Good afternoon boss babes!

As many of you know, holiday season is upon us and Black Friday sales are just around the corner. We have all prepared for this magicial moment of customers filling up their carts and hitting that place to order button. But did you know that during these times, fraud rates are the highest and that our small businesses are the perfect target? We don't want to suffer from chargebacks, we want to THRIVE this holiday season! Below, I have gathered some helpful tips that I practice with my business to prevent fraud and chargebacks.

We know how exciting it is when you recieve a large order, but sometimes that is the biggest giveaway for fraud. Scammers don't want to spend $30 at your store, they want to spend $200! So make sure to check all your large orders and even email the customer to cornfirm their order since most of the time scammers make up an email address. So, if the email doesn't send or you havent recieved a response it's best to cancel the order instead of risk losing your product AND money. 

Things you can do with your shopify store to prevent fraud from getting through. In your checkout settings, you can select an option that does not allow orders to be processed if the billing zip code does not match the billing address. Since, I have switched to this option, it has lower the amount of potential fraud or high risk orders recieved. Another thing you can do is download a fraud protection app through the Shopify App Store. This allows you to manage settings so when an order does not compily, it will automatically be cancelled. If you are worried this may prevent some actual customers from shopping, most of the time they will send over an email when they're having trouble checking out. So, no real orders are actually lost!

Biggest RED FLAGS for FRAUD!

• Billing address or zip code not matching
• IP address is NOT in close proximity of shipping address
• Multiple credit card attempts
• Email given is questionable

If ever, you notice these things especially with a large order the best thing to do is to email the customer asking for proof of address. This can be a piece of mail or ID, whatever they are comfortable with providing. In this case, if there is ever a chargeback you have verification you can send over and most of the time win over the case. 

That's all my tips babes, stay safe and happy holidays!

Don't forget to check out our website to see all the new items dropping this holiday season!