Returns & refunds

Open Sales → Returns and select the return you want to handle. Check the selected store, the original order, the requested items, and the customer's reason before making a decision.

Approval, return shipping, physical receipt, and refunding are separate tasks. Approving a return does not send money, and saving a refund amount does not issue a refund. Follow the action and result shown on the return rather than using its status alone as proof that goods arrived or money reached the customer.

Review and approve the request

In Customer approval, review the requested items and any approval already published to the customer.

1. Choose Approve item or Do not approve item for every item.
2. For an approved item, enter the approved quantity and refund amount, then choose Customer must return all approved units or Customer may keep all approved units. Different items can have different choices; units within one item cannot be split between return and keep.
3. Enter the required customer-facing item explanation for refusals, reduced quantities, reduced comparable amounts, or cases where a comparison is unavailable. Keep private team notes out of these explanations.
4. Check the Total approved refund and any supported breakdown. The form does not decide your refund policy or calculate an entitlement for you.
5. Complete Customer-facing explanation for this approval when this first approval differs from comparable requested facts. This is separate from the item explanations and is shown to the customer; keep internal notes out.
6. Choose Review and approve return, review the customer-facing decision, then Confirm first approval.

Successful first approval moves the return from Requested to Approved and queues its approval notification. It does not issue a refund. If an existing complete approval is still correct, the page may instead offer Review approval using current revision to confirm it unchanged.

Permission to keep an item is a commitment to the customer. Once published, a later reduction, refusal, or cancellation cannot take that permission back. Editing an unpublished form has not yet made that commitment.

For later changes, review Publish a revised approval, enter the required Customer-facing explanation for this approval, and use Review revised publication → Publish revised approval. The explanation is required for every replacement publication. This updates the published decision; it does not change the return's status, send a new approval email, or move money. Review and communicate the change with the customer separately. If approved items, quantities, or the physical return requirement changed, confirm return shipping instructions again. The customer is told to wait until you confirm instructions for that selection.

New approval amount entry currently supports USD. History in other currencies remains readable; contact support if the required approval controls are unavailable.

Decline or cancel a return

If no items are approved, use the separate Mark rejected action while the return is Requested. The return's Internal notes are used as the customer's decline reason, so review that text before rejecting.

Use only the cancellation action offered for the current return. Cancellation is available before receipt, subject to the current return and order state. Rejected and Cancelled are terminal return states. Cancellation does not withdraw a published keep permission or issue a refund.

Arrange shipping for items that must come back

For approved items that require a physical return:

1. Confirm who pays the return postage and enter the actual return destination and customer-safe instructions. Do not assume the original delivery address or a saved store address is the correct destination.
2. Choose Review instructions, check the details and approved items, then Confirm instructions.
3. Give the customer usable shipping instructions and, when your store pays, arrange the prepaid postage separately before asking them to send anything.

Confirming instructions does not buy a label or send an email. It also does not approve the return, record an arrival, or issue a refund. A return where the customer may keep every approved item does not need return shipping.

Receive and inspect the goods

Record an arrival only after the goods actually reach you. For items required back under the current approval:

1. Move the return to In transit; this is required before ordinary receipt.
2. In Exact physical arrivals, select Receive required-back goods.
3. Inspect each displayed quantity and choose Resellable, Damaged, or Write off. Add private inspection notes if useful.
4. Enter the required Private operator reason.
5. Choose Review physical action, check the quantities and conditions, then Confirm physical action.

The ordinary receipt records the required goods, applies eligible restocking once, moves the return to Received, and queues its receipt notification. It does not issue a refund. Check the recorded result for Restocked or the reason stock was not restored; see Stock levels.

This form handles the displayed whole-line quantities together. It does not support splitting those quantities across conditions or additional parcels. Contact support if the actual arrival does not match the offered receipt. Never record items the customer was allowed to keep as received just to advance the return.

Older returns may show the earlier per-item intake form instead. Inspect the actual goods, enter their Condition and Operator reason, and review the receipt action that page offers. Do not use a status change as a substitute for inspection.

Goods shipped before a later keep decision may have a separate Record protected waived-parcel arrival action. Use it only for actual arrivals with the required shipment, arrival, and inspection evidence. It records the arrival and eligible restocking without changing the return's status, refund, or shipping instructions. It does not send a return-status email or reopen a closed return.

Prepare the refund amount

Use the Refund section to prepare the private refund draft separately from the customer-facing approval.

1. Enter Draft refund amount. Max fills the available cap; it does not issue money or choose the amount you should approve.
2. For a positive refund, Allocate across returned items. You can use Distribute to prepare a split, then review every amount. The allocations must add up to the draft amount.
3. Choose Save draft amount.

The return refund is capped by the eligible returned-item amount, attributed tax, and the order's remaining refundable balance across returns. Outbound shipping is excluded from this refund. Use the separate Sales shipping-refund controls when available. Follow the return's shipping-refund message or contact support if they are unavailable.

Saving changes neither money nor customer notifications. Save or discard any unsaved amount or allocation changes before submitting. Once processing starts, the submitted amount is locked.

For the current approval flow, the saved refund must match the published approved total before you issue it. Saving a different draft or choosing Max does not update the approval. Resolve a mismatch by reviewing the approval and draft separately before proceeding.

Issue the refund and check the result

For an eligible received and inspected return with a saved positive refund:

1. Select Issue refund of [amount] in the Refund section.
2. Review the amount and original payment-method destination.
3. Confirm Issue [amount] refund.
4. Check the return's current refund result after submission.

If the saved amount changed before confirmation, reload the return and review it again. A successful submission or a processing message alone does not mean the refund succeeded. The return completes only after the refund is confirmed.

If an approved return lets the customer keep the goods but has a positive refund and no available Issue refund action, contact support. Do not record a false physical receipt to unlock a refund.

If a confirmed refund is later reversed

A completed return can later show Refund reversed — reimbursement required. The completed status records the earlier outcome; it does not settle the new amount owed. Follow the refund-exception controls or contact support. Recording an alternative reimbursement attests to money already delivered to the customer; it does not send money. Never submit another payment while the provider outcome is uncertain.

Complete a genuine zero-cash return

Entering zero in the draft is not enough to complete a return. The currently published approval and saved draft must both support a genuine zero-cash outcome, and any required-back goods must have their real receipt recorded.

When Complete without a cash refund is available, enter the Private completion reason, choose Review zero-cash completion, review the result, then Confirm zero-cash completion. If every approved item may be kept, this can complete without inventing a physical receipt.

This action sends no money, changes no stock, records no new arrival, and sends no completion email. Tell the customer the outcome separately. Do not use it to stand in for a positive refund handled elsewhere, a store credit, or an exchange. Older returns can offer different no-money controls; use only the action that the current return supports.

Notifications and private notes

First approval, ordinary receipt, and a confirmed positive refund queue their corresponding customer notifications. A queued notification does not confirm inbox delivery. Revised approvals, shipping instruction confirmations, In transit, cancellation, and zero-cash completion do not send those notifications automatically.

Inspection notes and private operator/completion reasons stay private. Treat customer-facing approval explanations as messages to the customer. Keep the Internal notes rejection exception in mind: those notes are sent as the decline reason when you reject a request.

Who can do this

Any team member can view returns. Owners and Admins can operate them; Staff need the Returns permission group. Recording an alternative reimbursement requires an Owner or Admin, or Staff with both Returns and Manual payments, and the person recording it must hold the remediation case. See Team & permissions.

Related

• Managing orders — whole-order cancellation before handoff
• Fulfillment — shipments and physical handoff
• Stock levels & adjustments — receiving and restocking
• Team & permissions — delegating returns to Staff