Memberships win on pause, not discount.
Member churn is driven by life events and attention budget, not price. Pause converts 2–3x better than discount for memberships because it matches how members actually think about their commitment.
- Typical MRR
- $2k–$80k MRR
- Typical AOV
- $15–$75 per month
- Renewal cadence
- Monthly with annual upgrade path
- - Busy season — will rejoin next quarter
- - Goal already met (fitness, course)
- - Community engagement dropped
- - Too many overlapping subscriptions
Benchmarks
Reason -> offer routing
This is the routing table we would ship in the plugin for memberships. Each reason maps to the offer that converts best for this vertical, with the rationale.
| Cancel reason | Offer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| not_using | pause | Pause is the dominant save for memberships. 62% of paused members reactivate inside 90 days. |
| too_expensive | tier-down | Many memberships have an annual track that is cheaper per month. Move price-sensitive cancellers there. |
| missing_feature | extend-trial | If the member joined for a specific goal you have not delivered yet, extend to let the content catch up. |
| switching | discount | Competitor-driven switches are rare in memberships; when they happen, a sharp discount is the win-case. |
| technical | extend-trial | Members who hit a login or permissions issue need support time, not an offer. |
| other | pause | Anything the member will not articulate is usually "I am too busy right now" — default to pause. |
What the math looks like
Example: a memberships store at $15,000 MRR with ~95 cancel clicks per month.
| Scenario | Save rate | Saved / mo | MRR preserved |
|---|---|---|---|
| Default (generic discount-only flow) | 12% | 11 | $275 |
| Vertical-tuned routing | 31% | 29 | $725 |
Delta: $450 of MRR preserved per month on top of the default flow. Annualised, that is $5,400.
WooCommerce stack
ChurnStop is built on WooCommerce Subscriptions. We have tested integration against these stacks for memberships:
- - WooCommerce Memberships
- - Paid Memberships Pro
- - MemberPress
- - Restrict Content Pro
Related reading
- Pause vs discount: which offer saves more cancellationsPause offers typically save more subscribers than discount offers on WooCommerce stores, but discount wins on revenue preserved per save. The right call depends on your cancel reason mix.
- How to build a 30-day winback sequence that worksA three-email winback sequence sent at 7, 21, and 60 days after cancellation typically recovers 4-8% of churned subscribers. Here is the template: subject lines, timing, offer pattern, and what to measure.
Install ChurnStop
The free plugin runs the default flow with no external calls. Paid tiers unlock the vertical-tuned routing, A/B testing, cohort LTV, and the 3-step winback sequence.