Fulfillment

Rolling Reserve

A percentage of your payment volume that your processor holds back for a period (often 120 days) as protection against chargebacks and refunds.

A rolling reserve is a percentage of your payment volume that a processor (Stripe, Shopify Payments, PayPal) holds back for a defined period — typically 120 days. It's risk protection: if chargebacks hit, the processor uses the reserve to cover them without pulling from your bank account.

Rolling reserves are applied to higher-risk merchants: new accounts, accounts in risk categories (supplements, weight loss, CBD), or accounts with elevated chargeback rates. A 10% rolling reserve on a 120-day window means that on any given day, you have 40 days of 10%-of-revenue held — that's real working capital locked up.

Mitigating reserves: track clean for 3-6 months; negotiate with the processor at the first review window; offer volume commitments; maintain chargeback rate well under 0.5%.

Related terms in Fulfillment
3PL
Third-Party Logistics — an external warehouse that stores, picks, packs, and ships your inventory for a per-unit fee. The step between dropshipping and running your own warehouse.
AliExpress
Alibaba's B2C marketplace of Chinese sellers — the default starting supplier for most new dropshippers. Low MOQs, low prices, long shipping times.
Chargeback
A payment reversal initiated by the customer via their bank. Each chargeback is a full refund plus a $15-$25 fee — and too many will get your payment processor shut down.
CJ Dropshipping
A dropshipping agent that sources, stocks, and ships products — typically from China with US or EU warehouse options. Faster and more branded than raw AliExpress.
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