> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vortexiq.ai/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Top Refunding Customers, Adobe Commerce > Top Refunding Customers for Adobe Commerce stores. Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre. How to read it, why it matters, and how to act on it. **Metrics type:** [Supporting Metrics](/nerve-centre/overview#metrics-types-explained) • **Category:** [Ecommerce Platform](/nerve-centre/connectors#connectors-by-type) ## At a glance > Customers and B2B Companies ranked by refund value over the rolling 90-day window. Helps Operations spot serial returners, fraud-pattern customers, and damaged-shipment-cluster B2B accounts. The card sits between "this is a normal returns operation" and "this is a possible fraud or chronic dispute" depending on context, the same customer at #1 means very different things in DTC vs B2B. | | | | ----------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **What it counts** | For each `customer_id` (and Adobe Commerce `company_id` where the B2B module is enabled): `SUM(creditmemo.grand_total)` and `COUNT(creditmemo)` over the 90-day window, ranked descending by sum. Top 20 returned by default. Guests aggregated by email address (`customer_email` on the order) since they have no `customer_id`. | | **API field** | `customer_id`, `customer_email`, `extension_attributes.company_attributes.company_id`, joined to `creditmemo.grand_total` and `creditmemo.created_at` from `GET /rest/V1/creditmemos`. | | **VAT / tax treatment** | Tax-inclusive (`grand_total`). For UK/EU merchants this is the customer-paid figure including refunded VAT. Net-of-tax view available via the breakdown column. | | **Shipping inclusion** | Included in `grand_total`. Shipping-only Credit Memos contribute their shipping value. | | **Discounts** | Already deducted in `grand_total`. | | **Cancelled orders** | Excluded (no Credit Memo on cancel). | | **Guest customers** | Aggregated by `customer_email` since `customer_id IS NULL` for guests. A guest using two different emails (intentionally or not) appears as two rows. This is the most common false-negative for fraud detection. | | **B2B Companies** | When the Adobe Commerce B2B module is enabled, the card aggregates by `company_id` rather than per-buyer-within-company. A janitor and a head office buyer at the same hospital roll up to "Riverside Hospital Group". | | **Refund-rate column** | Each top-N row shows `refund_value ÷ customer_lifetime_revenue` so you can distinguish "this customer refunds 80% of orders" (likely fraud or wrong-fit) from "this customer refunds 8%" (legitimate big-spender with normal return rate). | | **Currency** | Mixed-currency `grand_total` for ranking; `base_grand_total` available for FX-neutral. | | **Multi-store scope** | All Store Views by default; per-Store-View slice available. | | **Time window** | `90D` rolling. | | **Alert trigger** | None on this card directly; rely on watchlist rules in the Vortex IQ workspace (e.g. flag any customer whose 90D refund rate is >40% AND refund count is >3). | | **Roles** | owner, operations | ## Calculation Calculated automatically from your Adobe Commerce data. See the At a glance summary above for what the metric tracks and the worked example below for a typical reading. ## Worked example A B2B+DTC homewares merchant on Adobe Commerce 2.4.7 with B2B Companies enabled. Snapshot 13 May 26, 90-day rolling. **Top 10 refunding customers/companies:** | Rank | Customer / Company | Type | Refund value (90D) | Refund count | LTV (90D) | Refund rate (% of LTV) | Diagnosis | | ---- | ----------------------------- | --------- | ------------------ | ------------ | --------- | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------- | | 1 | Riverside Hospital Group | B2B | \$24,300 | 4 | \$284,000 | 8.6% | Normal for high-volume B2B | | 2 | Westfield Schools District | B2B | \$18,100 | 3 | \$156,000 | 11.6% | Slightly elevated; uniform-line sizing issue | | 3 | `sara.h@personalemail.com` | Guest DTC | \$4,820 | 11 | \$5,940 | 81% | **Fraud watch** | | 4 | LeisureGroup Plc | B2B | \$4,210 | 2 | \$74,000 | 5.7% | Normal | | 5 | mike\_t\@... (registered DTC) | DTC | \$3,640 | 7 | \$4,180 | 87% | **Fraud watch** | | 6 | HotelChain UK | B2B | \$3,180 | 1 | \$112,000 | 2.8% | Single high-AOV return; benign | | 7 | claire.j\@... (registered) | DTC | \$2,940 | 12 | \$11,200 | 26% | Serial returner, not fraud (consistent buyer) | | 8 | StateGov Procurement | B2B | \$2,710 | 1 | \$87,000 | 3.1% | Normal | | 9 | jen.k\@... (registered) | DTC | \$2,180 | 9 | \$3,400 | 64% | **Fraud watch** | | 10 | tony.r\@... (registered) | DTC | \$1,940 | 6 | \$7,200 | 27% | Serial; not fraud | **Insight pattern:** 1. **B2B-dominated top of the list (5 of top 10).** This is normal for a B2B-leaning merchant; high-volume accounts produce high-value returns even at low rates. 2. **Three fraud watch flags.** Customers at ranks 3, 5, and 9 have refund rates above 60% with multiple Credit Memos. That is a fraud pattern: they buy, return, repeat. Often reselling on secondary markets, sometimes "wardrobing" (wear once, return). Action: add to a watchlist and require manual approval on next order. 3. **Serial returners that are NOT fraud (ranks 7 and 10).** Refund rates of 26-27% with consistent buying behaviour signal a customer who routinely buys multiple items to choose from, then returns the rest. This is "try-before-you-buy" behaviour, common in apparel. Customer service decision: keep them (they are net positive) or block them (they are net negative once handling cost is included). Compute net contribution: `LTV × gross_margin − handling_cost × refund_count`. For most DTC merchants, a 25% refund rate at \$400+ of net LTV is still profitable. 4. **Westfield Schools at #2, refund rate 11.6%.** Higher than the B2B norm of 2-5%. Drilling into [Top Refunded Products](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/top-refunding-customers) by-customer view: 14 of 16 returned line items are uniform line items affected by the supplier sizing error. Not their fault; not fraud. Sales should reach out with the corrected sizing and a goodwill credit to retain the relationship. 5. **Cross-link with [Refund Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-value):** the top-10 customers here account for $67,920 of $284,600 90-day refund value, or 24%. Pareto-typical; the long tail is healthy normal-customer returns. 6. **Action queue for Operations:** (a) flag the 3 fraud watches for next-order manual review, (b) Sales call to Westfield Schools with sizing correction, (c) audit Riverside Hospital's 4 returns to ensure they were genuine damage claims (B2B fraud is rare but exists). ## Sibling cards merchants should reference together | Card | Why pair it with Top Refunding Customers | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Refund Value](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-value) | The aggregate. This card is the per-customer concentration view. | | [Refund Rate](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refund-rate) | Overall rate. The customers in this card are the contributors. | | [Refund Count](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refunded-orders) | Per-customer count vs value: high count + low value = small partial returns; low count + high value = whale events. | | [Refunds Over Time](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/refunds-over-time) | Time pattern. A new customer appearing here usually shows up as a single-day spike there. | | [Return Status](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/return-status) | Pipeline; many of these customers have open RMAs in addition to closed Credit Memos. | | [Customer Count](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/unique-customers) | The denominator. Top-10 refunding customers as % of total customers shows concentration. | | [B2B Account Silence](/nerve-centre/kpi-cards/adobe-commerce/b2b-accounts-gone-quiet) | A B2B account on this list whose order cadence stops is a churn-risk red flag. | | [`klaviyo.high_refund_segment`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/high_refund_segment) | Suppression list candidates; remove fraud-watch customers from acquisition email flows. | ## Reconciling against the vendor's own dashboard **Where to look in Adobe Commerce Admin:** Adobe Commerce does not have a native "Top Refunding Customers" report. Closest equivalents: > **Reports > Customers > Customers by Number of Orders** is the inverse view (top buyers, not top refunders). No native top-refunders ranking. To verify any single customer's refund value: > **Customers > All Customers > \[customer]** > Orders tab. Manually count Credit Memos against that customer's orders. Tedious but exact. For B2B Companies: > **Customers > Companies > \[company]** > Orders tab. Same logic at the Company level. **Why our number may legitimately differ from a manual Admin count:** | Reason | Direction of divergence | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | | **Guest aggregation by email**. A single guest using two emails (e.g. work + personal, typo) splits across rows in this card. The merchant might mentally consolidate them as "the same person" but the data does not. | Card under-aggregates per-real-person | | **Customer email change**. If a registered customer changes their email in Adobe, historical orders retain the old `customer_email`; the customer record uses `customer_id` which is stable. The card aggregates by `customer_id` for registered customers (correct) but by `customer_email` for guests (lossy). | Inconsistent across registered/guest | | **B2B Company aggregation**. The card rolls up to `company_id` when present. A merchant manually checking a single buyer's history will see only that buyer's slice, not the Company total. | Card shows higher than per-buyer | | **Currency**. The ranking is `grand_total` (mixed currency). For an FX-neutral ranking switch the column to `base_grand_total`. | Material for international | | **Time-zone, sync lag**. Standard ±5-15 min sync lag; ±1 day at UTC vs locale boundaries. | Minor | **Cross-connector reconciliation (when these connectors are connected for this merchant):** | Card | Expected relationship | What divergence tells you | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [`klaviyo.refund_segment_size`](/nerve-centre/klaviyo/refund_segment_size) | Klaviyo profiles flagged as "high refund" should overlap with the top-N here | If Klaviyo has a different list, the suppression flow is out of date; sync the segment. | | [`google_analytics.refund_attribution`](/nerve-centre/google_analytics/refund_attribution) | GA4 sees only refund events fired by the storefront, not the per-customer aggregation | Do not directly reconcile; GA4 customer identity is unreliable. | ***
Documentation cross-reference (for agencies running multiple platforms) * [`shopify.top_refunded_customers`](/nerve-centre/shopify/top_refunded_customers) * [`bigcommerce.top_refunded_customers`](/nerve-centre/bigcommerce/top_refunded_customers)
## Known limitations / merchant FAQs **A guest customer is at #1, can I see their order history?** Click through on the row to the customer email's order list. Adobe Commerce stores guest orders by `customer_email` and `customer_is_guest=1`. The Vortex IQ workspace renders an aggregated profile by email, including all guest orders matched. **Why is my B2B Company at #1, isn't that bad?** Not necessarily. High-volume B2B accounts have high absolute refund value because they have high absolute order value. The refund-rate column normalises: an account with $284k LTV and $24k of refunds is at 8.6%, well within B2B norms. The customers to worry about are the ones with refund rate >40%. **A customer's `customer_id` changed, why is their history split?** Customer ID is stable in Adobe Commerce; it doesn't change. What can change is `customer_email`. Registered customers are aggregated by `customer_id`, so an email change doesn't split them. Guests are aggregated by email, so a guest changing emails does split. There is no clean way to merge guest profiles in Adobe. **Should I block fraud-watch customers from buying?** Use a graduated response: (1) flag for manual review on next order; (2) require pre-payment via wire transfer (no chargeback risk); (3) blacklist if the pattern repeats. Adobe Commerce supports per-customer blocking via **Customers > All Customers > \[customer]** > Account Information > "Disable account". Use it sparingly; false positives create CS load. **A wholesale account showed up here for one bulk return, isn't that misleading?** The card is a snapshot. A single $24k Credit Memo on a $284k LTV account is not a problem. The diagnostic column (refund rate) gives context. Look at it together with the count column; one whale return at 8% rate is benign, four returns at the same rate suggest a pattern. **Why isn't fraud detection automatic?** Because the false-positive rate of pure-statistical fraud detection in B2B and certain DTC verticals is too high. A fashion DTC merchant who accepts try-before-you-buy will see legitimate 25-40% refund rates for repeat customers; flagging those automatically would alienate good buyers. The card surfaces the data; the merchant applies context. **My multi-store, can I see top refunders per Store View?** Yes. Apply the Store View filter to the card. Useful when, e.g., the US site has different refund norms than the UK site (US allows 90-day returns vs UK statutory 14-day; rates structurally differ). **Can I export this list to Klaviyo as a suppression segment?** Yes via the connector to Klaviyo. The fraud-watch flag becomes a Klaviyo profile property; you can build a segment "exclude where vortex\_fraud\_watch = true" and use it on acquisition flows. **Why does the same customer appear in two rows?** Three causes: (1) guest using two emails; (2) one email registered, the other not; (3) data quality issue (typo in `customer_email`). The Vortex IQ workspace supports merge-by-email for cases (2) and (3); case (1) cannot be resolved without manual intervention. *** ### Tracked live in Vortex IQ Nerve Centre *Top Refunding Customers* is one of hundreds of KPI pulses Vortex IQ tracks across Adobe Commerce and 70+ other ecommerce connectors. Nerve Centre runs the detection layer; Vortex Mind investigates the cause when something moves; Ask Viq lets you interrogate any number in plain English. [Start for free](https://app.vortexiq.ai/login) or [book a demo](https://www.vortexiq.ai/contact-us) to see this metric running on your own data.