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Process your return shipments

Team Sendcloud
  • Updated

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Purpose: this a guide on how you can process your return shipments in the Sendcloud panel. With the Sendcloud return portal, your customers can initiate hassle-free returns and you can easily process them from a clear and concise returns overview. 

 

Not yet activated your return portal? Click here to see how to activate it and allow easy return options for your customers, or watch our video tutorial. 

 Returns overview

Our return portal is full of benefits that will help make your return process more efficient.

  • Print return labels easily: You don't have manually create each return. Customers can automatically create their returns, so all they have to do is print the label and bring their package to the selected location.
  • Automatic Track & Trace: You can use the customizable track & trace emails to inform your customers about the status of their return. 
  • More orders: Communicate the possibilities for returning shipments clearly on your website. For example in the footer of your website. When your customers know upfront that they can easily return an order if needed, it will make them more comfortable ordering at your webshop and thus will help increase conversion.
When a customer creates a return from the return portal it will appear in your Returns overview. The returns overview will list all the returns that have been created by your customers using the return portal. If you have enabled in-store returns in your return portal, no shipping label will be created and the return will have the status "no label". 
  
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Return details and parcel tracking

By clicking the eye icon you can enter the return detail view.
  
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1. Order details
Information regarding the original order and the tracking number, plus the customer details.
 
2. Return details
The new tracking number for the return parcel, the date the return was created and the selected return shipping method, plus the brand which was linked to the return portal/webshop related to the return.
 
3. Delivery Status
The current delivery status of the parcel is shown under status, so you can keep an eye on when your parcel is going to arrive back with you. The customer will also receive tracking notifications for their return parcel when you enable return track & trace emails, so they know their parcel has arrived safely and when they can expect to receive a refund. If the customer chooses the option to return a parcel in-store, no tracking statuses will be shown as a return label is not necessary. 
  
4. Returned items
This section shows the products the customer has chosen to return and the quantity, plus the reason for the return. 
  
5. Refund method
This section details the refund option your customer has chosen from the methods you have enabled (refund, exchange or store credit), the shipping cost the customer paid (so you can refund it alongside the product/s they are returning) and the return fee if you enabled one. 

   

Refunding returns

We have made the return portal options as flexible as possible when it comes to charging or not charging for returns, and handling your refunds based on incoming return parcels. Many companies offer free returns, but you can choose to charge customers a fixed return fee by going to Settings > Returns and enabling the return fee and entering an amount. 

After selecting this option, the end consumer will see the following information in the return portal on the confirmation step. Note: when you fill in a fixed amount like € 5, the message will show that costs instead of "free".

To make issuing returns easier, in the return detail view you can see the total amount to be refunded to the customer will be calculated for you based on the items returned, the return fee (if there is one) and the original shipping cost. 

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The total refund estimate will be shown at the bottom of the Refund method section. By changing the slider next to "Shipping cost" on or off, you can choose whether to calculate the shipping cost into the refund total or not.

Notice regarding refunding original shipping costs: According to European laws, it is mandatory to refund shipping costs you charged for the original shipment. Therefore, we use your shipping costs to give a refund indication, however, this might differ from the shipping costs you charge your customer. In case of a partial refund, shipping costs from the original shipment do not have to be refunded. Please always make sure that you check the laws applicable in the regions where you ship too. This might differ.

You can click the "mark as refunded" button to note when you have processed an incoming return.

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Examples of refunds 

Example 1: Full refund
You sell 2 t-shirts to a customer of € 20 each with shipping costs of € 5. Your fixed return fee is € 5. The customer returns both t-shirts.

Items value:               € 40
Shipping costs:          + € 5
Return costs:             - € 5
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Total refund:             € 40

Example 2: Partial refund
You sell 2 t-shirts to a customer of € 20 each with shipping costs of € 5. Your fixed return fee is € 5. The customer returns one t-shirt of the two he ordered.

Items value:             € 40
Shipping costs: doesn't apply*
Return costs:          - € 5
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Total refund:           € 35

Resending the return label

The customer will be prompted to download their return label as soon as they have created a return using the return portal, provided they have not chosen to return in-store. It will also be sent to them in an email. 

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However, if for some reason they are unable to print the return label when initially prompted, or if they can no longer locate it, you might want to resend it to your customer. To do so, simply navigate to the particular return in your Returns overview, click the eye icon to enter the return details and click the "Resend return label" button to send the label again to the customer via their email address. 

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Manually creating returns

The return portal can only be used for orders which have been processed through your Sendcloud platform, as the data for the return is retrieved via the original order. In some cases, you may want to create a return manually so you can handle the return parcel in Sendcloud. 

Here's how to manually create a return:

  • Add your client's address details to your sender addresses in your Sendcloud panel. To do this, go to Settings > Addresses > Sender addresses.
  • Create a manual shipment. To do this, go to the Shipping tab at the top of your panel and then click on New shipment.
  • Select the address data of this customer as the sender address at the top left and enter your own address data when creating the label.
  • Create the label and send this shipping label as a PDF file to your customer so that they can physically print and stick it on their parcel. 
  • After creating and sending this label, we advise you to remove your customer's return address from your settings to prevent mistakes in the future. 

 For further questions, please contact us via the contact form within your Sendcloud panel.

 

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