Shopify returns: how they work and how to answer shoppers' questions
Yevhen Kurapov, co-founder · Updated Oct 19, 2026
Shopify returns run on three separate settings: return rules (window, return shipping, restocking fee, final sale) under Settings > Policies, self-serve return requests under Settings > Customer accounts, and the written return and refund policy shoppers read. Shopify doesn't copy your rules into that policy, so keep the two matching: shoppers and store chat assistants answer from the written policy.
On Shopify, returns run on three settings that don't update each other. Return rules decide what can come back and on what terms, self-serve returns let customers request a return from their account, and the written return and refund policy is what shoppers read before they buy. Shoppers' return questions are answered from that written policy or from their own order, so the policy has to say everything your rules say. Below: the settings with Shopify's labels, the questions with where each answer comes from, and how a store assistant answers them (we make ChatPal, so that part uses our screens).
If you still need the policy text itself, start with our return and refund policy template. For parcel tracking, see answering “where is my order?” on Shopify.
How Shopify returns fit together
| Setting | Where in your Shopify admin | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Return and cancellation rules | Settings > Policies > Return and cancellation rules | The return window, who pays return shipping, a restocking fee, final sale items, and longer or shorter windows for some products |
| Self-serve returns and cancellations | Settings > Customer accounts | Whether customers can request returns, cancellations or both from their order status page |
| Return and refund policy | Settings > Policies > Written policies | The text shoppers read. Shopify links it in the checkout footer |
Four details in Shopify's help pages are easy to miss:
- The written policy doesn't follow your rules. Shopify says its generated policy doesn't include the return rules you set up. Change the window from 30 days to 14 and the policy page still says 30 until you edit it.
- Rule changes apply to future orders only. A customer who ordered last month keeps last month's terms.
- Fees aren't deducted for you. Shopify shows the restocking fee and return shipping fee when you create a return, but you take them off the refund yourself.
- Returns are for fulfilled items only. Before an item ships, it's a cancellation, which has its own rules on the same page.
Set up returns in Shopify
Step 1: set the return rules
- In your Shopify admin, go to Settings > Policies.
- In Return and cancellation rules, click the rule you want to edit.
- Under Return window, choose 14 days, 30 days, 90 days, Unlimited or Custom days. In Starting from, choose Item's delivery or Delivery of last item in order. Tick Extend to account for weekends or holidays if a window that ends on a Sunday should run to Monday.
- Under Return shipping cost, choose free return shipping, a flat rate charged once per return, or customers buying their own label.
- Optional: select Charge restocking fee and enter a percentage.
- Optional: under Final sale items, choose Specific collections or Specific products. You can't mix the two, so a single “Final sale” collection is usually the easiest to keep current.
- Optional: click + Return window override to give a collection or product its own window, longer or shorter. An item caught by two overrides gets the shorter window.
- Click Save.
Step 2: let customers request returns
- Go to Settings > Customer accounts.
- Turn on Self-serve returns and cancellations.
- Choose Return and cancel requests, Return requests only or Cancel requests only.
Customers sign in with their email and a six-digit code Shopify sends them, with no password. On the order status page they click Return items, pick the items and a reason, and can add a note. The reasons follow each product's category, so clothing offers “Too big” and “Too small”. Shopify emails the customer a confirmation.
Requests need Shopify's new customer accounts. A store on legacy accounts can link to them just for requests: copy the customer accounts URL from the Customer accounts settings into the return policy or a footer menu item called “Returns”.
Shopify notifies you of each new request, and in Orders the Customer request filter lists the ones waiting for a decision. Open one and click Review request on the Return requested card:
- To approve, optionally add products under Exchange items, then choose Create a return label in Shopify (only when your primary location and the customer's address are both in the United States), Upload a return label or No shipping required, and click Approve. The customer gets a confirmation email, with the label attached if you created or uploaded one.
- To decline, pick an internal reason and edit the message the customer gets.
Customers can't ask for an exchange through self-serve returns. If you offer exchanges, tell them to request a return and write the size or colour they want in the note; you add the exchange item when you approve. When a customer emails you instead, create the return yourself from the order with Return before you refund: Shopify records no return reason for a refund on its own.
Step 3: make the written policy match
Go to Settings > Policies, open Return and refund policy under Written policies, write or paste your policy (Insert template, where offered, gives Shopify's starting text) and click Save. Then check it against step 1, line by line: the window and when it starts, who pays return shipping, the restocking fee, the final sale collections by name, and how exchanges work.
Then add how to request a return, in words. Shoppers read it, and so does your store's assistant. The last line covers orders still on your old rules:
How to return an item
Click the profile icon at the top of our store and sign in with your email. We'll email you a six-digit code, so there's no password to remember. Open your order, click Return items, and choose what you're sending back and why. Want a different size or colour instead? Write it in the note. Once we approve your request, we email you [a free return label]. We refund you within [5] business days of receiving the item.
Orders placed before [date] follow our previous policy: [the old window and return shipping terms].
Selling to EU consumers? For the 14-day right of withdrawal, Shopify suggests Return and cancel requests, a cancellation window of Until item is fulfilled, and a return window of at least 14 days from Delivery of last item in order, extended for weekends and holidays. The legal side is in our return policy template.
The questions shoppers ask, and where each answer comes from
Before they buy, shoppers ask about your terms. After, they ask about their own order. The answers live in different places:
| Shopper asks | When | Where the answer comes from | What to check there |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Can I return it if it doesn't fit?” | Before buying | Written policy | The window, when it starts, and the item's condition, in figures |
| “Who pays for return shipping?” | Before buying | Written policy | It matches Return shipping cost in your rules |
| “Is there a restocking fee?” | Before buying | Written policy. Shopify shows the fee only once a return is requested | The percentage and which items it covers |
| “Can I return sale items?” | Before buying | Written policy and product page | The final sale collections named in the policy, and “Final sale” in the product description |
| “Can I swap it for another size?” | Either | Written policy | How to ask for an exchange in the note |
| “How do I start a return?” | After buying | Written policy or returns page | The steps in words, as in the block above |
| “Has my order arrived?” | After buying | The order itself | The customer has to be signed in |
| “Was my return approved? Where's my refund?” | After buying | Shopify's emails and your team | The approval or decline email the customer got, and whether the refund was issued on the order |
| “It arrived damaged” or “You sent the wrong item” | After buying | Your team | Who handles it, and the policy line on faulty items |
The first six have one answer for every customer, so a page or an assistant can give it. The last three depend on one customer's order, so they need the order data or a person. If you sell clothing, answering size questions from your size chart settles some fit questions before the order is placed.
How your store's assistant answers them
ChatPal answers in the chat on your storefront, and in WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Telegram if you connect them.
Terms come from your pages. When you connect a Shopify store under Integrations > Shopify, ChatPal reads the store's own pages (about, FAQ, shipping, returns, contact) into the assistant's knowledge, as far as your plan's link allowance goes. It doesn't see your return rules: the eight read-only permissions on Shopify's permission screen cover products, inventory, translations, languages, markets, publications, and customer accounts and orders. So the written policy is its only source. To check it's there, open Knowledge, then Website & links, and look for your returns page. If it's missing, paste its address, tick Single page only and click Add Link. After you edit the policy, choose Reindex from the ⋮ menu next to it.
The assistant replies in the customer's language and quotes your figures as written. When the policy doesn't cover something, such as returning an item in person, it says it can't confirm that here and points to your team rather than guessing.
Order status comes from the order. With Order support on, a customer who asks about an order signs in to your store with their own account, and the assistant tells them where it is, with the carrier, tracking link, estimated delivery, items and a link to your order status page. It never asks for an order number or email to identify anyone, and never shows addresses, payment details or totals. It is on from the moment you connect, and you can switch it off in the Order support section of Integrations > Shopify (a store connected before 12 October 2026 turns it on there with Grant order access); it needs Shopify's new customer accounts, and the order tracking guide covers setup and testing.
The return itself stays with you. The assistant explains how to start a return, from your policy, but it can't file, approve or refund one, create a label, or see whether a return was approved. When a signed-in customer asks it to deal with a return, refund or exchange, it offers to hand the chat to your team or gives your contact details. Asked to cancel an order that has already shipped, it says a shipped order can't be stopped before delivery and a return is the usual route, then offers to send the request to your team.
Here are two example conversations we wrote for this page. They show how ChatPal handles this for a fictional clothing store with a 30-day window, free return labels, exchanges through the note and Order support on. Before buying:
Customer: If the jacket doesn't fit, can I send it back?
Assistant: Yes, unworn items with the tags still on can be returned within 30 days of delivery, and the return label is free.
Customer: What about things from the sale?
Assistant: Anything from our Final Sale collection can't be returned or exchanged.
Customer: Could I swap the jacket for a medium instead of getting a refund?
Assistant: Yes. When you request the return, write the size you want in the note, and we'll send the medium once your return is approved.
And after:
Customer: Has my last order been delivered yet?
Assistant: Please sign in to your store account so I can check.
[Button: Continue. The customer is already signed in to the store, so the window closes by itself.]
Assistant: Your order #1052 has been delivered.
[Card: order #1052, delivered, 2 items, the tracking number and a link to the order status page]
Customer: One of the shirts is too small. How do I send it back?
Assistant: Click the profile icon at the top of the store, sign in, open the order and click Return items, then choose the shirt and a reason. Once we approve it, we email you a free return label.
Every term in those replies comes from the store's policy page; only the delivery status comes from the order.
Hand the rest to a person. Switch on Hand off to a human when needed under Configuration > Handoff & leads, and a customer who asks for a person is handed over; the chat waits in Chats under Handed off to a human, and your team gets an alert by email or Telegram. To send damaged or wrong-item messages straight to your team, add a category with the “Human escalation” type under Configuration > Automation > Categories.
Test before customers do. In Playground, ask the before-buying questions in your own words, plus one your policy doesn't answer, and click the short line under a reply to see which page it read. Test the order side on your storefront with an order of your own.
What it costs
Shopify's setup pages list no plan requirement for self-serve returns; only using return rules in Shopify POS needs POS Pro. On ChatPal, policy answers and Order support are on every plan, Free included, and each reply counts toward your monthly messages: 100 on Free, 500 on Starter at $20, 1,500 on Standard at $50 and 4,000 on Pro at $120, billed monthly (pricing, checked 19 October 2026). At an assumed 60 return questions a month and two replies each (use your own count), that's 120 replies: just over Free, well inside Starter, before any product or shipping questions.
For everything else ChatPal does with a Shopify store, see the Shopify page.