Case Study: $180K in Vendor Central Chargebacks Recovered

The Problem

This CPG brand sold 120+ SKUs through Vendor Central. Amazon was their largest retail channel at $10M+ annually. But chargebacks were eating their margin.

Over the previous 12 months, Amazon had charged them $430K in chargebacks. That’s 6.2% of revenue going back to Amazon in penalties. PO chargebacks. Logistics chargebacks. Labeling chargebacks. Shortage chargebacks. The brand’s internal team tracked them in a spreadsheet but never disputed them. They assumed chargebacks were a cost of doing business.

They weren’t.

What We Found

We audited 12 months of chargeback data and categorized every charge by type, root cause, and disputability.

$180K in disputable chargebacks. Nearly 42% of all chargebacks were either incorrect, duplicated, or applied to POs where the brand had compliant documentation. Amazon’s chargeback system is automated. It flags issues based on rules. Those rules catch legitimate problems, but they also generate false positives at scale.

Three chargeback categories drove 70% of the total.

PO shortage chargebacks accounted for $156K. Amazon claimed the brand shipped fewer units than ordered. In many cases, the brand had proof of full shipment through carrier BOL documents and ASN records.

Labeling chargebacks accounted for $89K. Amazon flagged carton labels as non-compliant. Some were legitimate (wrong format, missing fields). But many were duplicates or applied to POs where the labels met spec.

Logistics chargebacks accounted for $78K. Late delivery penalties, routing guide violations, and appointment misses. Several were caused by Amazon’s own receiving delays, not the brand’s shipping timeline.

The brand was also overpaying on recurring chargebacks. The same labeling error on 15 SKUs generated monthly chargebacks because nobody fixed the root cause. The brand paid the same penalty every month.

What We Did

Week 1-2: Dispute filing. We started with the highest-value disputable chargebacks. Each dispute included specific documentation. BOL records for shortage claims. ASN confirmations for labeling disputes. Carrier delivery receipts for logistics penalties. We filed 147 individual disputes.

Week 3-4: Root cause fixes. While disputes processed, we fixed the operational issues causing recurring chargebacks. Updated carton label templates to match Amazon’s current spec. Corrected ASN formatting to eliminate data mismatches. Added a PO acceptance checklist to catch issues before shipment.

Month 2: Process improvements. We implemented a weekly chargeback review process. Every new chargeback was reviewed within 48 hours. Disputable charges were filed immediately. Legitimate charges triggered an operational fix to prevent recurrence.

Month 3-6: Ongoing management. The dispute-and-fix cycle continued. New chargebacks dropped as operational fixes took hold. Dispute win rates improved as Amazon’s team saw consistent, well-documented submissions from the account.

The Results

Over 6 months, the results were significant.

• $180K in chargebacks recovered through systematic dispute filing. That’s money that went directly back to the brand’s bottom line.
• Chargeback rate dropped from 6.2% to 1.8%. Operational fixes eliminated the recurring penalties. The remaining 1.8% were legitimate charges the brand needed to address operationally.
• 64% dispute win rate. Nearly two-thirds of all disputed chargebacks were reversed by Amazon.
• Monthly chargeback volume dropped by 71%. From an average of 85 chargebacks per month to 24 per month.
• Annual margin impact: $280K+. Between recovered chargebacks and prevented future charges, the brand added $280K to their annual margin.

The brand’s VP of Sales called it “the most impactful thing we’ve done on Amazon in three years.” They’d been leaving money on the table for years because nobody had the expertise or bandwidth to fight back.

Key Takeaways

Vendor Central chargebacks aren’t all legitimate. Amazon’s automated system flags issues at scale, and it makes mistakes. But disputing chargebacks requires specific documentation, consistent formatting, and knowledge of which charges are worth fighting.

Most vendors accept chargebacks because the dispute process is tedious and they don’t know their win probability. That’s exactly where Altus Commerce’s Vendor Central management adds value. We’ve recovered hundreds of thousands in chargebacks across our client base because we know which disputes to file and how to document them.