-hour churn rates expose acquisition quality issues. Customers who cancel within hours of subscribing likely never intended to remain. If these numbers are high for specific campaigns or offers, investigate whether the marketing is setting accurate expectations about recurring billing.

4. Net Retention Rate is the metric that matters most for revenue. A 70% gross retention rate with a 10% adjustment rate means you're actually retaining only about 63% of subscribers with kept revenue. Always monitor net retention alongside gross retention.

5. Dunning recovery is free revenue. Every subscription recovered through dunning reattempts is revenue you would have lost to passive churn. Track your dunning recovery rate and experiment with reattempt timing, card updater integration, and customer payment update flows.

Optimization Strategies

Reduce Active Churn

• Set clear expectations about recurring billing at checkout — transparency reduces cancellations from customers who didn't realize they signed up for a subscription
• Deliver exceptional value in the first billing cycle to give customers a reason to stay
• Implement a pre-cancellation flow that offers alternatives (skip, pause, swap products) before the customer can fully cancel
• Use cancellation reason data to identify and fix the top drivers of first-renewal active churn

Reduce Passive Churn

• Enable automatic card updater services to keep payment methods current
• Optimize dunning reattempt timing and frequency based on your decline reason analysis
• Send pre-renewal payment reminders so customers can update expired cards before the charge is attempted
• Implement smart retry routing to try alternative merchants or processors for declined transactions

Improve Dunning Recovery

• Send customer communications when their renewal payment fails, with an easy link to update their payment method
• Test different reattempt schedules — some issuers approve retries at different times of day or on different days of the week
• Consider offering a small discount or extended trial as an incentive for customers to update their payment information

Reduce Post-Billing Adjustments

• High first renewal chargeback rates often indicate that customers didn't expect the charge — improve billing descriptors and pre-renewal notifications
• If refund rates are high on first renewals, investigate whether the product delivered matches what was promised at checkout
• Track alerts proactively — resolving them before they become chargebacks protects your merchant account

Pro Tips

1. Filter by Offer to compare retention across products. Some offers naturally retain better than others. Identify your best-retaining offers and investigate what makes them different — pricing, product quality, delivery timing.

2. Use Days To Cancel to understand churn timing. Group churns by how many days after subscription creation they occur. This reveals whether customers are cancelling before they even receive their product, after trying it, or right before the renewal charge.

3. Compare First Renewal Merchant performance. If your payment router sends first renewals to different merchants, compare decline rates and dunning recovery across merchants to identify the best routing strategy for renewals.

4. Cross-reference with the Dunning Report for deeper payment analysis. The First Renewal Report shows you the outcome; the Dunning Report shows you the full reattempt sequence and recovery timeline.

5. Look at pending rates for recent cohorts. If you select a recent date range, many subscriptions will still be pending. Filter to older cohorts (where pending is near zero) for accurate retention rate comparisons.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does this report use the Subscribed Date instead of the renewal date? The report groups by when subscriptions were created so you can evaluate acquisition cohorts — "of the subscriptions I created in January, how many retained to their first renewal?" This cohort-based view is more actionable than grouping by renewal date, because it ties retention outcomes back to the acquisition activities that created those subscriptions.

What's the difference between Overall rates and standard rates? Overall rates include Pending Renewals in the denominator (total Subscriptions), giving you a conservative estimate that accounts for subscriptions that haven't reached their renewal date yet. Standard rates exclude pending subscriptions, showing you the actual retention rate among subscriptions that have already had a chance to renew. Use standard rates for accurate performance measurement; use overall rates for forecasting.

How is this different from the 6-Cycle Retention Report? The First Renewal Report provides deep analysis of the single most important renewal — the first one — with detailed churn breakdowns, dunning tracking, and post-billing adjustments. The 6-Cycle Retention Report tracks retention rates across the first six billing cycles but with less detail per cycle. Use First Renewal for diagnosing first-cycle problems; use 6-Cycle for understanding the retention curve over time.

Why might the Net Retention Rate be significantly lower than the Retention Rate? If you see a large gap, it means many successful first renewals are being reversed through refunds, chargebacks, or voids. This is a red flag — investigate whether customers are being charged and then immediately requesting refunds, or whether chargeback rates on renewals indicate a billing transparency issue.