Offering an exchange and sending a return label

A return ends in a refund or an exchange. On an exchange, you choose the replacement size or colour on the return page. When you complete the return, Orbit creates the replacement order and works out any difference in price. You can also record a return label when you approve it. Both happen under Orders, then Returns.

Considerations

• Refund or exchange is set when the return is created. A return raised from your storefront is always a refund. For an exchange, create the return yourself. See Creating a return on a customer's behalf.
• An exchange stays within the same product: a different size or colour, not a different product. A product with no variants cannot be exchanged. The replacement must have a price, and you cannot send more units than are coming back.
• Orbit does not buy return labels. Buy the label from your carrier, then record its tracking number and a link to it on the return.
• The label is recorded in the Approve Return window. After approval, the return page has no button to add or change it.

Choose the replacement for each item

1. From your Orbit dashboard, go to Orders, then Returns.
2. Click the return. Resolution reads Exchange.
3. In the Return Items table, find the Exchange column. Each line starts as No replacement selected. Click Select.
4. The Select Replacement Variant window lists the product's variants. Click the one the customer wants.
5. A Quantity box appears. Type how many to send, up to the returned quantity.
6. Click Save Selection. The message Exchange selection updated appears, and the column shows the variant and the quantity.
7. Repeat for each line.

To change it, click Change, then pick again or click Clear Selection. You can change the selection until the return is completed.

Approve the return and record the return label

Buy the return label from your carrier first.

1. On a return with the status Requested, click Approve. The Approve Return window opens.
2. Add any team notes under Store Notes (optional).
3. Under Return Shipping Label (optional), type the Tracking Number, the Tracking URL and the Label URL (downloadable). Any one of the three is enough.
4. Click Approve Return. The message Return approved appears and the status becomes Approved.

The Shipping Label card on the return page now shows the Tracking Number, a Track shipment link and a Download label link, with a badge reading pending. Left empty, it reads No shipping label.

Your customer gets the Return Approved email. It says the return is approved and asks them to post the items back within 14 days. It does not carry the label or the tracking number, and the label does not show in their account. Send the label to the customer yourself, by email. To add your return address to the email, see Editing your customer email templates.

Receive the items

When the parcel arrives, click Receive Items, set the condition of each item and what happens to it, then click Mark as Received. See Processing a return.

Complete the exchange and settle the money

1. On a return with the status Items Received, click Complete Return. The Complete Exchange window opens.
2. Check the replacements listed at the top.
3. Read the sums below them. Replacement value is what the replacements cost. Returned-goods credit is the refund total of the items coming back. The line under them says who owes what, or that it is an even swap.
4. Leave Settle automatically (recommended) selected to let Orbit apply the credit and refund any difference through the original payment. Choose I've handled the money myself if you have already settled up outside Orbit. The replacement order is then created at full price.
5. Click Complete & Settle. The message Return completed appears and the status becomes Completed.

Completing the exchange does the following:

• The replacement order: a new order for the replacement items, for the same customer, with no delivery charge and the note Exchange for return RET-0001. It is linked on the return page under Exchange Order, and its stock is reserved straight away.
• The credit: the value of the returned goods is applied to the replacement order as a discount.
• A refund: if the returned goods were worth more, the difference goes back through the original payment. A card payment is refunded to the card. A manual payment is recorded as refunded and you send the money yourself. The amount shows under Refund issued on the return page.
• A balance: if the replacements cost more, the replacement order carries the difference unpaid. Collect it before you ship, then record the payment on the order. See Taking payment on an order.
• The customer: they get the Return Completed email.

Then fulfil the replacement order like any other. See Fulfilling an order and adding tracking.

Note: If no replacement is selected on any line, the window warns that the return will complete without an exchange order. Click Select on each line first. If the original order was never paid, the refund is skipped and you settle it by hand.

Related guides

• Processing a return
• Creating a return on a customer's behalf
• Refunding an order
• Managing returns