Where ecommerce margin actually goes.
Practical writing on marketplace claims, carrier performance, invoice errors and support operations. No thought leadership.
The Shipherd blog covers dated analysis of marketplace and carrier policy changes: what changed, when it changed and what it means for ecommerce operators. It differs from the permanent reference material under Resources, which explains how recovery and operations work regardless of the news cycle.
Start with the guides
Marketplace recovery: what Amazon owes you and how to claim it
Reimbursements are not automatic. Refunds where the item never came back, inventory that was never credited, and not-received claims contradicted by tracking all have to be found and filed inside a window. These guides cover what is eligible and how the process works.
4 published guides Carrier claimsCarrier claims: compensation you are owed when delivery fails
Guaranteed services carry a contractual promise. When a parcel misses its window, is lost, or arrives damaged, compensation is due — but almost none of it is claimed, because checking every parcel against every carrier’s small print is work nobody has time for. Across invoice errors and service-failure compensation, Shipherd estimates up to 12% of carrier spend is recoverable.
2 published guides Carrier financeCarrier finance: rate cards, surcharges and invoice errors
Carrier invoices are assembled from base rates, fuel surcharges, zone assignments and dimensional weight, generated by billing systems that make mistakes. Checking a line against a contracted rate card is arithmetic, but at volume nobody does it.
2 published guides Returns and fraudReturns and refund abuse: causes, patterns and prevention
Return volume concentrates rather than spreading evenly, and the cause is usually specific and fixable. Refund abuse hides in the same data — invisible on any single order, obvious across several.
1 published guide Support automationEcommerce support automation: what works and what does not
Most support AI optimises for deflection, counting how many tickets went away. The thing that decides whether a customer returns is whether they got what they needed. These guides cover the difference.
4 published guides