This article walks through each step your customers go through in the Onward return portal, and the settings that control what they see at each one. Use it to preview the experience you've configured, or to trace a customer question back to the setting behind it.
The exact steps a customer sees depend on your configuration — steps controlled by disabled features are skipped automatically.
Where the portal lives
Your portal is available at your Customer Return Portal URL, or at your own domain if you've set up a custom returns portal URL. The portal is branded to your store.
Customers typically reach it from your website footer, FAQ or return policy page, order confirmation emails, or a link from your support team. Be sure to add or update these links on your website when you go live with Onward Returns.
Step 1: Order lookup
The customer enters two things to find their order:
Email address or zip/postal code — must match the order
Order number
If Gift returns is enabled, a "Returning a gift?" link appears here. The recipient enters the order number with their own email or postal code instead of the purchaser's.
Customers returning from a region you haven't enabled in Allow Returns by Region can't proceed past this point.
Common lookup failures: "Order not found" usually means the email doesn't match the one on the order — the zip/postal code option is the fallback. "No eligible items" means the items are outside the return window, regions, or rules.
Step 2: Item selection
The customer sees all items from their order, split into eligible and ineligible.
Available for Return — product image, name, variant, price, and a quantity selector
Ineligible items — still listed, with a note explaining why they can't be returned
Eligibility here is determined by your Return window, your Return eligibility conditions, whether the item was already returned, and — for items from exchange, Shop Now, or replacement orders — your Advanced Settings on the Policies tab.
Step 3: Return details for each item
For each item, the customer goes through series of questions:
Has the product been used? — Yes or No
Return reason — from the list you've configured in Return reasons. If Randomize return reason order is on, each customer sees the reasons in a different order, with any sub-reasons.
Photo upload — required only for reasons where you've enabled photo evidence
Comments — hidden, optional, or required, depending on the reason
For Merchants that have Smart Exchanges enabled, this flow may appear differently as it is driven by AI.
Step 4: Exchange offer
If Allow exchanges is enabled and the product has more than one variant, the customer is asked whether they'd like to exchange for a different option — a new size or color — or continue toward a refund or store credit.
If the product has only one variant, this step is skipped.
For Merchants with Smart Exchanges enabled, Onward Intelligence will recommend up to 3 products to exchange based on information it has collected from the customer.
Step 5: Shop Now
If Shop Now is enabled, the customer is offered the option to spend their return credit on new items from the collections you've chosen. Their available credit — including any Shop Now bonus — is displayed while they browse.
New items costing more than the credit: the customer pays the difference at submission.
New items costing less: the remainder is issued through their chosen resolution.
The customer can decline and continue with a refund or store credit.
Unlike Exchanges, any discounts applied to the original order do not automatically carry forward to Shop Now.
For Merchants with Smart Recommendations enabled, Onward will feature items that it thinks are most likely to appeal to the customer.
Step 6: Resolution choice
Customers with any remaining balance choose how they'd like to be compensated:
Store credit — with any store credit bonus shown alongside
Refund — shown only if Allow refund to payment method is enabled, and not on gift returns
If only one option is available, it's selected automatically.
Step 7: Address Verification (if necessary)
If we have incomplete contact information to create a label, the customer will see an address verification form as below. This only appears if the address is complete or when the customer elects to edit their address.
Step 8: Review and submit
The review page summarizes the full return before the customer commits:
Return items — with reasons, quantities, and any exchange selections
Exchange or Shop Now items — listed separately, if any
Shipping address — editable by the customer
Financial breakdown — items value, label fee, restocking fee, bonuses, and the total they'll receive or owe
Your pre-submission return instructions appear on this screen.
The fees shown are driven by your Label sponsor and Handling / Restocking fee settings. How they're collected depends on Deduct fees from resolution:
If the customer owes anything — fees charged upfront, or a Shop Now difference — they enter card details via Stripe and click Pay & Submit Return.
Otherwise they simply click Submit Return.
Step 9: Confirmation
After submitting, the customer sees a confirmation page with their return status, and receives a confirmation email with the return summary and a link to check status at any time. If you've set a BCC Email Address, your team is blind-copied on that email.
What happens next depends on you:
If you approve the return, whether manually or through automatically approve returns, the customer receives their label and your post-submission return instructions by email.
If you close the return, the return gets archived and the customer can re-submit for the same order. The customer is not notified automatically, but the status updates on the confirmation page.
If you deny the return, the return gets archived and the customer cannot re-submit a request for the same order. The customer is not notified automatically, but the status updates on the confirmation page.
