Chargeback Rate
Written by Christopher Krassnig - Founder - Kairos Exchange and ZenoX Media.
Published
- Checks in every memo8
- Automatic on day one3 of 8
- Read by handad spend and processor payouts
- Tracked ecom salesEUR 200M+ZenoX ad-management figures, not Kairos deal volume - Kairos hasn't closed a deal yet.
Chargeback Rate is the share of a store's revenue reversed by the card networks. It happens after a customer disputes a charge with their bank. Kairos measures it against total order value over the same period. The check warns once the rate crosses a published line. It fails past double that line, when a processor's disputes feed is connected.
What Happens Without a Disputes Feed
The check needs a live connection to the payment processor's disputes data, and plenty of stores do not have one wired in. When that feed is missing, Kairos does not invent a rate out of silence and call it a clean pass. It reports the check as not available and marks it a caution a person should read, not a proven zero. The same caution applies when a store has no orders at all in the trailing period, because a rate needs a denominator, and zero orders produces a zero that means nothing was measured rather than nothing went wrong. A high chargeback rate also carries its own separate risk beyond the individual disputes: card networks watch it, and a store that runs too hot for too long can lose its payment processing entirely.
Not to Be Confused With
- Refund Rate
- A chargeback is a forced reversal filed through the card network after a customer disputes a charge directly with their bank, and it carries risk with the payment processor that a refund does not. A refund is only the seller's own voluntary return.