To recover lost revenue from marketplace under-payments, rebuild the expected payout for every order from your agreed terms, compare it with the settlement report, group the differences by cause, attach order-level evidence, raise claims within the marketplace's dispute window, and track each case until the money is credited or the claim is closed.
What counts as a marketplace under-payment
An under-payment is any gap between what the marketplace should have paid you under your agreement and what actually landed in your bank account. It is usually not one dramatic mistake. It is a collection of small differences that look harmless inside a single settlement but add up over a quarter.
Common sources include:
- Commission or fee mismatch: a charge applied at a different rate or on a different base than your agreed terms.
- Return and RTO deductions: amounts clawed back for returns that were never received, were received and restocked, or were deducted twice.
- Missing payouts: delivered orders that never appear in any settlement.
- Shipping or weight-slab charges: fees based on a weight or dimension that differs from your catalogue.
- Unexplained adjustments: penalties, debit notes or reversals with no matching order reference.
Which of these you can claim depends on your seller agreement and the marketplace's current policy, so read both before you start.
Step 1: Rebuild the expected payout for each order
You cannot prove a shortfall without a number to compare against. For every order, calculate what you should have received: the selling price, minus the commission, fixed fees, shipping and other charges as per your agreed terms, adjusted for returns and any applicable tax collected at source.
Do not copy rates from a blog post, including this one. Take them from your seller agreement, the current rate card and any commercial addendum your account manager has shared. Rates, fee bases and tax treatment can change, so confirm the latest terms with the marketplace, and your tax adviser for GST or TCS treatment.
Keep the rate source next to the calculation. When a claim is challenged, being able to say which clause or rate card version you used matters.
Step 2: Compare against the settlement report and group the gaps
Match your expected payout to the settlement report line by line, using order ID or sub-order ID as the key. Orders present in your sales data but absent from settlements are your first list. Orders present in both with different amounts are your second.
Then label each gap by cause. A simple structure helps you decide who to talk to and what proof to attach:
| Gap type | What to check | Typical proof |
|---|---|---|
| Fee or commission difference | Rate applied vs agreed terms | Rate card, agreement clause, settlement line |
| Return deduction dispute | Was the item received, and in what condition? | Return status, warehouse receipt, images |
| Missing payout | Delivered but never settled | Delivery confirmation, order record |
| Shipping charge difference | Weight or slab applied vs catalogue | Product master data, charge breakdown |
| Unexplained adjustment | No order reference or reason | Debit note, ledger entry |
Grouping by cause also shows patterns. If most of your gap comes from one fee type, that is a process issue to raise with your account manager, not just a set of one-off claims.
Step 3: Build an evidence pack per claim
Claims are accepted faster when the reviewer does not need to ask follow-up questions. For each claim or batch of similar claims, include:
- Order and sub-order IDs, with dates of order, dispatch, delivery and return where relevant.
- The settlement report reference and the exact line you are disputing.
- Your expected calculation and the difference, in rupees.
- The contractual basis: agreement clause or rate card version.
- Supporting documents such as return receipt records, images, or delivery proof.
Keep one consistent template. Batching many orders with the same cause into one claim, with an annexure, is usually easier for both sides than raising hundreds of single-order tickets. Check the marketplace's seller support process to see whether it prefers batched or individual submissions.
Step 4: Raise claims inside the window and track them
Marketplaces generally set time limits for disputes and for return-related claims. These vary by marketplace and can change, so find the current window in your seller agreement, the seller support documentation or your account manager, and write the deadline against each case.
Track every claim with the following fields: claim ID, marketplace ticket number, amount claimed, date raised, deadline, status, amount recovered and reason for any rejection. Review open items weekly. Escalate cases that have gone quiet, and record rejections with the reason, because a rejected claim often tells you what extra evidence the next one needs.
This is where spreadsheets tend to break down: claims, settlements and returns sit in different files, and nobody knows which cases are still open. MarketplaceMetrics by Fundle is built to reconcile sales and settlements, check commissions and fees against agreed terms, and track returns and recovery cases in one place. Myntra Excel reports are reviewed today, and other marketplaces can be discussed for scope.
Step 5: Make it a routine, not a one-time clean-up
A one-off audit recovers old money, but under-payments keep recurring unless you check every cycle. Set a fixed rhythm:
- Every settlement: reconcile expected vs received and flag differences.
- Weekly: review open claims and approaching deadlines.
- Monthly: summarise recovered, pending and rejected amounts by cause, and share it with finance.
- Each time terms change: update your expected-payout logic and keep the old rate card for past periods.
Assign one owner for recovery, usually in finance or the marketplace operations team, with a clear handover to the ecommerce head for recurring root causes such as wrong catalogue weights.
Worked example
Illustrative example only; figures are not real results or marketplace rates.
A brand reconciles one settlement cycle. Expected payout from its agreed terms is ₹4,82,000, and the amount received is ₹4,69,500, a gap of ₹12,500. Grouping the gap by cause gives:
| Cause | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Commission applied above agreed terms | ₹4,200 |
| Return deduction applied twice | ₹3,100 |
| Shipping charge based on wrong weight slab | ₹2,700 |
| Delivered orders missing from settlement | ₹2,500 |
| Total gap | ₹12,500 |
The brand raises four batched claims, each with its own evidence pack and deadline, and logs them as open. Whatever is later credited or rejected is recorded against each line, so the monthly summary shows recovered and outstanding amounts.
Questions and answers
How do I know if the marketplace has under-paid me?
Compare the payout you should have received under your agreed terms with the settlement report, order by order. Differences in fees, return deductions, shipping charges or missing delivered orders indicate an under-payment. Without an expected-payout calculation, you only see totals, which hide the gaps.
How long do I have to raise a claim?
It depends on the marketplace and the type of claim, and policies change. Check your seller agreement, the seller support documentation or your account manager for the current dispute window, and record the deadline for each case as soon as you identify the shortfall.
What evidence should I attach to a claim?
Include order and sub-order IDs, the settlement line in dispute, your expected calculation, the agreement clause or rate card version, and supporting records such as delivery proof or return receipt details. Clear, order-level evidence reduces back-and-forth and rejections.
Can I do this in Excel, or do I need a tool?
Excel works for small volumes if you keep disciplined templates and a claims log. As orders, returns and settlement cycles grow, matching and tracking becomes error-prone. A tool such as MarketplaceMetrics helps once manual reconciliation and follow-ups start consuming significant time.