Plays
Sales and Retention · Oct 26, 2026
Fix the checkout rules that are blocking your own buyers
Commerce7 says its streamlined checkout converts 19% better than the older version with no meaningful fraud increase, which means billing-address fields and aggressive fraud rules are costing you orders you already earned. These five moves recover blocked buyers and tighten club billing before your next release.
- Strip the billing address out of your online checkout. Commerce7 reports on its own blog that its V2 checkout, which omits the billing address, converts 19% higher than V1, and 14 months of its data showed no significant fraud difference between orders with and without it. Ask your DTC platform which version you're running. Moves conversion rate.
- Turn on Apple Pay and Google Pay this week. Commerce7 says 13% of its orders already use them, and those also skip the billing address. A DTC lead can do it in an afternoon. Moves conversion rate.
- Pull every declined or errored checkout from the last 90 days and have someone call or email those people. Commerce7 notes that real customers sometimes hit a "token" error when fraud rules err toward caution. Moves recovered revenue and reorder rate.
- Route high-value orders to human review instead of a hard block. Commerce7 has tested exactly that with wineries. Moves AOV.
- Chase card updates two weeks before each club run, not after the charge fails. Moves club churn.
Start with the declined-order list. It's free and the money is already yours.
More plays on tasting room and hospitality
See the whole topicSales and RetentionClose the club signup at the bar: five DTC moves for your tasting roomWineries without visibility into club behavior can end up replacing most of their member base every year, according to Commerce7's roundtable with winery owners. These five tactics give you a signup you can finish at the bar, a churn number you can actually see, and a club offer that runs on access instead of discounts.From the Nov 4, 2026 issueWrong TakePrice cuts won't fix your Gen Z problem. Comfort might.Discounting and launching an RTD treats Gen Z as a wallet problem, and it has not stopped craft's slide. The Brewers Association makes the case that the culture craft sells (rebellion, discovery, self-expression) is the part that no longer connects, which changes what you put on your menu, your shelf talkers, and your taproom floor.From the Oct 26, 2026 issueOpportunityThe low-and-no buyer still drinks your full-strength bottlesKAM Insights found 97% of monthly low-and-no drinkers in the UK also drink alcohol, so every zero-proof or mid-strength pour you refuse to sell is revenue leaving with a customer you already have. This gives you a way to test one SKU or one paid tasting-room pour against your existing audience instead of chasing a new one.From the Oct 23, 2026 issue