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Process your return shipments

Louise Thomasson
  • Updated

 

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Purpose: Learn how to process incoming returns in the Sendcloud returns overview. 

  

Jump to:

Return details & parcel tracking
Charging customers for their return
Refunding returns
Resending the return label
Manually creating returns

 

Activate your return portal. 

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 or on a dedicated "Returns policy" page. When your customers know upfront that they can easily return an order if needed, it will drive 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. 

   

You can choose to offer free returns or charge your customers for the cost of shipping their product back to you.   

How do I charge a return fee?

  1. Go to Settings > Returns
  2. Enable the Return fee checkbox if you want to inform your customer about their returns cost
  3. Enter an amount to charge into the box (or €0 if you want to offer free returns). 

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  Once you've followed the steps above, your customer will see the below message when they create a return through your return portal:

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If you have filled an amount (such as €5) into the return fee field, then the message above will read "€5" instead of "free". Your customer is now informed that there will be (no) costs deducted as a result of their return.

  

How do I refund my customer?

Once your customer has returned their products, you will need to refund them while taking into account the costs of their return parcel. 

Please note that it is EU law to refund the shipping costs charged for the original shipment if the whole order is returned and refunded. We therefore provide you will all the information necessary to refund the correct amount by taking your shipping costs for this parcel into account. Note that this may differ from the actual shipping costs you chose to charge your customer. For more information, you can read the: European legislation about returns

In the example below, you can see that the amount you should refund your customer is estimated (total order value + original shipping costs - return fee) / (€700 + €6.00 - €5.00 = €701.00): 

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Note that shipping costs do not have to be reimbursed if only part of the order is returned. If you ship an order with free shipping, you will refund the returned item minus the return fee. 

Once you have refunded an return, you can mark it as refunded in your Returns overview. 

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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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