Transaction Retry

Product Overview

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Transaction Retry is a rule-based retry mechanism designed to recover transactions that fail due to temporary or recoverable issues.
By executing predefined retry strategies through either the original or alternative payment channels, it improves transaction approval rates, enhances system resilience, and ensures smooth payment continuity without manual intervention.

Core Features

1. Original Route Retry

Retries are performed through the same payment channel when a decline occurs, with configurable strategies to overcome temporary restrictions or recoverable errors.

Supported retry types include:

• MCC Replacement Retry:
  When a transaction is declined due to Merchant Category Code (MCC) restrictions, the system automatically reattempts with an alternative MCC configured in advance. This helps avoid issuer-side category limitations while maintaining compliance.
• Token-to-PAN Retry:
  If a tokenized transaction fails due to token service or acquirer compatibility issues, the system retries using the original PAN (card number) path, improving success rates in environments with partial token support.
• Post-authentication Retry:
  For transactions declined before or during 3DS authentication, the system retries automatically after successful authentication, ensuring previously failed attempts are recovered with updated authentication data.

The original route retry approach ensures consistency in acquirer routing while minimizing unnecessary rerouting or cost overhead.

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2. Alternative Route Retry

When the primary acquiring channel experiences temporary degradation or network issues, alternative route retry automatically switches the transaction to one or more predefined backup channels.

Configurable features include:

• Channel-level Failover:
  Automatically re-routes failed transactions to backup acquirers based on decline reason, brand, or currency rules.
• Multi-layer Channel Hierarchy:
  Supports cascading retry structures — for example, if the primary acquirer fails, the transaction can sequentially fall back to secondary or tertiary channels.
• Selective Channel Activation:
  Merchants can define which payment brands or BIN ranges participate in failover, ensuring control over operational cost and exposure.
• Retry Interval Control:
  Configurable retry intervals and retry count limits prevent overloading channels or triggering duplicate authorization attempts.

This mechanism is especially valuable for business continuity, maintaining payment success rates during partial system outages or acquirer maintenance periods.

Typical Use Cases

1. Channel Failover & Disaster Recovery
   When the primary acquirer for Visa transactions becomes temporarily unavailable, the system seamlessly retries via Backup_Acquirer_01 to complete the transaction and maintain service uptime.

2. Parameter-based Decline Recovery
   If a decline reason such as “Restricted MCC” or “Do Not Honor” is received, the system applies the relevant retry rule — for example, adjusting the MCC or switching token mode — and resubmits the transaction via the same or alternative route.

3. Cross-Channel Optimization
   Merchants with multiple acquirers can configure retry flows that automatically select the next best available channel, reducing manual intervention and improving operational efficiency.

Technical Advantages

• Dual-layer Retry Strategy: Supports both original route and alternative channel retries.
• Rule-driven Logic: All retries are triggered and executed according to predefined decline code or condition-based rules.
• Operational Transparency: Provides full visibility into retry events and outcomes for each transaction.
• Seamless Integration: Works natively with Smart Routing and existing authorization APIs without requiring code changes.
• Audit-ready Logging: Each retry attempt is fully logged with timestamp, channel ID, and response details for compliance and analysis.

Future Enhancements

In upcoming iterations, Transaction Retry will evolve from static rule-based logic toward an intelligent, data-driven retry engine integrated with Smart Routing. Planned capabilities include:

• Adaptive Retry Decisioning: Real-time evaluation of decline codes, issuer response patterns, and acquirer health metrics to dynamically determine retry eligibility.
• Machine Learning Optimization: Continuous learning from historical retry outcomes to automatically refine retry sequencing and parameters.
• Cost and Performance Balancing: Dynamic trade-off between approval probability, processing latency, and acquirer cost per transaction.
• Integrated Retry Analytics: Detailed dashboards for tracking retry success rate, recovery impact, and cost efficiency.

This roadmap will enable the system to not only recover failed payments more effectively, but also to make autonomous, data-informed retry decisions in real time.