39% of eCommerce Shoppers Are Initiating More Disputes

Since the start of the pandemic, there has been a surge in consumers’ online shopping. In fact, 54% of all adult consumers are shopping online more now than they did before the pandemic, according to Tackling The Chargeback Surge, a PYMNTS and Ethoca collaboration based on a survey of 3,557 consumers across Australia, the U.K. and the U.S.

Get the report: Tackling The Chargeback Surge

Together with the surge in global eCommerce shopping, there has been a greater frequency of consumers filing transaction disputes. Thirty-nine percent of the eCommerce shoppers surveyed say they are disputing more eCommerce transactions now than they did before March 2020. By contrast, just 21% are disputing fewer transactions.

There are four key reasons consumers cite for filing disputes.

The most common reason is service errors, which might include a merchant sending a package to an incorrect address or charging an incorrect dollar amount for a transaction. Among the consumers who have disputed at least one charge in the last 12 months, 71% have done so because of these types of mistakes.

The second most common reason consumers file disputes is customer confusion, meaning they were confused about some aspect of their transaction. Thirty-nine percent of the consumers surveyed say that they had initiated a dispute for that reason.

Two other key reasons consumers cite for filing disputes are fraud, cited by 27% of the respondents, and first-party misuse, cited by 10%.

Many eCommerce merchants realize that disputes and chargebacks stand to drain their resources and reduce their bottom lines if left unaddressed. Knowing the lay of the land — and the nuances of chargebacks detailed in this report — is the first step of a broader long-term journey toward an effective chargeback prevention strategy.