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Refunding orders

You can refund an entire order or only part of an order in your Shopify admin. When you refund an order, you send payment back to the customer. You can refund an order without creating a return, but you can't create a return after a refund has been issued. In some cases, you can cancel an order and then issue a refund.

As part of the refund process, you have the option to restock the items and to send a notification email to the customer. If there is no payment to refund, then you can restock the items from the order.

If you're a customer looking for a refund on an order that you placed on a Shopify store, then you need to contact the store directly.

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Considerations for refunding orders

Before you refund an order, review the following considerations:

  • To refund orders, you need to be the store owner or be a staff member with the Orders > Refund permission. Learn more about staff permissions.
  • A refund can only be sent to the original payment method. If a customer no longer has access to that payment method, then they need to contact the bank or agency for the original payment method to claim the funds after the refund is sent.
  • You can't cancel or reverse a refund after you initiate a refund from your Shopify admin. If you initiate a refund by mistake, then you can create a new draft order and collect the payment again with the draft order.
  • When you refund or cancel a customer's order, the following scenarios apply for the original order fees, regardless of whether the order was fulfilled or not:
    • If the order was processed through Shopify Payments, then you don't get any credit card fees refunded. Learn more about purchases and refunds with Shopify Payments.
    • If the order was processed through a third-party payment gateway, but Shopify Payments is available in the country that your store is located in, then you don't get any transaction fees refunded. Transaction fees aren't the same as credit card fees. Any credit card fees are set and charged by the payment gateway that you use.
    • If the order was processed through a third-party payment gateway, and Shopify Payments isn't available in the country that your store is located in, then any transaction fees are refunded equivalent to the amount of the customer's order that was refunded. If you fully refund an order, then you're credited with 100% of the transaction fee to your account. If you refund 50% of an order's cost, then you're credited with 50% of the transaction fee to your account. A transaction fee credit applies only when you refund an order through your Shopify admin. If you refund an order through a third-party payment gateway, then you don't get a transaction fee credit.

Refund an entire order

You can issue a full refund for all items in an order. When refunding an order, you can manually edit the Refund total to charge your customer a restocking fee. You can also refund any shipping fees.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the order that you want to refund.

  3. Click Refund.

  4. Enter the quantity of the items that you want to refund.

  5. Optional: If you want to restock your items manually, then deselect Restock items. This option is selected by default and is available only when you track inventory for the items included in the order.

  6. Optional: To refund shipping, in the Refund shipping section, select Shipping, and then enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.

  7. Optional: If the order includes duties and import taxes, then select whether you want to refund Duties and import tax on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.

  8. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.

  9. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.

  10. Click Refund to refund the customer's order.

iPhone
  1. From the Shopify app, tap Orders.
  2. Tap the order that you want to refund.
  3. At the top of the screen in the order details section, tap …, and then tap Refund.
  4. Enter the quantity of the items that you want to refund.
  5. Optional: If you want to restock your items manually, then deselect Restock items. This option is selected by default and is available only when you track inventory for the items included in the order.
  6. Optional: To refund shipping, in the Refund shipping section, select Shipping, and then enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.
  7. Optional: If the order includes duties and import taxes, then select whether you want to refund Duties and import tax on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.
  8. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.
  9. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.
  10. Tap Refund to refund the customer's order.
Android
  1. From the Shopify app, tap Orders.
  2. Tap the order that you want to refund.
  3. At the top of the screen in the order details section, tap …, and then tap Refund.
  4. Enter the quantity of the items that you want to refund.
  5. Optional: If you want to restock your items manually, then deselect Restock items. This option is selected by default and is available only when you track inventory for the items included in the order.
  6. Optional: To refund shipping, in the Refund shipping section, select Shipping, and then enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.
  7. Optional: If the order includes duties and import taxes, then select whether you want to refund Duties and import tax on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.
  8. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.
  9. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.
  10. Tap Refund to refund the customer's order.

Refund part of an order

You can issue a partial refund for specific items in an order. You can then issue additional partial refunds until you've reached the total available to refund, which is the original amount of the order. After you issue a partial refund, your order's status changes to Partially refunded.

If a customer made a purchase using a gift card and another method of payment, then when you perform a partial refund, the refund is applied to the gift card first, until the gift card reaches the full amount available for refund. The rest of the refund is applied to the other payment methods. You can adjust the refund amounts manually for each payment method up to the amount that is available for each payment method. For example, if a partial refund amount of $50 USD is applied to the gift card, but you can apply up to $20 USD to a credit card, then you could can the refund by applying $30 USD to the gift card, and $20 USD to the credit card.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the order that you want to refund.

  3. In the Order Details section, click Refund.

  4. Enter the quantity of the items that you want to refund. Any products with a quantity set to 0 aren't refunded.

  5. Optional: If you want to restock your items manually, then deselect Restock items. This option is selected by default and is available only when you track inventory for the items included in the order.

  6. Optional: To refund shipping, in the Refund shipping section, select Shipping, and then enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.

  7. Optional: If the order includes duties and import taxes, then select whether you want to refund Duties and import tax on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.

  8. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.

  9. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.

  10. Click Refund to refund your selected items.

iPhone
  1. From the Shopify app, tap Orders.
  2. Tap the order that you want to refund.
  3. At the top of the screen in the order details section, tap …, and then tap Refund.
  4. Enter the quantity of the items that you want to refund. Any products with a quantity set to 0 aren't refunded.
  5. Optional: If you want to restock your items manually, then deselect Restock items. This option is selected by default and is available only when you track inventory for the items included in the order.
  6. Optional: To refund shipping, in the Refund shipping section, select Shipping, and then enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.
  7. Optional: If the order includes duties and import taxes, then select whether you want to refund Duties and import tax on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.
  8. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.
  9. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.
  10. Tap Refund to refund your selected items.
Android
  1. From the Shopify app, tap Orders.
  2. Tap the order that you want to refund.
  3. At the top of the screen in the order details section, tap …, and then tap Refund.
  4. Enter the quantity of the items that you want to refund. Any products with a quantity set to 0 aren't refunded.
  5. Optional: If you want to restock your items manually, then deselect Restock items. This option is selected by default and is available only when you track inventory for the items included in the order.
  6. Optional: To refund shipping, in the Refund shipping section, select Shipping, and then enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.
  7. Optional: If the order includes duties and import taxes, then select whether you want to refund Duties and import tax on refunded items and Additional fees: Customs clearance.
  8. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.
  9. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.
  10. Tap Refund to refund your selected items.

Refund shipping for an order

You can refund shipping fees for an order. If your order has multiple shipping fees, then all your shipping fees are displayed when refunding an order.

You can't exceed the available amount to refund for shipping. For example, if your charged for shipping $15 USD, then you can refund up to $15 USD for shipping.

You can't refund shipping for orders that have an order level free shipping discount applied.

Steps:

Desktop

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the order that you want to refund shipping for.

  3. Click Refund.

  4. In the Refund shipping section, select Shipping

  5. Enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.

  6. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.

  7. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.

  8. Click Refund to refund shipping for an order.

iPhone
  1. From the Shopify app, tap Orders.
  2. Tap the order that you want to refund shipping for.
  3. At the top of the screen in the order details section, tap …, and then tap Refund.
  4. In the Refund shipping section, select Shipping
  5. Enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.
  6. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.
  7. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.
  8. Tap Refund to refund shipping for an order.
Android
  1. From the Shopify app, tap Orders.
  2. Tap the order that you want to refund shipping for.
  3. At the top of the screen in the order details section, tap …, and then tap Refund.
  4. In the Refund shipping section, select Shipping
  5. Enter the amount that you want to refund for shipping.
  6. Optional: In the Reason for refund section, enter a reason for the refund. The refund reason isn't displayed to your customer.
  7. Optional: If you don't want to send an email to your customer when you issue the refund, then deselect Send a notification to the customer. This option is selected by default.
  8. Tap Refund to refund shipping for an order.

After you refund shipping for your order, your order's financial summary and order's Timeline are automatically updated.

Restock an order

If there's no payment to refund for an order, then you can restock the items without creating a return or a refund.

Steps:

  1. From your Shopify admin, go to Orders.

  2. Click the order that you want to restock.

  3. Click Restock.

  4. Enter the quantity of items in the order to restock.

  5. Click Restock items.

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