In exchanges, there's often a price difference between the original item and the new item, whether in a product exchange or variant exchange. ReturnGO automates the calculation of this price difference and enables you to charge or refund the difference.
Handling Price Differences
When there’s a price difference in an exchange, you can charge customers the difference in the case of a more expensive item and refund them the difference if it’s a cheaper item.
Refunding for Cheaper Items
If a customer exchanges for a cheaper item, you can issue a refund (via the original payment method, store credit, or gift card) for the price difference. This is handled in the RMA card, based on your refund settings.
Charging for More Expensive Items
If a customer exchanges for a more expensive product or variant, they’ll receive an automated invoice for the remaining price difference after the exchange is approved.
When using Instant Exchanges, the price difference is automatically charged to the card that was provided during the authorization process.
Setting Whether to Refund or Charge for Price Differences
For each exchange policy rule, you can specify whether you want to charge and refund price differences and set the refund method.
To configure these settings:
- Go to Settings > Resolutions.
- Open the Exchange Resolutions section.
- Select the exchange resolution you want to configure.
5. Toggle whether you want to refund price differences for cheaper items, and whether you want to charge price differences for more expensive items.
6. Set the refund method for price difference refunds.
7. Click the save icon.
Price Difference Sources
Price differences between the original item and the replacement item can be calculated based on different sources.
Understanding these sources is essential for accurately determining price adjustments during exchanges.
Prices can be compared using the following sources:
1. Paid Price- When using the paid price as the reference, price differences are calculated based on the actual amount that the customer paid for the original item.
- The catalog price represents the listed price of the item in the product catalog. The catalog price can be referenced at two different points:
- Catalog Price at Time of RMA: This calculates price differences based on the catalog price at the time of initiating the exchange.
- Catalog Price at Time of Purchase: This calculates price differences based on the catalog price at the time of the original purchase.
Setting the Price Difference Source
To set the source price for price difference calculations:
- Go to Settings > Store Settings.
- Open the Exchanges section.
4. Click the save icon.
Here are examples for each of the price source options:
Paid Price- Scenario: A customer purchases a dress for $80.
- Exchange: The customer requests an exchange for a different dress priced at $100.
- Calculation: Using the paid price as the reference, the price difference is based on the actual amount paid by the customer for the original dress ($80).
- Price Difference: $100 (new item price) - $80 (paid price) = $20
- Result: The customer would be charged an additional $20 for the higher-priced replacement dress.
- Scenario: A customer purchases a dress at a catalog price of $80.
- Exchange: The customer requests an exchange for a different dress that costs $100. By the time the customer received the dress and decided to exchange it, the catalog price of the original item had changed to $90.
- Calculation: Using the catalog price at the time of initiating the exchange ($90) as the reference, the price difference would be $10.
- Price Difference: $100 (new item price) - $90 (catalog price at time of RMA) = $10
- Result: The customer would be charged an additional $10 for the higher-priced replacement dress.
- Scenario: A customer purchases a dress for $80.
- Exchange: The customer requests an exchange for a different dress that costs $100. By the time the customer received the dress and decided to exchange it, the catalog price of the original item had changed to $90.
- Calculation: Using the catalog price at the time of the original purchase ($80) as the reference, the price difference would be $20.
- Price Difference: $100 (new item price) - $80 (catalog price at time of purchase) = $20
- Result: The customer would be charged an additional $20 for the higher-priced replacement dress.
Free Exchange Range
The free exchange range sets the upper and lower price thresholds where customers can exchange items without paying any cost differences. Exchanges within this range are one-for-one exchanges, with any price differences being charged and refunded only beyond this range.
For example, with a free exchange range of 80%-120%, on a $100 original purchase, the customer could exchange for any replacement item priced from $80-$120 with no charges or refunds. In this same example, if the customer exchanged for an item that cost $140, they would only have to pay the $20 that went beyond the free exchange range.
If you want all exchanges with any price difference to be calculated and charged/refunded, set the free range to the default (100%-100%). This means that only exchanges to an item of the exact same price are free, and anything with even a $1 difference would lead to a charge or refund.
Note: Most stores use the default setting of 100%-100%.
To set your free exchange range:
1. Go to Settings > Resolutions.
2. Open the Exchange Resolutions section.
3. Select the exchange resolution you want to configure.
4. Open the Pricing sub-section.
5. Set the free exchange range. The default is 100%-100%.
6. Click on the save icon to save your changes.
Changes to New Item’s Price
It is possible that the price of the replacement item chosen by the customer may change between when they initially request the exchange and when the exchange order is released. You can control whether these price changes are accounted for or ignored.
The system can be configured to handle these price changes in two ways:
- Follow the original request
- Ignores any pricing updates made to the new item between the time of the exchange request and the exchange order being released.
- Override the original request
- Takes into account any price changes made to the new item between the time of the exchange request and the exchange order being released.
Here are examples of the calculations based on changes to the new item’s price:
Follow the original request
- Scenario: A customer returns a sweater that they paid $60 for, for a t-shirt that costs $50.
- Price Changes: By the time the exchange order is released, the price of the sweater increased to $70.
- Calculation: The system ignores the price change and exchanges the original item based on the price at the time of request ($60).
- Price Difference: Original price $60 - exchange item price $50 = $10 difference
- Result: The customer gets a $10 refund for the price difference between the original price of the sweater ($60) and the price of the t-shirt ($50).
Override the original request
- Scenario: A customer returns a sweater that they paid $60 for, for a t-shirt that costs $50.
- Price Changes: By the time the exchange order is released, the price of the sweater increased to $70.
- Calculation: The system overrides the item price and uses the new $70 price of the sweater for the price difference calculation.
- Price Difference: New price $70 - exchange item price $50 = $20 difference
- Result: The customer gets a $20 refund for the price difference between the current price of the sweater ($70) and the price of the t-shirt ($50).
To configure how you want the system to treat changes to the new item’s price:
- Go to Settings > Store Settings.
- Open the Exchanges section.
- 3. Select the way you want the system to handle changes to the new item’s price.
4. Click on the save icon to save your changes.