Not every sale stays sold. A return is the customer sending the product back for a refund. A chargeback, which Stripe’s documentation calls a dispute, is the cardholder questioning the payment with their card issuer; the issuer reverses the payment, the money is withdrawn from the merchant along with a dispute fee, and the merchant can contest it with evidence (Stripe). Both take an order out of the base a commission was computed on.
The scale is not small. NRF’s 2025 estimate is that 15.8 % of annual retail sales will be returned, $849.9 billion, and 19.3 % of online sales (NRF). A commission paid on gross orders in a category with high returns pays for sales that did not happen.
Example. A creator’s code brings 50 orders of $80, $4,000 gross, at a 15 % commission. Eight orders are returned and one is charged back, so $720 of sales reverse and the net base is $3,280. Commission on gross would be $600; on net, $492. If the brand paid $600 on gross in April and the returns landed in May, it has a $108 clawback to make, which most deals take from the next payout. Example numbers, not a benchmark.
When brands use it. The pain this answers: “I have no idea which creator actually drove sales.” Reversed orders are the second half of that question. Brands pay on net orders after a lock period in categories with high returns (apparel, footwear, electronics), and on gross with a lower rate in categories where returns are rare (consumables). Chargebacks are usually excluded from the base whatever the category.
The creator’s view. Ask three things: is the base gross or net, how long is the lock, and how are reversals handled, by deduction from the next payout or by invoice. A long lock on a low-return product is a brand being slow, not careful.
On HourlyUGC. When HourlyUGC counts the sales, it reads them from a connected Shopify store or its pixel, so the order list behind a payout is the store’s own.