Return Resolutions Overview

Set up return resolutions in your online store to streamline returns and improve your customer experience.

What are Return Resolutions?

Return resolutions are the umbrella term for every type of return, such as refund, exchange, or store credit.

A return resolution defines the action you take to resolve return requests from your customers. You can manage your resolutions via the Settings > Resolutions page. 

Types of Resolutions

The two primary categories of resolutions are refunds and exchanges.

Refunds

A refund is the process of returning your customers’ money.

Refunds can be in the form of actual currency (e.g. refund to payment method) or in the form of virtual currency (e.g. store credit or gift cards).

You can refund your customer with actual money such as via bank transfer or the original payment method, or you can refund your customers in a digital form that’s exclusive to your store, such as store credit.

Actual Currency vs Virtual Currency Refunds

There are two types of refunds that ReturnGO supports: actual currency and virtual currency.

1. Actual Currency Refund
An actual currency refund is refunding back the money to the customer, either through the payment method they used or through other available payment methods.
For example, if your customers paid by credit card in US dollars, they will receive their refund in the same way. Or, you can refund your customers through other available payment methods. 
Then they can use the refund they received to buy items at your store or anywhere else.
ReturnGO supports actual currency refunds through these resolutions:

Refund to Payment Method
Refund to payment method grants refunds to your customers to the same payment method they used in their original purchase.
Refund to Bank Account
Refund to bank account enables your store to offer refunds by bank transfer and document it in ReturnGO.

2. Virtual Currency Refund
A virtual currency refund is money that is only valid within your store.
ReturnGO supports virtual currency refunds through these resolutions:
Refund by Store Credit
Refund by store credit grants refunds to your customers by giving them discount-based store credit.  

a. Instant ReturnScore Credit

ReturnScore is ReturnGO’s AI-based refund offering system. The AI offers customers store credit refunds based on the customer’s history and configurations.

Customers who choose these resolutions will be immediately issued a refund, which will help improve customer satisfaction, retention, and average order value.

ReturnScore resolutions support the following types of instant credit resolutions:

1. 1. 1. Ship It Later
         Ship It Later is an instant credit resolution that aims to attract your customers to choose store credit instead of a refund, which they can immediately use to purchase a new item in your store.
      2. Keep the Item
         Keep the Item is an instant credit resolution that automatically issues instant store credit to your customers instead of them shipping the item back and waiting for a refund. The customer can then keep the item.
      3. Donate the Item
         Donate the Item is an instant credit resolution that follows the same logic as Keep the Item but the customer is asked to donate the item.

Refund by New Gift Card

Refund by new gift card enables your store to offer gift cards to your customer as a form of a refund.

Order-Level and Line-Item Refunds

There are two levels of refunds that ReturnGO supports:  

1. Order-Level Refunds

Order-level refunds are refunds that apply to the entire order.

2. Line-Item Refunds 

Line-item refunds are refunds that are given per line item.

Exchanges

Exchanges can be an exchange for another variant of the same product, such as size or color, or an exchange for a completely different product.

ReturnGO currently supports three types of exchanges:

1. Variant Exchange

This is a self-service variant exchange resolution. Your customers can request to exchange the original item they purchased for another variant of the item, such as size or color.

2. Product Exchange

This is a self-service product exchange resolution. Your customers can request to exchange the original item they purchased for any other item from your store’s catalog.

3. Manual Exchange

This is a customer support-assisted exchange. Your customer writes to you which item they want to exchange for which other item.

Exchange Shortcuts

While all exchanges could be done via product exchange, offering shortcuts can significantly improve the customer experience by streamlining the process.

The exchange shortcuts you can offer are:

1. Replace - Offering customers to replace their item gives customers an easy way to quickly get an identical replacement for their original item. This is ideal for cases where customers have an issue with the original product and want to replace it with another of the exact same variant. 

2. Variant Exchange - Variant exchange serves as another valuable shortcut in the exchange process, enabling customers to easily exchange their item for a different variant of the same product without browsing through your entire product catalog.

By giving customers the flexibility to either replace the item, get another variant, or do a full product exchange, you provide an easier and smoother exchange experience.

Incentives and Penalties

You can modify the credit amount by creating a custom refund resolution on the Resolutions page.

This enables you to incentivize or penalize return requests. The modification can be relative to the item price or a set amount.

There are 3 possible modifications that you can apply to any refund resolution.

1. Refund/Credit = $X
   1. This represents a fixed credit amount.
   2. The refund/credit is independent of the item price.
2. Refund/Credit = Item Price + $X  
   1. This represents an incentive/penalty of a fixed credit amount relative to the item price.
3. Refund/Credit = Item Price + $X
   1. This represents an incentive/penalty as a percentage of the item price.

The actual refund/credit amount is still subject to other rules, such as:

• Refund to payment method cannot exceed the order’s total paid price.
• Refunds by store credit or gift cards can be up to 150% of the item’s paid price.

Cancel Order

This return resolution enables your store to cancel unfulfilled orders, with the option to issue the refund automatically to your customer.

Order cancellation enables customers to: 
1. Cancel orders before they are fulfilled.
2. Request an automatic refund to the payment method used, such as a credit card, Paypal, or gift card.