How to improve user retention with web-to-app: 3 proven strategies

Web-to-app isn’t only good for mobile user acquisition—thanks to its flexibility, it also gives you more space to use retention strategies. Unlike app-to-app, where you’re limited by the app stores rules, the web gives you full control over how you retain users. You can:

build personalized cancellation flows
run progressive user retention & win-back campaigns
leverage extended channels like targeted email campaigns, retargeting ads, and web push notifications

But simply having these tools isn’t enough—you need a strategy to use them effectively.

In a recent webinar, Vahe Bagdasaryan (monetization & CRM expert, Flo, Coinstats) and Andrey Shakhtin (CEO, Funnelfox) shared proven tactics to reduce churn and drive retention by moving cancellation flow to the web.

This article covers the key takeaways from the discussion. For more details (or if you’re more of a visual learner) watch the recording.

1. Structure the right web cancellation flow

When users who subscribed through the web try to cancel their subscription, send them to a custom web cancellation flow instead of letting them lapse from the app.

web cancellation flow for better user retention

This way, you can figure out why they’re leaving—and the reason will tell you how to make them stay.

Your goal here is to retain users without giving up more than necessary—just enough to nudge them toward staying. For this, your cancellation flow should have the following structure:

Live support. Sometimes, a quick issue resolution with a support agent is all it takes to retain a user—for example, if they’re going to leave due to a bug or a missing feature. Trigger a live chat within the cancellation flow and offer to clarify the issue with the agent. You can also enable users to send an email without leaving the page.
Pause option. Offer a pause instead of canceling—e.g., taking a 2-3 month break and automatically renewing their subscription later.
Plan downgrade. When the price is the issue, offer to switch to a cheaper plan—e.g., from an annual to a monthly subscription.
Discount. Don’t rush into offering discounts the very moment a user tries to cancel—they’re your last resort when previous options don’t work.

2. Introduce a progressive discount strategy

Most apps immediately throw out big discounts, cannibalizing their revenue by offering larger discounts to users who would convert with a smaller discount. A better approach is progressive discounting—offering reduced prices to users who are about to lapse and gradually increasing the price reduction if users don’t convert with a lower discount.

What discount should you start with and how do you find the optimal offer?

The best approach is to set up multiple discount flows and test different progressive discount strategies to see what drives the highest revenue.

Start by tracking how your email open rate or user retention changes over time. If you’re likely to lose a lot of users, it’s better to offer a higher discount right away and then increase them up to 60-70%. Without this, users may stop opening emails before reaching a compelling offer. Before sending the first or second email, test how many users open or interact with your emails—this helps determine the right starting point.

For app categories with high churn offering 40% off is usually effective. For example, health and fitness apps users often engage with free trials but cancel quickly, so bigger initial discounts help pull them back. For other categories, start from lower cuts and test.

progressive discount strategy for better user retention

💡 ML models can refine this further by calculating your users’ propensity-to-pay score and determining what discount amount would make them more likely to pay. But it’s only applicable if you have enough data and won’t work for smaller apps or when there’s no significant data.

3. Return users to abandoned checkout

Over 50% of users abandon transactions after clicking the paywall buttons. Meanwhile, abandoned checkout is one of the easiest revenue leaks to fix, and E-commerce figured this out years ago. Try adding an item to your cart and don’t purchase it—you’ll get multiple follow-ups saying you forgot something.

Don’t treat abandoned checkouts as lost sales, like most subscription apps do. By implementing targeted follow-ups, you can reduce cart abandonment by 64% and increase revenue by 10%.

Engage the users immediately at the moment of abandonment by offering an alternative deal. If it doesn’t work and they still lapse, follow up with multi-channel re-engagement campaigns through push and email. You can send a deep link that takes them right back to where they left off.

↘ Learn how to build high-converting paywalls in our guide on web-to-app payments

How to structure the win-back strategy?

Win-back strategies target users who somehow experienced your product but didn’t stick around. The strategy will depend on the user segment:

Canceled subscribers with an active plan
Expired subscribers
Trial users who canceled but still have time left
Users with expired trials who never subscribed after their free period ended

Each group needs a different approach.

Segment	Timing	Primary actions	Strategy
Canceled but active subscriptions	• > 9 months remaining • < 3 months remaining	• Multi-year plan upgrades • Time-sensitive offers • Personalized discounts	• Long-term: convert to 2-year plans • Short-term: urgent renewal offers
Canceled but active trials	• Immediate response • First hour critical	• Trial extensions • Progressive discounts • Value demonstration	• Extend trials based on engagement • ML-based discount optimization
Expired subscriptions	• At expiration • Post-expiration	• Full-price resubscription • Strategic discounts• Trial extensions	• Immediate full-price offer • Tiered discount progression
Expired trials	• Post-expiration • Scheduled campaigns	• Trigger-based journeys • Progressive discounts • Multi-channel outreach	• Platform-based campaigns • Optimized timing patterns

💡 If you’re running a new product, your biggest win-back segment will likely be expired trials. If you’re an established paid app, canceled subscriptions should be your main focus. Prioritize volume—10-15% of a large user pool returning is more valuable than 50% of a small one.

User retention strategies for web-to-app Q&A

What does a classic discount strategy look like? Any discount benchmarks?

It’s hard to define a universal discount benchmark—it depends on the app category and retention rate. But if we take utility, health, and fitness apps as an example (where churn is high), the best approach is to start with a stronger discount—let’s say, 50%—and then increase to 70% and even 80% if smaller cuts don’t work. Starting too low—say, 20–30%—means losing a lot of users before they reach an offer strong enough to reconsider.

It’s also how you frame the discount that affects conversion. A great example is Noom. Instead of saying “Get 50% off”, they reframe it as “Get 2 months free”. It’s still a discount—but by presenting it as free time instead of a percentage cut, they increase engagement.

What are the benchmarks for emails? Open rates, click rates, and overall performance expectations?

For the first emails in a sequence, a 20–30% open rate is a solid benchmark. Over time, as more emails are sent, this typically drops to around 10% by the third to fifth email.
Click rates can vary widely but usually fall between 1–5%. Aim for at least a 1–2% click-through rate on your emails.

What percentage of total revenue typically comes from CRM efforts?

It varies by product. In well-optimized setups, 15–25% of total revenue can come from CRM. But if your strategy is just a basic “Hey, welcome to the app” automation, you’re looking at closer to 1%. The key is having structured, thought-out flows for win-back, retention, and reactivation campaigns.

What types of offers to test?

Discounts are the classic go-to. For users with expired trials test extended trials vs. discounts—in many cases, giving users another free trial converts better than a discount.
Also, test framing discounts as free months—e.g., offering 6 free months for purchasing a 6-month subscription instead of cutting 50% off. This approach often outperforms a standard percentage discount because it makes the deal feel more valuable. ↘ Learn how you can maximize your web-to-app funnels CR with impactful A/B tests.

If we make the cancellation flow too complex, we risk more disputes. But if we make it too easy, we lose users too quickly. What’s the right balance?

You definitely don’t want to over-engineer the process or use dark patterns. A famous example is Amazon’s old cancellation flow, which was intentionally confusing—that kind of approach is now borderline illegal and leads to refund disputes and frustrated users.

The best practice is to keep it structured but fair and transparent. Instead of just a “Cancel subscription” button, implement these steps:

1. Offer live support (if available) to address potential issues
2. Suggest a pause option instead of immediate cancellation
3. Provide cheaper plans or offer discounts before they finalize their decision

If you don’t have a support team, focus on pause options, plan adjustments, and discounts. This approach ensures users aren’t trapped but also gives them compelling reasons to stay—without resorting to misleading tactics.

Are web push notifications effective? Do people even allow them? What’s their revenue impact?

Web push notifications can work, but they’re nowhere near as effective as email. They perform best for non-Apple users—MacBooks and Safari have limitations that block them. On Chrome, users can opt in, but engagement is still low.

If you have high daily traffic, enabling push notifications as part of onboarding can be useful. However, expect less than 1% of users to click, with about 20% of those converting. The real priority is email—focus there first. Web push can be an extra layer, but it shouldn’t be your main user retention tool.

Is it better to use a single opt-in or double opt-in for email? How does it affect conversion rates?

It depends on your product. Fintech apps or anything involving sensitive data likely needs double opt-in for security and compliance. But for utility, health, and fitness apps, it usually adds unnecessary friction.

The best way to decide is to look at your email deliverability and open rates. If emails are going to spam or open rates are abnormally low, users might be entering fake emails, and double opt-in could help. Otherwise, it’s just an extra step that slows conversions.

Shall I create my own email setup or use a third-party platform? What’s the best approach?

It really comes down to priorities and resources. Using a third-party tool is usually the smarter choice, especially early on. Email has a lot of technical challenges—deliverability issues, spam filters, tracking, and automation logic. Unless you have a very specific reason to build your own system, go with an existing tool and scale from there.

If you’re looking for budget-friendly options, MailChimp is the most affordable. But if you’re serious about CRM and lifecycle marketing, tools like Iterable or Braze offer much more flexibility for event-based automation, segmentation, and advanced testing.

Which performs better for user retention, push notifications or email?

If we’re talking about web push vs. email, email wins. If it’s mobile push vs. email, it’s harder to compare—you need both.

There’s a common misconception that “no one opens emails anymore”, but that’s just wrong. When done right, email can drive huge revenue and conversion rates, even though it takes more effort to optimize than push.

How much revenue can email drive?

It depends on how well it’s executed. If you’re just sending one-off emails, revenue impact will be minimal. But with a proper setup email can contribute 15–25% of total revenue. The key is consistency and testing—continuously test and optimize subject lines, timing, segmentation, and content to keep engagement high.

Do the new California regulations impact how we handle subscription cancellations?

If you’re not trying to trick users into staying, these changes won’t be an issue. The purpose of a good cancellation flow isn’t to trap people—it’s to understand why they’re leaving and offer reasonable alternatives.

As long as your process is transparent and doesn’t rely on dark patterns (e.g., hiding the cancel button, forcing unnecessary steps), you won’t run into problems. Give users a clear way to cancel, but also present pause options, plan downgrades, or discounts in a fair, non-manipulative way.

What’s the main point of experimenting with cancellation flows? What experiments have worked well?

Think of cancellation flows as a separate funnel that helps to understand why users are canceling so that you can use that insight to improve user retention and win-back campaigns.
One of the most effective experiments Vahe has run involved reworking cancellation survey questions. Instead of generic responses like “Too expensive” or “Not using it”, they tested more specific, contextual options:

• “I found a cheaper alternative” (instead of just “Too expensive”)
• “I had trouble finding a key feature” (instead of “Technical issues”)

This made user intent much clearer, allowing to retarget lapsing users with more relevant offers. If someone left for a cheaper competitor, they followed up with a discount or plan adjustment. If they had technical issues, they reached out with support and product guidance.