Returns & refunds

When a customer asks to send something back, it becomes a return under Returns in the admin. You work it through a short status lifecycle: approve the request, receive the items (resellable ones go back into stock), set a refund, and complete it — which issues the refund and emails the customer.

The return lifecycle

A return's status tracks where it is. It moves forward one step at a time and only offers the valid next steps:

You can reject a request while it's still Requested, and cancel a return at any point before it's received. Completed, Rejected, and Cancelled are final — there's no moving a return back out of them.

Approving or rejecting a request

Open a return to see the items, the customer's reason, and the order it came from. From there:

• Approve it to let the return proceed. The customer gets an email that their return is approved.
• Reject it to decline. The customer gets a decline email; the note you leave on the return is used as the reason, so write it for the customer.

Receiving the items

When the package arrives, mark the return Received. Any items received in resellable condition go back into available stock automatically, so they can sell again (see Stock levels). Items in other conditions aren't restocked — adjust those by hand if you decide to keep them.

litecommerce doesn't generate return shipping labels yet, so arrange the return shipment with your customer the way you normally would.

Setting the refund

Each return has a refund amount — the cash you'll send back when you complete it. Enter any amount from 0 up to the cap:

• The cap is what the customer paid for the returned items: their price plus the share of order tax attributed to them. It can't exceed what's left of the order's total across all of its returns. Max fills the full cap in one click.
• Enter less than the cap to keep a restocking fee or issue a partial refund.
• Enter 0 to close the return without paying anything back — for example when a restocking fee covers the whole amount, or you've already handled it another way.

The refund isn't sent when you type the amount — it's issued when you mark the return Completed. Until then you can adjust it freely. Once the return is Completed (or Rejected or Cancelled) the amount is frozen, since the money may already have moved.

Completing the return

Marking a return Completed issues the refund to the customer's original payment method and emails them a confirmation with the amount. If you set the refund to 0, the return completes without sending any money — and without that email, so let the customer know yourself.

If a refund can't be processed, the return shows a failed refund note so you can follow it up — completing the return is recorded either way.

What the customer sees

Customers are emailed at the key moments — when their request comes in, when you approve it, when you mark it received, and a refund confirmation when you complete it with a refund. Declined requests get a decline email with your reason. The in-transit and cancelled steps — and a completion with no refund — don't email the customer.

Internal notes

Every return has an internal notes field — a private scratchpad for your team that the customer never sees, except that a rejection note is sent to the customer as the decline reason. Use it to record condition, decisions, or anything your team needs to remember.

Who can do this

Any team member can view returns. Owners and Admins can operate them — approve, receive, complete, set refunds, and edit notes. You can delegate returns to Staff by granting the Returns permission group (see Team & permissions).

Related

• Managing orders — the order a return came from
• Stock levels & adjustments — how received items restock
• Team & permissions — delegating returns to Staff
• Audit log — a record of who changed what