Last Updated on by Dan S
Originally Published February 12, 2020.


How to manage exchanges in your Shopify store

There has been a steep incline in online businesses over the past few years. And during this pandemic, it’s increased even more. People are making millions of sales worldwide. Similarly, Shopify stores are excelling in this race and customer service is just one of the many aspects where Shopify stores leave the competition behind.

Additionally, part of the effective management of customer’s queries is to cater to their feedback. In simple words, people want practical solutions when they want to return or exchange a purchased item.

Therefore, handling exchanges is pivotal for the overall reputation and customer retention rate of the store. Contrary to public opinion, it is not as complex!

First off, it helps if you have a customer facing platform to handle the support requests. This allows you to streamline your customer service without getting overwhelmed. For Shopify merchants, there is a customer support ticket app called Delight Chat. Not only does it handle common customer support channels such as Whatsapp, Facebook and live chat; it keeps it all neat and tidy in a streamlined CRM style app.

Now you have your customer support sorted, it’s time to get to managing the exchanges.

Handling exchanges is not as complicated as you think

Although many merchants believe that returns and exchanges are nothing but a strenuous task, this doesn’t have to be the case.

Handling exchanges provide the sellers with the opportunity to satisfy their customers better and offer them individual attention. Here are three methods by which you can manage exchanges with ease.

3 Methods on how to handle exchanges for your Shopify store.

Issuing gift cards

exchanges

Shopify stores have access to customizable gift cards worth variable amounts of money. They are convenient, and operating them is reasonably straightforward. Managing exchanges has been tough during this pandemic. Gift cards solve the problem with NO human interaction.

Download the POS application and use the exchange section

The POS application has changed the game when it comes to Shopify stores. It allows you to create a flawless user interface through which the customers can easily follow the measures to exchange any good.

Exchanging an item using POS

  1. Install the POS app from the Shopify App store
  2. When you’re logged in, select Orders
  3. Select the order where the exchange needs to happen
  4. Find the New Productssection and tap Add products for exchange
  5. Select the new product that you want to exchange for the returned product
  6. Select Done

If the price of the new product is greater than that of the returned product, select Collectto select a payment method to collect the remaining balance. If the price of the new product is less, select Refundand process the payment.

Using the POS app means that you cannot offer exchanges directly and legitimately through your online store. You have to use this app to action any exchanges.

Other app options

An app called Exchange It has recently been released in the Shopify App store. This could be another alternative to the POS app.

 

Offer store credit

Store credit works similar to gift cards. Instead of physically providing the customers with a particular product as a replacement, you can refund them the money as store credit. Then the customer can make a new purchase from the store-credit without any hassle.

To easily manage any exchanges in your Shopify store, you can use the POS app. If you haven’t already, you’ll have to download this from the Shopify App store. Without this, there is no simple way to manage exchanges.

You can still offer refunds without the app, but exchanges are slightly more complex.

 

How to review the number of orders with returns in Shopify

If you want to make improvements in your shop, you might need to look at the return rate and figure out the possible reasons behind people returning products. However, when you go to the Sales Over Time report section of your store, you’ll only see the returns’ dollar value. 

The report does not show you how many orders have been returned. Normally, Shopify would have an app for this. However, what if you want to do this without paying a monthly fee? Is there a way to do so? Let’s discuss. 

Reviewing the number of returned orders

You can check the number of orders that have been returned in two ways. First, you can use Shopify Analytics. 

  • Go to your Shopify admin. 
  • Select Analytics
  • Go to Reports and click on Finances.
  • Select Finances Summary
  • In the Finances Summary report section, select Returns
  • You can change the range of days and dates using the Month to Date Button. 

You’ll find the number of returned orders at the bottom of the page. 

Alternatively, you can use an app to find the number of returned orders in your store. DeepMine is a suitable app for this since it comes with a 60-day free trial. 

number of orders with returns

Along with getting a comprehensive report of your store’s analytics in the past quarter, you can also figure out which products are currently popular in your store. Plus, you can group the customers according to the POS location, sales tax, discount codes, and payment gateways. 

If you only want to check the return orders once, you can get the app and delete it before the free trial ends. However, if checking returned orders is a recurring thing, you should stick to Shopify analytics or pay a monthly fee for the third-party app.