How to cancel, refund and return an order on Shopify

Bought from a Shopify store?

Shopify provides the software, not the shop. To cancel an order or ask for a refund, contact the store you bought from, using the contact details on its website or the reply address on your order confirmation email. Shopify says customers looking for a refund need to contact the store directly.

How to cancel an order on Shopify

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Orders and click the order.
2. Click More actions, then Cancel order.
3. Under Refund payment, choose Original payment method, Store credit (and its expiry) or Later.
4. Choose a Reason for cancellation, and add a staff note if it helps.
5. Leave Restock inventory ticked to put the items back in stock, or untick it.
6. Leave Send a notification to the customer ticked so they get a cancellation email.
7. Click Cancel order. What was restocked and refunded is saved in the order's Timeline.

Which refund option to choose when cancelling

Orders you can't cancel (and what to do)

• Partly fulfilled orders can't be cancelled. Cancel the fulfilment first, or refund and use returns instead.
• If a third-party fulfilment service is handling the order, you may need to cancel it in their system before Shopify.
• Orders from Facebook and Instagram checkout that were edited in Meta's Commerce Manager have to be changed there.
• Some orders created by apps, and orders already cancelled, can't be cancelled from the admin.
• Don't bulk-cancel orders that are already refunded: it can trigger a second refund. Cancel those one at a time and choose Later. Do the same after a lost chargeback, so you don't refund twice.
• You can bulk-cancel up to 250 orders at a time.

How to refund an order on Shopify

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Orders, click the order, then click Refund.
2. Enter the quantity of each item to refund. Leave Restock items ticked if they're going back on the shelf.
3. To refund shipping, select Shipping under Refund shipping and enter the amount.
4. Add a Reason for refund if you like. It's a note for your team; the customer doesn't see it.
5. In the Summary, choose the refund method (original payment, store credit or both) and check the amount. You can lower it to take off a restocking fee.
6. Leave Send a notification to the customer ticked, then click Refund.

Partial refunds and shipping

• You can issue several partial refunds until you reach the order total. The order then shows as Partially refunded.
• To refund part of one item, click its price on the refund page and add a discount before refunding. The discount applies to every unit of that item.
• You can refund shipping up to the amount the customer paid, but not on orders with an order-level free shipping discount.
• A customer can still open a chargeback for the full order after a partial refund. Keep the refund record and your messages, and see how to respond to Shopify chargebacks.

Refund gotchas

• You can't cancel or reverse a refund once you start it. If you refund by mistake, create a draft order to collect the payment again.
• With Shopify Payments, the card fees on the original order aren't refunded to you.
• If items are coming back, create the return before refunding. A refund on its own doesn't record a return reason, and you can't create a return for items you've already refunded.
• If the customer no longer has the card, the refund still goes to it, and they'll need to claim it through their bank.
• Refunding to store credit and then to the card later gives the customer both, so decide once.

How to process a return or exchange on Shopify

1. Go to Orders and open the order. Click Return (or More actions, then Return if some items aren't fulfilled yet).
2. Enter the quantity to return and choose a return reason. Shopify suggests reasons that suit the product, like Too big for clothing.
3. Check or edit any restocking or return shipping fee.
4. For an exchange, click Add products under Exchange items and choose the new size or colour.
5. Choose the return shipping. Create a return label in Shopify only works for stores and customers in the United States or Canada, so Australian and New Zealand stores choose Upload a return label (a PDF, PNG or JPEG, or a link, with the tracking number) or No shipping required.
6. Click Create return. When the items arrive, process the return, then refund, collect the difference or send the exchange.

Let customers request returns and cancellations themselves

Shopify's self-serve returns and cancellations let customers ask to return delivered items, or cancel items that haven't shipped, from their order status page. You get a notification and approve or decline each request. Your return and cancellation rules set which items qualify, how long customers have, and whether return shipping is free. It cuts down on 'can I return this?' messages, as long as your rules match what the law requires for faulty items.

Store credit: what to know in Australia and New Zealand

• You can refund to store credit, the original payment method, or split between the two, and set an expiry date each time. Shopify says to check your local laws before setting one.
• In Australia, refunds for faulty items go back the way the customer paid unless they agree to something else, so offer store credit as an option, not the only answer. In New Zealand, refunds for faulty items must be in cash or back to the card. See Australian Consumer Law refunds.
• For change-of-mind returns, your own policy decides whether you offer store credit. See our refund policy template.
• Customers can only spend store credit when signed in with customer accounts (not legacy accounts) or Shop Pay, on your online store, Point of Sale or Shop, and the whole balance applies at once.

Cancellation and refund requests always reach a person

'Can I cancel my order?' and 'how do I return this?' arrive as comments, DMs and emails, and the sooner you answer, the more likely you can still stop the parcel. Paperflower puts them in one list with the customer's Shopify order beside each message, and on Standard sorts cancellation, refund and return requests into what needs a person. Paperflower never cancels or refunds an order on its own: cancellations and refunds always need a human, and order details never go out in a public comment. See how it works with Shopify.

How Paperflower is different

Frequently asked questions