Holiday sales feel great. Holiday returns don’t. The weeks after Black Friday through January generate a tidal wave of merchandise returns—and with it, a spike in excessive defectives, RTVs, price-variance disputes, OTIF-related claims, and post-audit deductions that quietly erode supplier margins.

Black Friday is a sales rocket… and a chargeback magnet. When promo calendars compress, orders surge, and fulfillment windows shrink, even well-run suppliers see OTIF, shortage, labeling, and promo-settlement deductions pile up fast.

Q4 is loud. Promotions stack, shipment windows tighten, and returns surge. That’s when “little” problems—late trucks, label mismatches, muddled price files—turn into OTIF penalties, SQEP/operational chargebacks, price-variance disputes, and post-audit claims that erode your profit just as you’re trying to close the year.