The soft descriptor is how your charge presents itself on the buyer's statement. It usually has few characters and is the only clue the person will have, weeks later, to remember what they bought.

When the descriptor shows a holding company's legal name, an acronym, or an intermediary's name, the buyer doesn't recognize it, assumes fraud, and calls the bank. That turns into a chargeback for an unrecognized transaction, which is the most common category and the easiest to avoid.

The fix is cheap: use the brand name the buyer saw on the sales page and, if it fits, a support phone number or domain.