Hello Clever has released research showing that payment success rates among Australian merchants drop sharply when transactions take longer than two minutes. The findings are based on 7.42 million payment records from 208 merchants in Australia.

Transactions completed within two minutes succeed 95% of the time, compared with 52% for those that take longer. According to the payments company, the drop is abrupt rather than gradual, as customers become less certain a payment has gone through once the two-minute mark is passed.

Caroline Tran, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Hello Clever, said many merchants do not track the commercial impact of payment delays.

"Most merchants have never measured how long their payments take, let alone what that delay is costing them," said Tran.

"Our data shows a clear line at two minutes. Under it, almost every payment goes through. Over it, the chance of completing the sale is not much better than a coin toss," she said.

The report also examined what happens after a failed payment. Among customers who completed a payment within 30 days of an initial failure, 56% returned within an hour, 67% did so within a day and 87% came back within a week.

The figures point to a narrow recovery window for merchants trying to salvage abandoned transactions. The data suggests the first 24 hours are the most important period for retry prompts, follow-up emails or cart reminders, while waiting a week misses most customers who would have returned.

Tran said a failed payment does not always mean the customer is lost, but response time matters.

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