Your retailers are short-paying you on this season’s shipments.We build the system that gets it back.
Suppliers typically lose 5–7% of revenue to retailer deductions, per SPS Commerce, and only 20–30% of deductions ever get disputed. For a toy brand, this season’s deductions are arriving now, with 30 to 90 days to dispute each one.
The problem
It’s not one big bill. It’s a thousand small ones, and they all land at once.
Deductions never show up as a single alarming invoice. They land as hundreds of sub-$500 line items, easy to wave off, easy to write off as the cost of doing business. For toys and games it’s worse, because the deductions from holiday shipping arrive together, from November through the first quarter.
$500K–$700K on every $10M shipped
Lost to compliance deductions and chargebacks at 5–7% of revenue, per SPS Commerce. Trade and shortage deductions come on top.
Concentrated in a few months
For a holiday-weighted brand, a large share comes from one season’s shipments and lands in the same few months.
It compounds every year
Deductions that expire unchallenged this quarter don’t reset the leak. Next year’s holiday season starts from a worse number than this one did.
The real insult
Most of it is still winnable. Almost none of it gets fought, and the clock is shorter than you think.
You don’t need most deductions to be invalid to make this worth fixing. You need a fraction of them disputed properly, before the window closes, and right now almost nobody does that, especially in the months when holiday deductions pile up.
of deductions ever get disputed at all. The rest expire quietly inside the window.
Source · SPS Commerceaverage win rate on disputes industry-wide, once documentation exists.
Source · SPS Commercewin rate on well-documented first-time Walmart disputes.
Source · SPS CommerceSame leak. The only thing that changes is whether someone files the dispute before the window closes.
Why toys and games
Every retailer is its own rulebook, and one of them runs on a completely different system.
You’re running mass retail, club and warehouse, off-price and value, specialty toy, and Amazon 1P at once, each grading you differently, each with its own routing guide, label spec, and dispute portal.
Walmart
Mass~3% of COGS on OTIF misses.
Source · SPS CommerceCostco
ClubNo fixed OTIF percentage, but a genuinely different compliance system: three-way EDI matching plus seasonal pallet and end-cap display programs with their own chargeback category.
One template doesn’t fit
Each rulebook has its own reason codes, proof requirements and dispute deadline. A system set up for your retailers handles each on its own terms, including Costco’s display program as a separate chargeback category.
The solution
One screen. Every deduction, every season. Proof already attached.
A single queue pulls every deduction across all your retailers, sorted by what’s actually worth recovering. Beside each one, the proof is already there (PO, POD, label, ASN, pallet photo) with a plain verdict: worth disputing, here’s the filing, send it.
- Proof for each claim assembled automatically
- Invalid charges stop expiring inside the window
- Repeating codes surface, so root causes get fixed
- Lives inside your ERP, EDI and 3PL stack
How it works
From leak to recovery in three moves
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01Free
We map your leak.
Tell us your retailers and revenue. We map where you’re losing money and estimate what’s recoverable, in writing, while this season’s dispute windows are still open.
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02
We build it around your shelf.
A system tuned to your exact retailer mix, including Costco’s display program if you run one, plugged into your stack. We’ll give you a timeline once we’ve seen your mix, starting with your highest-volume retailers.
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03
You recover, and own it.
Every recovered dollar stays with you. No per-dispute fee, no cut. The system is yours (code, data, and roadmap), protecting this season and every one after it.
Build vs rent
Own the system. Keep all of the recovery.
We’ll say it plainly: renting a platform is the right move for small, simple brands. Owning wins once your volume and channel complexity are real, which, if you’re here, they probably are.
Rent a platform or recovery firm
- Cost shape
- Platforms: a subscription that renews. Recovery firms: a 25–30% commission on every dollar they recover.
- Fit
- Built for the average brand
- Costco display
- Depends on how the platform is set up
- Ownership
- Subscription, lock-in, your data in their cloud
- Where it lives
- Another portal to log into
Build it with Boomdevs
Recommended at scale- Cost shape
- Build once. It’s yours, and adding a retailer doesn’t add a new bill.
- Fit
- Built for your exact retailer mix
- Costco display
- Modeled as its own chargeback category
- Ownership
- You own the code, data, and roadmap
- Where it lives
- Inside your existing stack
On $1M recovered in a year, that’s what a recovery firm’s 25–30% contingency fee costs, every year, for as long as you keep using them. Own the system instead, and it stays with you.
We’ve automated messes like this before
Complex operations, made simple
Deductions are a cross-system, manual, money-slipping-through-the-cracks problem. Our closest proof: Fulfillit.io, a 3PL platform for Amazon FBA sellers that we automated end to end.
“Boomdevs delivered exactly what we needed and fast. They helped us automate our entire fulfillment workflow and made a really complex platform feel simple and solid. Couldn’t have launched without them.”
“Boomdevs came in and built out key parts of our platform. It was a big job, but they handled it with care and consistency. Their work made it possible for us to scale up.”
“Boomdevs delivered exactly what we needed right on time. The new booking system has made our day-to-day smoother, and their team was easy to work with the whole way through.”
Who it’s for
Built for mid-market toy and game brands
This fits best for brands that look like this:
- $40M to $150M in wholesale revenue
- Selling into two or more of: mass retail, club/warehouse, off-price/value, specialty toy, or Amazon 1P
- Meaningful holiday-quarter sales concentration
- A finance or AR team losing real hours to retailer portals, worst when holiday deductions arrive
Your data stays yours
Finance data is sensitive. Here’s exactly how we handle it, from the free teardown through to the build.
FAQ
Questions finance teams ask first
How much are toy and game brands really losing?
SPS Commerce’s published data puts deductions at 5–7% of revenue, before trade and shortage deductions. For a holiday-weighted brand, a large share comes from one season’s shipments and arrives from November through the first quarter.
We already have an ERP and a 3PL. Why isn’t that enough?
Deductions live in retailer portals, while the proof that beats them (PODs, ASN logs, label evidence, pallet photos) is scattered across your ERP, EDI, and 3PL. Nothing connects them by default, and in the busiest months nobody has time to connect it manually either.
Isn’t a tool like SPS Revenue Recovery simpler than building?
Sometimes, and we’ll tell you when. Building wins when your retailer mix is unusual, when a Costco display program needs its own handling, or when subscription fees or recovery-firm commissions are eating into what you recover.
How long until it’s working?
We start with your highest-volume retailers and give you a timeline once we’ve seen your mix. Meanwhile, the audit covers this season’s deductions while their dispute windows are open, and the build protects next season.
Does it prevent deductions or just recover them?
Both. Recovery gets this quarter’s money back. The root-cause view stops the same label, carrier, or display error from repeating next season.
Do we really keep 100% of recovery?
Yes. No per-dispute fee and no cut. You paid to build it, so the dollars it claws back are entirely yours.
See what’s likely never owed, while this season’s dispute windows are open
Get a written teardown before you commit to anything
Tell us your retailers and revenue. We’ll send back where you’re likely leaking and what’s recoverable across your mix. Read it in two minutes. If you want to go further, we talk. If not, you’ve still got a clearer number than you had this morning.
We’ll only use this to build your teardown. No spam.
