How Customers Request a Return or Exchange in the Returns Portal

The Returns Portal is where your customers start a return or exchange on their own — they find their order, choose which items to send back, pick how they'd like to be resolved, submit the request, and then follow its progress.

The customer's journey

• Look up the order. A guest shopper begins on a search card where they enter their order number and the email address or phone number used on the order, then submit to find it. The fields include prompts guiding them to use the details from their purchase confirmation.
• Choose an order (signed-in customers). A customer who is logged in instead sees a welcome message and a list of their orders. They can scroll the list or search by order number or product name, then select the order they want to return.
• Pick items and choose a resolution. After the order opens, the shopper selects which items they want to return and chooses how they'd like it resolved. If certain items or the whole order aren't eligible, a banner explains they can't be returned (and, where applicable, notes any reasons that are still allowed). Signed-in customers can use a back link here to return to their order list.
• Review and submit the request. The shopper confirms their selections and submits the request for the merchant to process.
• Request submitted. A confirmation appears letting the customer know the request went through.
• Track the return. The customer can view a tracker that shows the order and the current status of their return(s).

Guest vs. signed-in customers

There are two ways into the portal. A guest looks up a single order by entering the order number plus the email or phone number used on it. A signed-in customer skips the lookup and instead sees a personalized list of their own orders, which they can search and choose from directly. Both paths lead to the same item-selection and resolution steps.

After they submit

Once a request is submitted, the shopper sees a confirmation message telling them it was received. If the return tracker is enabled, they can then view the status of their return against the order. From the tracker, a customer may start another request when that's permitted — for example, once a previous request has been declined, approved, inspected, resolved, or cancelled, or while an existing request is still pending if multiple requests are allowed. Signed-in customers can use the back link to return to their order list at any point.