Throughout its lifetime, a return is shifted throughout some (or all) of these statuses:

Pending return

When the status of a return is Pending, this means that the return has been submitted by the customer through the return portal and is waiting for your approval.

Approved return

When the status of a return is Approved, this means that you have approved the return in the dashboard (or auto-approved, depending on your settings) and no prepaid label is enabled for this return. Depending on your settings this could also mean that a prepaid automatic label is sent out to the customer along with the Approved email.

Shipped return

This means that you have marked the return as shipped, usually triggered manually before approving. If you have Auto-Tracking enabled, then this status would be automatically assigned based on carrier updates.

Received return

A received return means that you have set the status of the return to notify the customer or the staff that this package has been received. Usually, a check is involved before finalizing the return (approving or rejecting). If you have Auto-Tracking enabled, then this status would be automatically assigned based on carrier updates.

Resolved return

This is one of the final stages/statuses of a return, meaning that a resolution has been found and you have issued a refund or an exchange.

Rejected return

Self-explanatory, right? This is the status of a return that you have found to be ineligible.

You can search for returns based on the following parameters:

Turn your detective skills on and find out more details about a return! You can do that by heading over from your Dashboard to the Returns section. The Manage column is the last column of a return row. Pressing the Edit button will open up the details section. Ready to explore! 🔍

A customer initiates the return process and selects the desired outcome of the return. Based on the settings you have set up in your Dashboard, it can either be auto-approved or it will be in Pending status, which means that you will have to manually approve it based on the information you have received and your Return Policy.

This is how a fresh return would look like. After receiving it, it's time to review all of the details. What interests us is the resolution the customer chose and and any additional details, such as photos (if any). We now make a decision based on all of the information we have.

When a return arrives, your customer is usually greeted with the Pending Email Template that we discussed earlier in this article. More on email notifications here.

Now is the time to update the status after you have reviewed all of the details. Based on this, you can either Approve, Reject, or change the status based on your assessment of the return. You can change the status of a return by pressing on the current status which will prompt a drop-down menu and offer you the previously mentioned available selections.

So, what happens when you change the status? This depends on the status you choose, of course. E.g. if you approve a return and if you have a prepaid label integration set up, a label will be generated and sent along with the Approved Email Template (Automatic Prepaid Label) that you have set up under Notifications -> Customer emails.

If you reject a return, this will also send an email to the customer (remember, Rejected Email Template), along with the text you have previously entered.

Pro-Tip: Edit and view the email templates before making this live so you will be ready and set to Rich Return! You may easily find this when heading over from your Dashboard -> Notifications -> Customer emails. It's very important to communicate to customers and this feature is a game-changer!

Head over to Notifications -> Staff emails. Make sure to fill in all the required information, such as the email address where you'd like to be contacted.

Enable the Return contact email and enter your best support email there.

We recommend enabling Error notifications as well so that you're in the know if any label generation errors occur. Contact us immediately so we can make sure that this gets resolved as soon as possible.

So, this is the place where you can add staff notes. Super helpful to communicate with your staff and making the life of a return easier!

You can turn your writing skills on and present the perfect email template to your customers when you search for it under Notifications -> Customer emails.

This is it!

Selecting an email from the dropdown menu will show you the email you have set up for that particular template. Make sure to include information that you think would be valuable to your customers when they, e.g. initiate a return (Pending) or have a return approved.

The only email template with multiple variations is the Approved-Email template. Only one of these is sent out based on the scenario of the return:

At the end of the Manage section of a return, there is a column named Products. This is certainly the right place to look at if you want to take a look at which products your customer is trying to return. Explained with a screenshot below.

You know the drill, right? A picture's worth a thousand words? I know, you're probably getting tired but it is what it is. I have no other clever phrases, at least not that I can think of right now.

This can be found, again, in the Manage section for each return. Make sure to check it out and find out the label and restocking fees of a return!

Important: We will display all related costs to a return. If you're refunding or issuing store credit, all related fees will be calculated and deducted before the creation of the refund or store credit. ⬇️

You can change the e-mail address (or physical address) of a customer, you guessed it, in the Manage section next to a return.

Here's a picture (or two) describing the process:

This is a good question. Depending on whether you have this feature included in your plan or not, this is an answer that you just might be interested in. The feature I am rambling about right now is the Photo Add-On. I've neatly included a link for you to check out.

In a few words, sometimes you need photos as proof for customers, and based on this you can make the final call on the return - whether it would be eligible or not. You can even make this optional or non-negotiable, or even include conditions for certain returns based on Advanced Rules!

This can be found under the, and even I am getting tired of it, the Manage section. Just press the Show Photos button under Customer Photos and you'll be entering a whole new magical world of customer photos - which in turn will provide you with the information you need to judge the return! Sweet! 🤩

You can see each label for each individual return when you head over to the Manage section of a return. Here are some screenshots to complement these words:

There's a Track shipment that will lead you straight to the tracking portal.

We've linked several articles below related to common errors that can occur while using Shippo, EasyPost and ShipStation integrations with your preferred carriers.

Keep in mind that if you do not see your error below you can still contact our support. They work tirelessly 24/7 and will be more than happy to ensure that the problem has been solved!

Aaaand we're back. I mean, the Manage section is back. We've missed her. Here's a picture of exactly where you can upload a prepaid label in case this is needed.

Those are the right spots, yes.

So, we figured that out. Now, when will this be sent to the customer? This is sent out to the customer instead of the regular Approved-Email once you approve the return in the dashboard. This email will trigger if a manually uploaded return label is present. The email template in this case is Approved Return (Manually Uploaded Prepaid Label). If you have two labels or you have a second document uploaded there as well, make sure to include the following dynamic variable in your email: {MANUAL_LABEL_SECOND_DOWNLOAD_LINK}. That way your customers will get links to both documents.

Pro-Tip: Make sure to take a look at the dynamic variables, under the Email section. You can find this when you head over from your Dashboard -> Notifications -> Customer emails -> Email personalization. Customize your emails and include variables to make sure your customers do not miss any information in their emails!

Variables all the way!

First of all, we have to enable the option to be able to be selected by a customer. This can be done when heading over from our Dashboard -> Configuration -> Exchanges.

Note: Variant Exchanges and Exchange Orders are part of the Pro and Premium Plan respectively so make sure that this feature is under the subscription you are currently on! We also support Advanced Exchanges and Store-wide Exchanges.

Next: We press Manage and we see a wild Exchange appear! (hope you've watched Pokemon!)

We see that we have 2 options here. We either create an Exchange-Order mark it as paid based on the exchange items in this return or we create a Draft-Order that can be edited afterward based on the exchange-items in this return. The choice is yours, you have been warned.

Either way you choose to go, know that we will always be by your side. A bit cheesy, but that's the mood. Jokes aside, you will be prompted with a "success" message and know you will have the option to view the exchange or draft order on Shopify. Here's how that would look:

And voila, the exchange should be processed. The day has been saved. Make sure to thank me on our support email! 😉

It's very easy to process refunds with Rich Returns.

First of all, make sure that this is an available options for your customers during the returns process. Head over to Configuration -> Returns -> Return options and check the box next to the Refund option.

Now, once our refund lands it should look similarly to this one below.

We now have two options:

Let's go ahead and process the refund in Rich Returns.

Our refund item will be selected by default (if there are multiple items with different resolutions) and all fees will be incorporated in the calculation. Cool, right?

You can also automate Refunds. Read more about it here.

We've come to the store credit. And yes, it's a similar process to the previously explained ones. Store credit is also being handled inside Shopify at this moment. Here's what it would look like should you be dealing with such a situation:

By pressing the redlined button above you will be redirected to the Shopify Gift-Card dialog where you will be able to quickly process this and wrap it up (yeah, I am still talking about a 🎁).

Have a question that you can't find here? Or maybe you have a helpful idea on what else we could include in this article? Feel free to message us over at [email protected]. We will be more than happy to hear you out! 👂🏻