What this is
Onward Returns gives your customers a branded, self-service portal to request returns, select exchanges, or shop for new items with their return credit — no back-and-forth emails required. On your side, you control the policies, fees, and automation rules that govern every return, from submission through refund, credit, or exchange.
Return outcomes
Every return resolves in one of four ways, and you choose which options your customers see:
Refunds — back to the customer's original payment method.
Store credit — issued as a Shopify gift card, with an optional bonus to make credit more attractive than a refund.
Exchanges — a different size, color, or variant of the same product.
Shop Now — customers spend their return credit on new items from collections you choose, turning a return into a new purchase.
You can also recover costs directly: charge customers for return shipping labels, apply restocking fees, and decide whether fees are deducted from the resolution or charged separately.
The customer experience
The portal carries your logo and colors, and can run on your own domain, so returns feel like an extension of your store rather than a third-party detour. Customers look up their order, choose items and reasons, pick their resolution, and receive a shipping label — with automated emails keeping them informed at every step.
For the full step-by-step, see The Customer Return Portal.
Automation
Set your policies once and let the app run them:
Auto-approve returns instead of reviewing each one manually
Auto-process refunds and credits when the return ships or arrives
Auto-restock returned inventory in Shopify
Nearly every setting supports Exceptions, so you can run different rules for different products, regions, or customer segments — a longer holiday return window, free labels for VIPs, manual review for international returns.
Key capabilities
Branded return portal — your logo, colors, and domain
Shipping label management — automatic labels through ShipSidekick with print and QR-code options, or manual handling. See Return label provider.
Flexible policies — return windows, item eligibility, return reasons, and gift returns
Flexible rules engine — encode exceptions and create the unique workflows you need to balance profit with customer experience
Analytics dashboard — return rates, resolution types, top return reasons, and revenue metrics
Email notifications — automated customer emails for submission, approval, and processing
How Onward Returns fits in
Onward Returns is part of the Onward platform, alongside package protection and claims management. If you're already using Onward for package protection, Returns integrates with it — replacement orders from claims can flow into the returns system, and you manage both from the same dashboard.