Fifty-eight million United States consumers canceled a subscription plan during the past six months — and that may be just the beginning.
The COVID-19 pandemic is advancing, triggering a massive economic downturn and pushing consumers to curb their spending wherever they can — and subscription plans are on the chopping block.
How can providers keep their customers subscribed, despite shifting financial priorities?
This is just one of the questions PYMNTS sought to answer in the Subscription Retail Services Report: Using Pause Features To Curb Subscription Cancellation edition, a collaboration with Recurly. PYMNTS surveyed 1,968 consumers to learn which subscription services they have, how they use them, whether they are thinking about canceling and what providers can do to curb cancellations.
For many consumers who are thinking of canceling their subscriptions, our findings revealed that the ability to pause their subscriptions would go a long way in changing their minds. PYMNTS 
research shows that 25.4 percent of consumers who are very or extremely likely to cancel their subscriptions would use pause features if they were available. This could lead to as many as 9.2 million subscribers keeping their subscriptions.
Pause features are not the only tool providers have at their disposal to help meet their customers’ ever-changing demands, however. Our research also shows that 24.5 percent of consumers who are considering canceling their subscriptions would keep them if their providers kept their prices low, while another 9.2 percent would keep their subscriptions if they offered better payment options.
With that said, keeping customers signed up is only the final chapter of this story. The beginning concerns why subscribers are thinking of canceling in the first place.
To learn more about why subscribers consider canceling their plans and how providers can help provide services that meet their ever-changing needs, download the report.