What can I do to reduce the risk of a chargeback?

What Is a Chargeback?
A chargeback is a charge that is returned to a payment card after a customer successfully disputes an item on their account statement or transactions report. 

We may come across a chargeback while running our Shopify store if a fraudulent customer deliberately claims to have not received their order and therefore start a chargeback claim with their bank/credit card provider.

In the vast majority of cases, the bank sides with the customer and a chargeback is granted. This means that the customer will receive their money back for the order and it will be taken from your Shopify account. Unfortunately, you will also not be able to recoup your supplier's fees for the order and so it can be expensive.

Luckily, there is a way to protect yourself from chargebacks!

There are a variety of fraud detection software providers which will pay for the chargeback if they agree to cover your orders. An example of one of these fraud detection software providers is Clearsale. 

If you sign up with Clearsale, they will run their fraud detection software for every order and if they are happy that it is not fraudulent, they will approve the order. Then if this order goes on to be a chargeback case and Clearsale approved the order,  Clearsale will pay the chargeback fee.

To use Clearsale you will pay a small fee for every order that they approve.

Remember that Clearsale and Shopify's in-built fraud detection cannot complete their checks on orders taken over the phone. You may choose not to take any orders over the phone and insist that customers place their orders through your website to ensure that your fraud detection software can check the order. You can inform your customer that this is in their interest as well to ensure their order is completely secure.