How did cancellation abandonment differ between complex and simple online subscription cancellation processes?

Details

Researchers developed a computational method that combines the structure of subscription pages with records of users’ actions. It tracked features such as how deeply cancellation options were buried, along with clicks, scrolling, time spent and abandonment. The method also assessed how complicated the route through cancellation was, including transitions between steps and branching choices.

The central finding was that abandonment was lower for simpler cancellation routes than for more complex ones. This concerns giving up during a cancellation attempt, not how many subscribers initially decided to cancel. The abstract does not report the number of sessions in each comparison group, participant characteristics or statistical uncertainty, limiting how confidently the difference can be generalized.