Hello Clever says payment success drops after two minutes

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.

Recovery window

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.

"A failed payment doesn't have to mean a lost customer," she said.

"Most people who come back do so within hours, not days. Merchants who keep checkout fast and follow up quickly are recovering revenue that much of the market doesn't know it's losing," Tran said.

Fewer attempts

Payment failure rates across Hello Clever's Australian merchant base fell 61% over the past year. Between the first half of 2025 and the first half of 2026, the 208 merchants recorded 19% fewer payment attempts while the total value of successful payments rose 17%.

The figures indicate merchants processed higher successful payment values with fewer attempts, suggesting greater efficiency as fewer transactions needed to be retried before completion.

Global footprint

The research comes as the company expands internationally. Hello Clever recently opened an office in New York, which it has designated as its global headquarters, while retaining Sydney as its founding base and a key Asia-Pacific hub alongside teams in Singapore, Japan and the US.

It also recently appointed former Bolt President and Chief Executive Officer Justin Grooms as President. At the same time, it introduced Clever Connect, a real-time payments platform aimed at software groups, marketplaces and cross-border businesses.

Tran linked the Australian findings to broader changes in payments infrastructure across several markets.

"Speed is becoming the baseline for payments everywhere, from PayID and PayTo in Australia to FedNow and RTP in the US," she said.

"What we see in our Australian data holds true globally: the merchants who move money fastest keep the most of every sale," Tran said.

Hello Clever was founded in Australia in 2021 by Tran and Gavin Nguyen. It says it supports more than 27 currencies across global payment networks and operates teams in Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo and New York.