Lost sales calculator for online shops
Enter your monthly payment attempts, approval rate and average payment value. The calculator shows how many payments you lose each month, the revenue behind them, and what an approval-rate improvement of a few points would be worth. Everything runs in your browser.
Every month, out of 100,000 attempts
$1,008,000 a month sits in soft declines that another route could approve.
Out of $1,680,000 declined in total, 28,000 payments.
If routing wins back
- Extra approved value
- $300,000
- Extra margin
- $18,000
- Per year
- $216,000
| Scenario | Extra approved value | Extra margin |
|---|---|---|
| +3 points | $180,000 | $10,800 |
| +5 points | $300,000 | $18,000 |
| +8 points | $480,000 | $28,800 |
Scenarios are illustrations, not a forecast. Results depend on your markets, methods and providers.
28,000 of 100,000 payments declined each month, $1,680,000 in value, $1,008,000 of it in soft declines. +5 points would add $300,000 approved value and $18,000 margin a month.
How do you measure approval rate correctly?
Count every attempt. Approval rate is approved payments divided by all attempts in the period, including retries, cascaded attempts and payments your own risk rules blocked before they reached a provider. Many dashboards show a flattering number because they count only first attempts or exclude blocked ones. If you compare providers, compare them on the same definition.
Why do soft declines matter more than the headline rate?
A soft decline is a refusal that might succeed on another route or at another moment: a cautious issuer returning do-not-honour, a temporary limit, a provider timeout. Hard declines, such as a stolen or closed card, will fail everywhere. The recoverable part of your losses is the soft share, which is why the calculator separates it. Cascading, smarter routing and better local methods all work on that share.
What should you do with the result?
Use the monthly figure to size the problem, then measure it properly. A decline audit groups your real declines by code, provider, country and method and shows which ones routing would recover. Read how to calculate approval rate properly and what counts as a soft decline for the detail.
Frequently asked questions
How is approval rate calculated?
Approval rate is approved payments divided by all payment attempts in the same period, counting every attempt, including retries and payments blocked before they reach the issuer. Measuring only first attempts, or excluding blocked ones, makes the number look better than it is.
Which declines can be recovered?
Soft declines, such as do-not-honour from a cautious issuer, insufficient funds at a lower amount, or a provider timeout, can succeed on another route or later. Hard declines such as stolen or closed cards cannot, and should not be retried.
Where do the scenario numbers come from?
The +3, +5 and +8 point scenarios are illustrations, not a promise. Real uplift depends on your markets, methods and current providers. A decline audit measures it on your own data.
it will.