6 Tips to Reduce Chargebacks in Ecommerce

Basically, a chargeback is a transaction in reverse, started by the cardholder’s bank. As opposed to placing funds into your merchant account, it takes them out. You need to pay a fee for each chargeback, in addition, if you get too many of them, your merchant account may be terminated.

There are different reasons that a transaction can be contested and returned through the chargeback procedure, however most chargebacks happen because of fraud. If you can reduce fraud transactions, you can reduce chargebacks. Here are a few tips to assist you with reducing the number of chargebacks you get:

1. Use a proper billing descriptor.

A good number of chargeback disputes have to do with unclear billing descriptors. Your billing descriptor is the merchant name / web site and other descriptive details that will show up on the cardholders’s statement when they buy from you. When you display an unexpected name in comparison to what the customer may expect, they may not recognize it. Be sure that your billing descriptor is recognizable, useful, and clearly stated during the checkout process.

2. Use a fraud management tool.

Use a fraud management tool at the payment gateway level. Check with the payment gateway for options on how to check for fraud. IntegralPay’s payment gateway offers a rule-set based fraud management utility that allows merchants to configure extensive filters to help them in detecting and protecting against fraud and screening suspicious transactions.

3. Respond rapidly to customers

When managing disputes, the best approach is to keep them a low as possible. To do this, ensure you respond rapidly to each customer support issue.

Customers can get upset when they perceive they’re being ignored. In the event that they request a refund, issue it as fast as would be prudent. Because if you don’t, they may believe you’re not going to give them a refund, and they may call their bank, and that can bring about a chargeback.

4. Be proactive with refund policies

Your refund policy should be clearly available to customers before the sale. Provide a “click to accept” checkbox at checkout to ensure that the customer sees the link to the refund policy and accepts the terms. That proves that the customer was aware of the policy before the sale.

5. Keep great records

Keep complete records of customer’s transaction dates, amounts and authorization data, in the event that you need them to represent a chargeback dispute. In the event that you have even more documentation, for example, signed agreements, that helps, as well.

There’s little you can do on the off chance that you have been the casualty of a fraud purchase, however this administrative work can assist you with winning a representment against a customer who is unreasonably attempting to exploit the system or who may have just not recognized the purchase (“friendly fraud”).

6. Prevent them BEFORE they happen!

Imagine the ability to find out about and respond to cardholder inquiries, in real-time, BEFORE a chargeback even happens! This is now possible with Visa transactions. IntegralPay is a premier partner with an official Visa Merchant Purchase Inquiry (VMPI) Facilitator, which allows you to do just that.

When using IntegralPay’s VMPI program, merchants can prevent the greatest number of chargebacks possible. Contact us now to find out more today!