Costs and pricing
Part of How to record ecommerce conversion budget inputs
Conversion changes: the work build quotes leave out
Ecommerce conversion hidden costs sit outside the build quote: seven merchant tasks a store change creates, what triggers each and the evidence to keep.
What to take away
- Ecommerce conversion hidden costs include copy substantiation review, checkout disclosure updates, accessibility retest, refund reconciliation and chargeback evidence packs.
- Each row needs source, currency, VAT basis, unit, quantity, period and owner before it joins the total.
- Rates differ by store and supplier, so each one comes from written quotations, timesheets, payroll records and your VAT adviser.
- Order value is not retained cash. A placed order can be cancelled, returned, refunded or disputed.
- Budget copy substantiation and refund reconciliation first if you have room for only two new lines.
The tasks that miss the build quote
Quotes price the build, the design and the platform work. The lines below fall on the merchant, because a rule, a regulator or a customer remedy creates them.
Record each on its own row of a blank store-change budget so a missing rate keeps the total open instead of hiding inside a contingency figure.
| Cost line | What creates it | Evidence to keep |
|---|---|---|
| Copy substantiation review | Claims, prices and offers on product pages | Dated copy, source per claim, reviewer sign-off |
| Checkout disclosure update | Mandatory pre-contract information for distance sales | Updated template, legal review note, publish date |
| Accessibility retest | Labels, error handling and payment inputs | Test script, assistive-technology results, fixes log |
| Refund reconciliation | Returns, cancellations and withdrawals after order placement | Refund ledger, hours per period, exception list |
| Chargeback evidence pack | Disputed card payments and representment | Order record, delivery proof, acquirer notice |
| Consent and measurement record | Cookies, pixels and cart recovery emails | Consent log, data inventory, deletion evidence |
| Rollback and data export | Reverting a journey or ending a supplier arrangement | Restore test, export definition, deletion confirmation |
Example: one completed budget row
One completed budget row
- Cost line
- Copy substantiation review, product pages
- Source
- Reviewer quotation plus internal timesheet
- Currency
- GBP
- VAT basis
- Exclusive of VAT, treatment confirmed by an adviser
- Unit
- Hours
- Quantity
- 9
- Period
- One-off, September 2026
- Owner
- Ecommerce manager
Those entries are illustrative values for the format, not market rates. Quantity and owner come from your own plan. The rate cell stays open until a quotation or timesheet fills it.
Page approval and copy substantiation
Rewriting a product page means re-evidencing every claim, price statement and comparison. The ASA advertising codes, for online shops the CAP Code, require claims to be substantiated before publication, so that review happens before the page goes live. Budget reviewer hours and legal sign-off as two separate lines.
Page approval evidence checklist
- Current product information
- Substantiation and rights
- Copy and design approval
- Warnings and traceability
- Withdrawal work
- Owner time and external review
A build supplier can produce the page, but the advertiser carries the substantiation duty. That is why this line rarely appears in a build quote.
Post-checkout states and disputed payments
A placed order is not cash. It can sit unfulfilled, be cancelled, returned inside the cancellation window, refunded or disputed. The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 set the pre-contract disclosures that shape cancellation and returns, and gaps there feed refund workload.
Order state transitions
- Placed order
- Unfulfilled
- Cancelled
- Returned
- Refunded
- Disputed
Chargebacks add an evidence pack plus any acquirer dispute fee you must source from your merchant agreement. Ask the supplier contract questions who carries remediation cost when the new journey lifts disputes.
Accessibility retesting and consent records
An automated scan is the cheapest line and the least useful. WCAG 2.2 covers labels, error handling and input design, and level AA is the usual target, so retesting needs a knowledgeable reviewer working through payment, cancellation and support paths. Manual passes cost more per hour and find the faults that stop a payment.
Cart recovery emails, cookies and pixels can engage PECR and UK GDPR requirements, depending on their use. Check the ICO's guidance and keep records of consent, purpose, retention and deletion. Add reconciliation hours for refused, blocked and unmatched data.
Where to source each rate instead of guessing
Draw rates from written supplier quotations, timesheets, your payroll cost per hour, the acquirer fee schedule in your merchant agreement and the VAT adviser note on treatment. HMRC's VAT Notice 700, The VAT Guide, is the general reference your adviser starts from for the VAT basis. Where a source is missing, leave that row open rather than estimating.
Order value is not incremental contribution
Observation, attribution and causal effect are three different claims about one change. If you commission attribution or causal analysis, record the review and uncertainty-reporting work as separate budget lines; do not treat extra order value as money the change earned.
Which omitted costs to budget first
- Copy substantiation review, because it blocks publication and costs least before the page goes live.
- Refund and cancellation reconciliation, since a journey change moves returns volume rather than removing it.
- Accessibility retest on payment and error states, where a failed step loses a completed order.
- Chargeback evidence packs and acquirer dispute fees, which arrive months after launch.
- Consent and measurement records, which carry ongoing deletion and reconciliation hours.
Common questions
What has to be recorded on each cost row?
Source, currency, VAT basis, unit, quantity, period and owner. If one field is unknown, leave the row open rather than estimating it.
Why is order value not retained cash?
A placed order can be unfulfilled, cancelled, returned, refunded or disputed. Only the settled remainder reaches the bank.
How do I set an incident or dispute reserve?
From your acquirer fee schedule and the applicable card scheme rules, such as the Visa Core Rules or the Mastercard Chargeback Guide, using a buyer-approved method. Not from a percentage borrowed from another merchant.
Which line do merchants miss most often?
Copy substantiation and refund reconciliation. Both sit with the merchant, and neither appears on a build quote.
