Build Cancellation Flow

Build a cancellation flow

The screen a user sees when they hit "cancel subscription" is one of the highest-leverage revenue surfaces in a subscription app. A well-designed flow saves 10–35% of cancellations (offer acceptance 15–25%, pause reactivation 60–80%); even a simple survey + one offer saves 10–15% over an instant cancel. This skill designs it.

The canonical structure

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Trigger (user taps Cancel)
  → Survey (why are you leaving?)
    → Reason-matched save offer
      → Accept (saved) | Defer (pause) | Confirm cancel (graceful exit)
        → Post-cancel: win-back eligibility + email capture

The exit survey

5–8 reason options + free text. Framing matters: "Help us improve" beats "Why are you leaving?" — it reduces defensiveness and raises completion.

Typical reasons (match these to the product):

• Too expensive
• Not using enough
• Missing a feature
• Found an alternative
• Technical issues / bugs
• Just needed it temporarily
• Hard to use
• Other (free text)

Capture the reason in your analytics (instrument-growth-funnel) tied to the user. The reason is also the input to the save offer and to product roadmap prioritization.

Reason-matched save offers

Don't show every canceler the same offer. Match the offer to the reason:

Discount guardrails (avoid training cancel-for-deals)

• Sweet spot: 20–30% off for 2–3 months. Enough to matter, short enough to not devalue.
• Avoid routine >50% off. Trains users to cancel expecting a deal; they'll repeat the cycle.
• Show the dollar amount, not just the percentage. "$4 off for 3 months" lands better than "25% off."
• Time-limit the offer. "Claim by [date]" — but only a real deadline, not a fake countdown (Apple rejects fake urgency).
• One offer per cancel session. Don't cascade discounts if they reject the first.

Pause as an alternative to cancel

A "pause for 1–3 months" option (billing stops, access preserved or reduced) reactivates at 60–80% vs much lower reactivation after a full cancel. Where the billing systems support it, offer pause prominently. StoreKit 2 doesn't have a native "pause," but you can implement it via a free-trial/promotional-offer bridge or by letting the subscription lapse and re-engaging. Google Play supports pausing natively in some configurations.

Graceful exit (non-negotiable for your rating)

Keep "Continue cancelling" visible and one tap away at every step. No dark patterns. The FTC's Click-to-Cancel rule requires cancellation to be at least as easy as sign-up. A user who feels trapped by a cancellation flow leaves a 1-star review. See build-review-routing — the same unhappy-user principle applies.

After confirming cancel:

• Capture an email (if not already on file) for win-back. See build-win-back-flow.
• Keep premium access until the period ends (they paid for it).
• Subscribe to server notifications (SUBSCRIPTION_CANCELED) to distinguish cancel-but-active from genuinely lapsed.

Implementation (RevenueCat)

RevenueCat exposes customer info and entitlement state. Build the survey + offer UI yourself; present the offer as a StoreKit promotional offer or a RevenueCat-managed discount:

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import Purchases from 'react-native-purchases';

// On cancel-reason selected, present the matched offer
async function presentSaveOffer(reason: CancelReason) {
  const offer = matchOfferToReason(reason); // your mapping
  // present the offer as a promotional offer / discounted package
  const offerings = await Purchases.getOfferings();
  const pkg = offerings.all?.[`save_${reason}`];
  // show pkg in a save-offer sheet; if accepted:
  // const { customerInfo } = await Purchases.purchasePackage(pkg);
}

Track the funnel: cancel_started, cancel_survey_completed {reason}, save_offer_presented {type}, save_offer_accepted, cancel_confirmed, cancel_paused.

What not to do

• No multi-step mazes that make cancel hard. FTC Click-to-Cancel + App Review both penalize this.
• No fake countdowns on the save offer.
• No guilt-trip copy ("Are you sure you want to give up on your goals?"). Confirmshaming is a dark pattern and a rating killer.
• No repeated discount escalation if they reject the first offer.
• No blocking the cancel behind a support chat (chat is fine as one option, not a gate).

Pair with

• integrate-revenuecat-rn — entitlement state and promotional offers.
• app-store-server-notifications / app-store-server-notifications-android — cancel vs lapsed signals.
• build-win-back-flow — the post-cancel recovery arm.
• pricing-strategy — discount guardrails.
• instrument-growth-funnel — measuring save rate by reason.