Product Exchange

Product exchange is an exchange resolution that enables customers to exchange a product for another product altogether.

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.

Product exchange is included in the Pro and Enterprise plans, and can be added to accounts on other plans 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 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:

1. Go to Resolutions.
2. In the Exchange Resolutions section, click PRODUCT EXCHANGE.
3. In the Product Exchange Resolution Settings pop-up:
   1. Edit the resolution name. This is the display name of this resolution in your return portal.
   2. Edit the description. This contains the additional details of this resolution in your return portal.
   3. Toggle allows out-of-stock exchange. 
   4. Set the free exchange variant price range. 
      1. Customers will not be refunded for cheaper items or charged for more expensive ones for variants within this range.
      2. You can change the reference price to either the catalog price or paid price in Store Settings.
   5. Charge the price difference for more expensive variants to automatically create an invoice on the draft order.
      1. The price difference is calculated above the free exchange range.
   6. Apply the refund of the price difference for less expensive variants, coupled with the Refund by setting.
      1. This notifies the customer that they will be receiving a refund in the selected Refund by method.
      2. The price difference is calculated below the free exchange range. 
   7. Set the Refund by option. This is the default refund mode on the Refund pop-up in the return request, whether by original payment method, store credit, or gift card.
   8. Add a size chart URL. 
   9. Add a size variant option name (optional). The size chart link will appear only when the product includes the variant option name set in this field.
   10. Set default shipping for new items. 
       1. To use the default shipping rate, leave this field blank, or type the name of your free shipping rate.
4. Click SAVE. 

You can then use this resolution to build your return policy in the Return Policy settings - a section 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:

1. Refund the customer the price difference for less expensive variants. 
2. 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

In your Store Settings, you can toggle the reference price for the price difference, using:

1. Catalog price
2. Paid price

Price Differences Resulting in a Refund or a Charge 

If the price difference results in a refund, you can use REFUND/CREDIT in the RMA card to issue the refund. 

If the price difference results in an additional charge, you can use RELEASE/EXCHANGE in the RMA card to send an invoice to the customer. 

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

If you configure a product exchange policy rule to issue either a restocking fee and/or a return label fee, ReturnGO will create a draft order in your Shopify store which itemizes the fees. 

This will trigger Shopify to automatically email an invoice to the customer. The customer needs to pay the invoice before the exchange can be approved. 

Browse by Collection

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:

1. Go to Settings > Store Settings.
2. Open the Product and Variant Exchange Settings section. 
3. Enable the Browse by Collection toggle.
4. Enter the titles of the collections you want to display to customers in the return portal.