The Shopify Chargeback Report: Where to Find It and How to Read It

How to find a chargeback in Shopify

Start with the individual order when you see a new dispute. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders, click Search and filter, then Add filter, choose Chargeback and inquiry status, and select Open. This shows all orders with open chargebacks or inquiries that have not yet been sent to the credit card company.

Open the disputed order and review four things before you do anything else: the chargeback reason, the amount, the status, and the response due date. The order page holds the issuer claim documents when the bank provides them, plus the Add evidence button that opens the response workflow. Record the case details before you submit anything.

For the storewide number, open Analytics > Reports, type "Chargeback rate" in the search field, and select the report. This is the aggregate view that shows how often customers dispute payments across your Shopify Payments transactions, and it is the report most merchants mean when they ask for the Shopify chargeback report.

Two details shape how you use the deadline. Response windows commonly run 7 to 21 days after a chargeback or inquiry is filed, but the deadline shown for the individual case is the one to follow. Shopify also states that no further evidence can be submitted after the submission deadline passes, so treat the date in admin as a hard stop for your response work.

Chargeback report vs. chargeback rate: read the right view

The per-order dispute view and the chargeback rate report answer different questions. The dispute list tells you what to do next, while the chargeback rate tells you how your store is trending.

The chargeback rate is the percentage of total payments that have received a chargeback of any kind. That percentage is based on all disputes customers open, not just the ones you lose. Winning a chargeback does not remove it from your rate, which surprises many merchants. A case your team successfully fought still counts in the monthly figure.

The rate also has a specific scope. It counts only chargeback-eligible transactions processed through Shopify Payments, so disputes on payments made through a third-party provider such as Authorize.Net follow that provider's process and are not included. If your store is enrolled in a network dispute resolution program, disputes resolved automatically through the program also count toward the rate.

Separately, a chargeback is not a refund. A refund is something you initiate and control. An inquiry is a payment concern raised before a formal chargeback, with no amount or fee taken yet. A chargeback is a reversal through the card network, and the bank takes the disputed amount from you right away. Keeping these events distinct in your reporting prevents you from missing a response deadline or treating an inquiry with the same urgency as a formal chargeback.

The fields a useful report should contain

A chargeback report only earns its place in your routine if it points toward the next action. These fields matter most:

Keep these fields together in one place. A simple spreadsheet works, as long as it points back to the order record and does not become a second, conflicting version of the truth.

Read the status before deciding what to do next

The single most important step is reading what stage a case has reached before you act. A chargeback or inquiry in the Shopify admin can have one of five statuses:

• Open: Shopify has not sent the response yet, and you can still add evidence.
• Submitted: The credit card company is reviewing the evidence.
• Won: You won the chargeback.
• Lost: You lost the chargeback.
• Resolved: The dispute was resolved automatically through a network dispute resolution program.

An open chargeback still needs a response. A submitted case is waiting for the card company to review your evidence. A won or lost case is an outcome, not an invitation to keep editing the original response. If you treat every row as if it needs the same action, you will create duplicate work and can easily overlook the cases that still have a deadline.

Start with the individual order when you see a new dispute. Confirm the reason, amount, currency, response deadline, and current status. Then check whether the case is an inquiry or a formal chargeback. An inquiry may be an opportunity to resolve the customer's concern before a formal reversal, while a chargeback requires you to follow the evidence and submission process shown in Shopify admin.

Keep the report as a queue, not as the evidence itself. The order record and your supporting records contain the facts needed for a response. An internal note can help with ownership, but it should point back to the source order.

A weekly chargeback review a small store can actually run

You do not need a large risk department to review your chargebacks. Set aside a short weekly block to inspect new and recently resolved cases. The exact day matters less than making the review repeatable and assigning one person to own the queue.

Here is a process that works:

1. Open the current chargeback view and list the open cases first.
2. Sort the queue by response deadline, then by financial amount. A small case with a near deadline still deserves attention.
3. Group recent disputes by reason, product, fulfillment method, and customer confusion point.
4. Assign an owner and write the next action in plain language, such as "confirm delivery scan" or "review cancellation email."
5. After submission, record what was sent and when.
6. After the outcome, record one prevention question for the next review.

This process is intentionally modest. The goal is to stop open cases from being forgotten and to turn repeated problems into specific improvements, not to create a report that nobody reads.

Use patterns carefully: the report is a signal, not a verdict

A pattern in your chargeback report tells you where to ask a better question, not who to blame. Do not use the report to claim that a particular customer, country, or product is fraudulent without reviewing the underlying facts. Look for operational patterns instead.

Here is a hypothetical example to make the method concrete. Assume your report shows three item-not-received disputes in one month for the same product and shipping method, each under $80. The visible input is the dispute reason grouped by product and fulfillment method. The question to investigate is whether tracking, delivery scans, and customer updates are consistent for that shipping method. The smallest useful change might be adding shipment status notifications for that carrier, then checking the next period to see whether the pattern shifted. The assumptions are that the three disputes share a fulfillment method and that a delivery-communication change is within your control.

Repeated "unrecognized" disputes may suggest your billing descriptor or customer emails are unclear. A cluster of fraud-related disputes around one product or shipping method may justify a stronger pre-fulfillment review. The table below maps common patterns to the question worth investigating.

What to do when the numbers start moving in the wrong direction

A rising chargeback rate is a reason to act quickly, but panic often produces the wrong response. Do not cancel every unusual order or change several policies at once without recording what you changed.

Begin by checking whether the increase is concentrated in one dispute reason, product, campaign, destination, or fulfillment method. Then make the smallest useful operational change:

• Improve shipping updates for delivery complaints.
• Clarify the refund or cancellation policy when customers are disputing timing.
• Add a pre-fulfillment hold for a documented high-risk pattern.
• Train your support team to escalate an unresolved complaint before it becomes a payment dispute.

Review the next reporting period to see whether the change helped or merely moved the problem elsewhere. A high chargeback rate can lead to account actions. Depending on your account activity, those actions can include a reserve on your Shopify Payments payouts or enrollment in a network dispute resolution program. If Shopify notifies you about account health, read the account-specific instructions and address those requirements directly. Treat the report as an early warning system, not just a bookkeeping view.

Keep reporting connected to response work

The best report is connected to a clear next step. When a new case arrives, move from the report to the order, identify the dispute reason, gather the relevant records, and prepare a concise response before the deadline. Our Shopify chargeback response workflow walks through that sequence from alert to submission. For collecting the right records by reason, see our guide to Shopify chargeback evidence. If you need the broader lifecycle and reason codes, start with the full Shopify chargebacks guide.

After the case is resolved, use the same record to support a prevention discussion. DisputeShield supports this operating model for Shopify Payments merchants by helping you apply your own risk rules to completed orders and prepare dispute evidence as a PDF. It does not replace Shopify's chargeback rate report, and it does not decide the outcome of a dispute. Its role is to reduce the gap between a policy, an order action, and an organized evidence review.