Florists, Do You Know How To Protect Yourself Against Credit Card Chargebacks?
Credit Card chargebacks can be a nightmare for your flower shop/ floral eCommerce small business. Unfortunately, quite a few floral retailers have at some point experienced a credit card chargeback -regardless of how exceptional the service and floral arrangement/s delivered.
Florists, there are measures you can take in your floral business to avoid these frustrating credit card chargebacks. Take steps now to protect your floral business with the holidays coming up it is a good time to start.
What is a Credit Card Chargeback?
A credit card chargeback is the return of funds to a consumer. In the simplest terms, the consumer takes back the money they paid you. There can be many reasons for the consumer to initiate a credit card chargeback and essentially the chargeback system is in place to protect the consumer’s purchases.
- Fraudulent: If the consumer did not authorize the purchase.
- Clerical: Incorrect amount billed, duplicate charged or promised refund was not issued.
- Technical: Expired credit card
- Quality: Goods were not received/damaged and not as promised.
Florists, Take These Steps To Protect Your Business From Credit Card Chargebacks!
Protecting your business from the financial loss of a credit card chargeback is the most important step in running your flower business. Let us go over “Must Do” implementations.
Card-Not Present– Card-not-present transactions, phone or online be sure to always collect the CVV card verification numbers. This is the three-digit security code on the back of Discover, MasterCard, Visa and debit cards. For Amex (American Express) credit cards there is a four-digit code on the front of the card.
Address Verification System: For floral online purchase be sure your website is equipped with AVS ( Address Verification System) this ensures the customer is providing the correct billing address.
Get A Signature: Obtaining a customer’s signature is the most important thing you can when delivering your blooms. Yes, it can take some time but a great way to protect yourself against chargebacks. You will also want to get a signature on all in house credit card sales.
Correct Business Description: Most chargebacks occur when a customer looks on their bank statement and they have no idea what the charge was for due to an inconspicuous business name. Make sure your business name description is recognizable on customers’ bank and credit card statements.
PCI Compliance: Be sure you are PCI compliant. PCI helps businesses protect themselves and their customers from online fraud, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council which includes Visa, MasterCard, and American Express safeguards consumer data. PCI compliance is mandatory for all eCommerce websites.
Return & Cancelation Policies: Print return and cancelation policies right on the customer’s receipt whether the transaction was sold in person or online. Also, have a designated return and cancelation policy on your website and ideally written below each product on your website.
Clear Delivery Policy: Be sure to have a clear delivery policy posted on your floral website, do not promise a timed delivery unless you know for sure it can be met. I have seen florists deal with chargebacks over silly promised timed deliveries.
Substitution Policy: Just as important as a delivery policy is a substitution policy on your floral website is also important and a must-have. Be very clear that your floral arrangement images may differ in size and flower quantity as well as allow you to use different blooms in place of the ones pictured when called for.
A great way of protection for chargebacks of products “Not As Described” is to email an image of the floral arrangement designed to the customer with the delivery confirmation.
Get Chargeback Insurance: Did you know you can get chargeback insurance for your flower business? If this is the first time you are hearing about this go ahead and look into chargeback insurance today. Credit card chargeback insurance is insurance that protects you in case of a chargeback due to fraudulent or unauthorized purchases.
If you operate an online flower shop chargeback insurance will certainly give you peace of mind- premiums for the year can be quite low which can pay for itself if you get one fraudulent chargeback.
Merchant Bank Protection: Some banks also provide you tools to help you with chargebacks, be sure to discuss with your bank their chargeback protection options. With the increased amount of fraudulent chargebacks to businesses, banks want to help. If your bank offers no protection for chargebacks move to merchant bank that does.
Leave a Reply