Product exchange is an exchange resolution that enables customers to exchange a product for another product altogether.
This article applies to one-for-one product exchanges. To learn more about the new and improved product exchange flow, please read the Product Exchange (Any to Any) article for more details.
What is Product Exchange?
The product exchange feature enables customers to request an exchange for another product.
ReturnGO automatically calculates any price difference between the original product and the new one, and either sends the customer an invoice or issues a refund or store credit for the difference.
Requirements
This feature is available as an add-on.
How do Product Exchanges Work?
When a customer wants to exchange a product for another product, they can search for the new product they want and select a specific variant of it.
When you’ve approved the exchange request, a draft exchange order is automatically created in your eCommerce store (i.e Shopify).
Once any price differences have been settled, you can manually or automatically release the exchange, and the draft order will become a regular order for you to fulfill.
How to Configure Product Exchange
There are many settings that you can configure to manage how product exchanges will work in your returns process. The default settings work in most cases.
To configure product exchanges:
- Go to Settings > Resolutions.
- Open the Exchange Resolutions section.
- Click on a PRODUCT EXCHANGE resolution.
4. Open the Details section to edit it.
5. Set an internal name, which will only be visible to you, not your customers.
6. Set a display name, which your customers will see when selecting this resolution on the return portal.
7. Edit the description in the Display Description field. This displays additional details of this resolution in your return portal.
8. Open the Pricing section to edit it.
9. Set the free exchange variant price range.
- The default is 100%-100%, meaning that exchanges for items of the same price will be free while customers will be charged the difference for more or less expensive items.
- If you change the range, customers won't be charged for cheaper items or refunded for more expensive ones within this range.
- You can change the reference price for price differences in the Exchange section of Settings > Store Settings.
10. Toggle Charge price difference for more expensive variants to calculate the price difference and charge customers for variants above the free exchange range.
11. Toggle Refund price difference for less expensive variants to calculate the price difference and refund customers for variants below the free exchange range.
12. Select how the customer will receive the refund, whether by original payment method, store credit, or gift card.
13. Open the Stock section to edit it.
14. Select Allow out-of-stock exchange to allow customers to select out-of-stock variants.
15. Set a Minimum available stock threshold.
16. Add a link to the size chart you want to show customers when selecting a new product.
17. Add a size variant option name, to display the size chart URL only for this type of variant (i.e size, color).
18. Set a default shipping rate for the new product that will be sent out.
19. Click on the save icon to save your changes.
You can then use this resolution to build your return policy in your return policy settings, where you can configure additional settings such as eligibility rules, fees, and more.
Charging and Refunding Price Differences
To settle exchanges where the chosen exchange item has a different price than the originally purchased item, the product exchange resolution can be configured to:
- Refund the customer the price difference for less expensive variants.
- Charge the customer the price difference for more expensive variants.
The price difference is calculated below and above the free exchange range.
Setting the Reference Pricing for the Price Difference
You can toggle the reference price for the price difference with these steps:
- Go to Settings > Store Settings.
- Open the Exchanges section.
3. In the Product Exchange section, select an option from the Original Item’s Price Source drop-down to base the price difference on.
4. Click on the save icon to save your changes.
Price Differences Resulting in a Refund or a Charge
If the price difference results in a refund, you can use REFUND/CREDIT on the RMA page to issue the refund.
If the price difference results in an additional charge, you can use RELEASE EXCHANGE on the RMA page to have Shopify send an invoice to the customer. Alternatively, you can use the Portal Checkout feature to have the customers pay any fees and price differences directly in the portal.
You can specify whether paid amounts will be applied to new items in exchange draft orders per item, as item-level discounts, or for the whole order, as an order-level discount.
Applying Fees on Product Exchanges
Stores on all platforms can use portal checkout to charge fees and price differences directly in the portal.
On Shopify, you can instead have Shopify send invoices for the fees and price difference charges and they'll pay them on Shopify. This will trigger Shopify to automatically email an invoice to the customer.
Note: Invoices must be paid before the exchange can be approved.
Any to Any Exchanges
Any-to-any exchanges enable customers to perform product exchanges by using the value of their returned items as exchange credits to select any number of new products, instead of a standard one-for-one exchange.
Shop Now Exchanges
Shop Now enables customers to use the value of their returned items as credits to shop for new items directly in your store instead of in the portal. They can select multiple items, pay the difference if necessary, and complete the exchange in a seamless shopping experience.
Note: In order to use Shop Now, you must be using any-to-any product exchanges and not one-for-one product exchanges.
Browse by Collection
For in-portal exchanges, in addition to letting customers search for specific products, you can also offer customers to browse through your product collections directly on the return portal.
Customers often aren't sure what new product they want during a product exchange, so it's helpful to give them the option to browse your store's collections as part of the exchange process.
By enabling customers to browse by collection you can give customers an experience that’s closer to the shopping experience of your store, providing a better user experience that can help convert more returns into exchanges.
To enable browsing by collection:
- Go to Settings > Store Settings.
- Open the Exchanges section.
3. In the Product Exchange section, toggle Browse by Collection to let customers browse your collections in the portal when choosing their exchange item.
4. Enter the titles of the collections you want to display to customers in the return portal.
5. Click on the save icon to save your changes.
Note: The collections will be displayed on the return portal in the order they are inputted in the settings.
Hide Collection Images in Product Search
If you're using Browse by Collection in product exchanges and don't want to set/show a collection image on your eCommerce store, you can hide the collection images through advanced customization.
To hide collection images on the portal, add the following lines of custom CSS on your ReturnGO dashboard:
#returnGoAssistant .ReturnGO_CollectionListItem-module_listItem img {
display:none
}
Fulfill Exchanges Based on Order Country
You can enable location-based exchanges, allowing customers to see only items available in warehouses in their country when performing an in-portal exchange.
This may be relevant if you have multiple warehouses in different countries for the same market and do not offer international shipping.
To enable location-based exchanges:
1. Go to Settings > Store Settings.
2. Open the Exchanges section.
3. Enable the Fulfill Exchanges Based on Order Country toggle.
4. Click on the save icon to save your changes.
