Skip to main content
Metrics type: Supporting Metrics • Category: Payment Gateway

​
At a glance

The percentage of customers who abandoned at the 3DS challenge (Cardinal-Cardinal-Commerce-issued bank popup) without completing it. Different from 3DS-failed (issuer rejected). Indicates UX friction: customers can’t or won’t complete bank verification.

​
Calculation

Calculated automatically from your Authorize.net data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading.

​
Worked example

“Heartland Hardware Co.” web checkout, 7 days ending 02 May 26. Action map:
  1. 17.7% abandon rate is just above the healthy 15% line. Watch for trend movement. Above 25% triggers investigation.
  2. The challenge frequency itself matters. 96 challenges out of 408 total 3DS-attempted (96 + 312) is 23.5%. Issuers send to challenge when their device-fingerprint risk score is high. Better risk-data signalling reduces challenge frequency.
  3. The most common UX causes of abandon. (a) Customer doesn’t recognise the merchant on the bank page (Cardinal-Cardinal-Commerce-rendered popup may show the acquirer name, not the merchant). (b) The OTP / push notification is delayed and the session times out. (c) Mobile customer hits a non-mobile-optimised bank page.
  4. Per-issuer split is the real diagnostic. A 30% abandon on one BIN range while others sit at 12% means that issuer’s 3DS challenge UX is broken; raise with the acquirer.
  5. Cart-recovery email for abandoned-3DS customers recovers 8 to 15% of the dropouts. Lower than abandoned-cart recovery (which can hit 25 to 35%) because customers may have already re-attempted with a different card.

​
Sibling cards merchants should reference together

​
Reconciling against the vendor’s own dashboard

Where to look in the Authorize.Net Dashboard: account.authorize.net does not natively show 3DS abandon as a single metric. Closest views: Reports → Transaction Statistics (filter for expired status which is the abandoned-session marker), and the Cardinal Cardinal Commerce console (separate login at cardinalcommerce.com) for 3DS-flow detail. Why our number may differ: Cross-connector reconciliation:

​
Known limitations / merchant FAQs

Why is my 3DS abandon rate so high? Three common causes: (1) The bank’s challenge page is poorly mobile-optimised and customers on phones bounce. (2) OTP / push notification arrives slowly and the session times out (typically 10 minutes for Cardinal). (3) Customers don’t recognise the merchant name on the bank page. Fix: ensure your acquirer is sending the correct merchantName field; A/B-test mobile vs desktop; instrument cart-recovery for abandon-3DS customers. Is the US even using 3DS materially? Patchy. EU PSD2 mandates 3DS for card-not-present above EUR 30; the US has no equivalent mandate. Most US merchants use 3DS for higher-value transactions (USD 1,000+) or as a chargeback liability shift, but it’s optional. B2B Authorize.Net merchants typically have 3DS off by default; consumer-facing merchants on aggressive fraud-prevention enable it. 3DS-failed vs 3DS-abandoned, the difference?
  • Failed: customer attempted, the issuer rejected (wrong OTP, biometric failure).
  • Abandoned: customer didn’t attempt (closed the popup, didn’t get the OTP, session timed out).
Different fixes: failed is issuer-side (BIN routing, customer education); abandoned is UX-side (challenge speed, mobile rendering, branding). Authorize.Net 3DS goes through Cardinal, can I switch providers? Authorize.Net bundles Cardinal Cardinal Commerce by default (Visa-owned, hence integrated). To use a non-Cardinal 3DS Server (e.g. Adyen 3DS, Stripe 3DS), you would need to integrate that 3DS Server upstream of Authorize.Net before the auth call. Practically, most Authorize.Net merchants stay with Cardinal. Cart recovery for 3DS-abandoned customers, worth it? Yes. Recovery rates 8 to 15% (lower than generic abandon-cart at 25-35% because some customers retry immediately). Suggest customers complete on desktop or use a different card. How does Visa Account Updater interact with 3DS? Account Updater refreshes stored card numbers; it doesn’t change 3DS behaviour. A refreshed card still goes through 3DS on its next use. Subscription rebills (ARB), do they trigger 3DS? Initial sign-up triggers 3DS. Subsequent rebills use Merchant-Initiated-Transaction (MIT) flag and skip 3DS challenge (under 3DS 2.x). MIT-flagged rebills don’t appear in this card.

​
Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre

3DS Abandonment Rate is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Authorize.net and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. Start for free or book a demo to see this metric running on your own data.