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Shopify Refunds and Returns

What are refunds vs returns, how are they different?

Updated yesterday

Definitions according to Shopify

Refunds

A refund is when you send the full or part payment amount back to a customer who placed an order on your online store.

Returns

A return is when a customer returns an item that they purchased from your online store. They item may not actually have shipped prior to being "returned". Or, you may have sent return instructions to the customer and provided a return shipping label. After you receive and inspect the returned item, you can issue a refund when applicable.

Reporting on Returns using SyncWith

Currently SyncWith has some limited ability to report on returns. You can see our full list of fields shows we have these fields available:

Field

Description

Notes

Returned quantity

The number of ordered items that were returned.

Returns

The value of goods returned by a customer. Returns display as a negative number on the date the return was created.

As an example, if a customer purchases a single item, and returns it, the value of the Returns field will be the price of the item before taxes and after discounts.

If a customer purchased an item for $299, received a $11.96 discount, and the item's price included taxes of $58.89, and paid shipping of $99.00, then returned the item, the value of the field Returns would be $299 - $11.96 - $58.89 = $228.15

Reporting on Refunds using SyncWith

Currently SyncWith has some limited ability to report on refunds. You can see our full list of fields shows we have these fields available:

Field

Description

Refund ID

A globally-unique ID.

Refunds

The amount of sales reversed due to reasons other than a return, eg cancelled orders that never shipped.

Refund payments

The actual payments made to customers for refunds.

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