ThriveCart Refund Process: Turning Data into Actionable Insights

Project Length: 2 years, 2023 - 2025

The Challenge:
At ThriveCart, rising refund rates raised alarms. Leadership’s first instinct? Add friction—extra steps to make refunds harder and reduce revenue loss. On paper, it made sense: tighten the process, cut down on abuse.

But that approach didn’t sit right with me. Refund requests aren’t just numbers—they’re feedback in disguise. Instead of focusing on stopping refunds, I wanted to understand why they were happening in the first place.

The Approach:
I started by digging into the data—but not just surface-level metrics. I wanted to know:

• Where were customers getting stuck?
• Which product issues triggered the most refund requests?
• What signals could we act on to prevent future refunds?

I built a comprehensive refund analysis, breaking down patterns across customer behavior, product friction points, and support interactions. Using data visualization and clear storytelling, I transformed raw data into a narrative leadership could act on.

In parallel, chargeback rates were rising, and to avoid additional fees, I took ownership of the chargeback process for both Stripe and PayPal. This included managing disputes and identifying pain points that were contributing to the increase. As the sole person handling chargebacks within the entire support organization, I worked directly with both payment providers to understand the causes behind chargeback requests and prevent them wherever possible.

What I found changed everything:
The problem wasn’t refund abuse—it was avoidable customer pain. Refund requests were often the result of unclear product experiences and gaps in the customer journey. Tightening the refund process wouldn’t fix those pain points—it would only frustrate customers further.

The Solution:
I partnered with leadership to shift the strategy:

✅ Fix the root cause, not the symptom—We identified and prioritized product improvements to prevent refund-triggering issues.

✅ See refunds and chargebacks as signals—We reframed refund requests and chargebacks as a feedback loop, using them to identify and address areas of confusion or friction.

✅ Simplify the experience—Instead of complicating the refund process, we made it smarter—balancing ease for legitimate customers with safeguards against abuse.

The Results:
🔹 Reduced Support Load—Fewer customer issues meant fewer refund-related support tickets.

🔹 Improved Customer Sentiment—NPS (which had dropped due to refund friction) stabilized and improved as we addressed core pain points.

🔹 Strategic Decision-Making—Leadership moved from a reactionary to a data-informed approach, focusing on proactive experience improvements over restrictive measures.

Why It Matters:
This project wasn’t just about refunds—it was about using customer signals to drive better business decisions. I didn’t just surface insights—I made them actionable, helping leadership connect what the data said to what the product needed.

A sample of this intellectual property is available upon request.