Payment approval rate optimization for MENA merchants
MotionPexels helps merchants whose payments are declining more than they should. We find out why payments fail, then fix the configuration, flows and routing that cost you sales.
Who this is for
Merchants with rising declines
Approval rates have dropped, or you cannot explain why good customers are being declined.
Subscription businesses
Recurring payments fail more often than they should, and involuntary churn is costing you revenue.
Cross-border sellers
Payments from international cards or into new markets behave differently, and you need to understand why.
Teams with pending-payment problems
Orders sit in pending, support chases customers, and nobody has a clear view of what happened.
What the audit covers
A technically working integration can still approve fewer payments than it should. The audit looks at where the money is being lost, and why each loss happens.
- Decline code analysis: what the codes say and which ones you can influence
- Issuer and BIN patterns: where specific banks or card ranges decline more
- 3DS friction and exemptions: where authentication blocks or loses real customers
- Retry logic: when and how failed payments are retried, and when they should not be
- Network tokens and account updater: keeping stored credentials current
- Routing and orchestration: sending payments through the path most likely to succeed
- Pending-payment handling: webhooks, status checks and timeout behavior
- Reporting: whether you can see approval rates by method, issuer and reason
What you get
Findings
A clear write-up of where payments are being lost and why, in plain language your team can act on.
Prioritized fixes
A ranked list of changes, ordered by likely impact and effort, so you know what to do first.
Implementation support
Help making the changes, from configuration to code, and checking the results afterward.
We do not promise a specific improvement. Results depend on your starting point, your markets and your issuers. We do promise to show you the evidence behind every recommendation.
How an engagement works
- A discovery call to understand your setup, markets and the problem
- Access to your payment data and configuration, agreed with you
- The audit and a findings review with your team
- A prioritized plan, then implementation support where you want it
- A follow-up review of live results
Engagements can be a focused audit with a findings review, or an audit followed by hands-on implementation support. We agree the scope and what data is shared before we begin, and we keep the plan and its evidence in writing so decisions stay clear.
Who you’ll work with
Layth Mohammed, Founder
About nine years in payments and payment technology, including as Director of Solutions Engineering at Checkout.com, working with merchants across MENA. Expertise in payment acceptance and approval rates, 3DS2, local payment methods (Mada, KNET, Benefit, OmanNet), wallets, BNPL and payment operations.
Layth Mohammed on LinkedInSigns your approval rate has a problem
- Declines have risen after a change in gateway, checkout or authentication settings
- Support gets more “my card was declined but it is fine” messages
- Approval rates differ sharply between payment methods, issuers or countries
- Many payments sit in pending with no clear resolution
- Subscription renewals fail more often than expected
- You cannot see why payments decline because reporting is thin
The metrics we look at
We look at approval rate by payment method, issuer, card type and country, alongside the reasons behind each decline. We also look at how many customers retry after a failure and how many leave.
A single average hides the problem. The useful signal is where approvals are lowest and why.
What we do not do
We do not promise a specific uplift, and we do not recommend changes without evidence. We also do not push you to switch providers when configuration is the real cause.
If a change would raise risk, such as loosening authentication, we explain the trade-off so you can decide.
The goal is a payment setup you understand, with changes your team can verify, rather than a black box that only we can maintain.
Typical findings
Every setup is different, but the same kinds of problems come up. These are the patterns we look for.
- Authentication steps that time out or loop, so customers abandon at the challenge screen
- Retries that fire too fast, too often or on declines that should never be retried
- Stored credentials that have expired because no updater or network token is in place
- A single route for every payment when a different route would suit certain issuers better
- Payments marked pending because a webhook was missed or never handled
- Reporting that groups all declines together, hiding the ones you can fix
We present findings with the evidence behind them, so your team can see exactly why each change is recommended and verify the result afterward.
Frequently asked questions
Why are my payment declines so high?
Common causes include authentication configuration, missing fallback flows, retry behavior, routing choices and issuer-specific patterns, not only the cards themselves. A decline analysis shows which apply to you.
What is payment orchestration?
Payment orchestration is the logic that decides how each payment is routed, authenticated and retried across providers and methods. Good orchestration sends each payment down the path most likely to succeed.
Can you guarantee a higher approval rate?
No. Results depend on your starting point, markets and issuers. We show you the evidence for each recommendation and check the results after the changes go live.
Do I need to change gateways to improve approval rates?
Not always. Many improvements come from configuration, authentication flows and retry logic within your current setup. We tell you if a change of provider or a second provider makes sense.
What do you need from me to start?
Access to your payment reports and configuration, and a conversation about your markets and customers. We agree exactly what is shared before the audit begins.
Ready to talk it through?
Book a 30-minute call. We’ll listen, ask the right questions, and tell you honestly whether and how we can help.