Getting sales may be the most important step, but retaining the sale follows a close second. Cancelled orders can be a big drain on sales. Charge backs that cut deep into your margins and put your merchant account at risk are even worse.

Do you have an effective communications program in place to confirm your orders have been received and are shipping soon? Do you notify your customers of backorder situations?  

Having effective notifications backed up by live customer service will go a long way towards reducing cancellations, returns and charge-backs. Declined Credit cards are another opportunity to resell someone who already made the decision to buy; are you capturing this opportunity with a reach out effort?  

Keeping your customer informed of the order status, giving them multiple channels for asking questions can all go a long way towards reducing canceled orders and charge-backs.

• Fact: There is so much price parity on products across the internet that consumers will decide to buy because you provide additional tipping points - fast delivery, low shipping, great company philosophy, customer service....in other words, beyond price, you’ve got to be GREAT at delivering product and taking care of your customers.
• Fact: Just providing tracking information for an order in any easy one-click link on an email will prevent frustration and customer phone calls. A good operations partner provides that service to your customer at no extra charge.
• Fact: Visa and MasterCard watch D2C programs closely because some types of sales account for a disproportional amount of their consumer complaints and charge-back activity.  Too many charge-back challenges may cause you to lose your merchant account even if you “win” your cases. 

You can help minimize charge-backs by using email notifications of the order status, shipping promptly, and providing email and telephone customer service when your customers have questions.