Chargeback Risk Scorecard for BigCommerce Stores
Almost every sale on a BigCommerce storefront is card-not-present, so disputes for 'I didn't order this,' 'it never arrived,' and 'I don't recognize this charge' land on you. Enter your store's numbers to see how close you are to the card brand ratios processors watch, and which fixes would move your score most.
Your scorecard
Note: Visa's VAMP ratio counts fraud reports plus disputes, so your Visa ratio may be higher than the dispute-only ratio shown here.
Score breakdown by factor
Your full chargeback report
Worst-case estimate: assumes you lose the full average ticket on every dispute. It excludes the cost of goods shipped, shipping, and any card brand program fines.
Your prioritized fix list
Reduction rates are planning assumptions set by TouchSuite for prioritization, not measured industry statistics. Actual results vary.
Your controls already cover the basics. Focus on fast responses to disputes and tracking reason codes.
If you complete every fix above
Step-by-step setup notes
A specialist can walk through your dispute reports and the chargeback and fraud tools available for your setup. This scorecard is not a quote or an underwriting decision.
Why BigCommerce stores carry different chargeback risk
A BigCommerce checkout has no chip read and no signature. When a cardholder disputes an online order, the burden of proof usually sits with the merchant. That makes your fraud settings, your billing descriptor, and how visible your return policy is far more important than they would be at a counter.
The usual BigCommerce dispute patterns are friendly fraud (the buyer forgot the purchase or a family member made it), item-not-received claims during carrier delays, and 'unrecognized charge' disputes. That last one happens when the statement shows your LLC's legal name instead of the store name the customer remembers. The scorecard weights each of these because each one is something you can change in your store settings or your gateway.
Your card mix matters too. Many BigCommerce stores sell to consumers paying with rewards cards, and some ship internationally. B2B storefronts may also see corporate and purchasing cards. Higher tickets mean each lost dispute costs more, which is why the gated report calculates cost per chargeback from your own average ticket.
Timing your BigCommerce inputs around sales peaks
Disputes usually arrive weeks after the sale, sometimes months. For a BigCommerce store with a strong November and December, chargebacks from holiday orders can keep showing up in January and February, when order volume has dropped. If you enter a slow month's transaction count next to chargebacks driven by a busy quarter, your ratio will look worse than your real risk.
For a fairer read, use your average monthly card transactions across the same 90 days you are counting chargebacks for. Then run the scorecard a second time with your slowest month's count. The gap between the two results shows how much headroom you lose after a peak. Big flash sales and product launches work the same way: plan for the dispute tail before the sale goes live.
Count only card transactions. If some of your BigCommerce buyers pay by ACH or on invoice, leave those out. They follow different dispute and return rules and do not belong in a card chargeback ratio.
Worked example: a hypothetical BigCommerce apparel store
These numbers are entirely hypothetical. Picture a BigCommerce apparel store with $120,000 in monthly card volume across 1,500 transactions, which is an $80 average ticket. It had 36 chargebacks in the last 90 days, so 12 per month. Its ratio is 0.80%, which puts it in the Caution zone. That is above the tool's 0.65% buffer and below the 1.00% Mastercard monitoring ratio. It has room for about 3 more chargebacks a month before reaching 1.00%. At 12 a month, it is below the 100-chargeback Mastercard minimum, but a processor may still act on the ratio alone. The store's refund policy is in the footer only, it uses AVS/CVV but not 3-D Secure, and its descriptor shows the brand without a phone number. Its risk score is 45, which is Moderate.
The gated report would estimate about $120 per chargeback ($80 lost sale, $25 assumed fee, $15 assumed handling). That works out to roughly $17,280 a year as a worst case: $11,520 in lost sales, $3,600 in fees, and $2,160 in staff time. Four fixes trigger, ranked by assumed reduction: 1. Pre-dispute alerts (15%) 2. Adding 3-D Secure (10%) 3. A clear descriptor with a phone number (5%) 4. The refund policy shown at checkout (5%) Combined, these project a ratio near 0.55%, a score of 21 (Low), and about $5,350 in avoided annual cost.
Threshold values and reduction rates are planning assumptions, not card brand guarantees or measured results. Estimates are based on published industry averages and are not a quote. Actual rates depend on card mix, ticket size, industry, and underwriting.
What a good BigCommerce result looks like, and what to watch for
A healthy result for most BigCommerce stores is a ratio below the 0.65% caution line, a Low band, and enough headroom to absorb a bad post-holiday month. If you sell subscriptions through a third-party app, check that renewal reminders and a simple cancellation path are actually turned on. The billing model question carries real weight in the score.
Check your processing statement for line items that grow along with disputes: per-chargeback fees, retrieval or inquiry fees, and monitoring program charges. The tool assumes a $25 chargeback fee. Swap in your real fee mentally if it differs, because it changes your cost per dispute.
Unlock the full report to see your dollar breakdown, your ranked fix list, and your projected score. To talk through gateway settings, descriptor changes, or pre-dispute alerts for your BigCommerce store, talk to a payments specialist at TouchSuite.
Frequently asked questions
Does BigCommerce respond to chargebacks for me?
Usually not. Chargebacks flow through the card networks to the company that processes your payments, not to your storefront platform. Your processor or gateway notifies you, and you submit evidence such as order details, tracking, and AVS/CVV results. Confirm exactly how your current setup routes dispute notices so none slip past the response deadline.
I connect BigCommerce through Authorize.net or NMI. Where do I check 3-D Secure and AVS/CVV?
Those settings live in your gateway account, not in BigCommerce itself. AVS and CVV filters are typically set as rules for when to decline or hold a transaction. 3-D Secure may need to be enabled separately. If you aren't sure what's on, answer 'not sure' in the scorecard. The report will then tell you to confirm your settings with your gateway rather than assume either way.
Our chargebacks jump every January after holiday sales. Which numbers should I enter?
Enter chargebacks from the last 90 days and your average monthly card transactions for that same period, not just January's lower count. Then run it again with the slow month to see your worst-case ratio. If the second run crosses the caution line, look at pre-dispute alerts and clearer shipping communication before your next peak season.
We run a B2B storefront on BigCommerce with some invoiced orders. Does this scorecard apply?
Yes, for the orders paid by card. Leave out invoices paid by ACH, eCheck, or check, because those are not card chargebacks and would dilute your ratio. Corporate and purchasing card disputes still count toward your card ratio, so include those transactions.
Will switching processors reset our chargeback ratio?
No. Your dispute history and the underlying causes come with you, and a new processor will review your past statements during underwriting. The fixes in the report, like descriptor, refund visibility, fraud checks, and alerts, are what lower the ratio. A TouchSuite payments specialist can review your results with you, but no one can promise approval or a specific rate before underwriting.
How this works: every assumption behind your score
These are the exact values the scorecard uses. Threshold values, cost figures, and fix reduction rates are assumptions, not card brand guarantees or measured statistics. Confirm current card brand rules and your actual fees with your processor.
| Assumption | Value used | Source / basis |
|---|