How Do I Let Customers Start a Return Without Emailing Me?
Let customers start the return in the chat they already use. AeroChat checks the order in Shopify, confirms the item is inside your return window, collects the reason and photos, and opens a return request in Shopify for your team to approve. The customer stays in the same conversation for every update, on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat or email.
Why returns get messy
Store owners describe the same pattern. A customer emails “I want to send this back”, often without the order number. Someone finds the order, checks the date, asks for the reason, asks again for a photo of the damage, then explains the steps. A small store with growing return volume ends up processing every request by hand.
Other parts of the process make it worse. Return and cancellation requests can sit as a small indicator in the admin and get missed. Parcels arrive with no note, and staff have to work out which order and customer they belong to. Merchants also say they want to talk to the customer while a return is open, and to see photos of a damaged or wrong item before they approve it.
The usual fixes and their limits
- An email address or contact form. It costs nothing, but every request needs a person to read it, find the order and reply, often more than once.
- Shopify’s self-serve returns. Customers can request a return from their order status page, within the return rules you set, and you approve or decline it in the admin. It covers the request itself. Questions before and after the request still arrive by email or chat.
- A returns app, such as AfterShip, Loop Returns or ReturnGO. These add return portals, labels and exchange flows. Small stores often find the subscription or per-return fees hard to justify at low volume, and the customer still has to find the portal.
- A chatbot that only answers from your FAQ. It can paste your returns policy, but it cannot check the order or start the return, so the customer still ends up emailing.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
The customer messages you wherever they bought from you. AeroChat verifies who they are against the order in Shopify, checks the delivery date against your return window, asks for the reason and, for damaged or wrong items, a photo. It then opens the return request in Shopify with the items and reason. It does not approve the return or refund anything. Your team reviews the request in the Shopify admin as usual, and the customer can ask about it in the same chat at any time.
Customer: Hi, the jacket I ordered is too small. Can I return it? (example)
AeroChat: Sorry it didn’t fit. Can you share your order number and the email you ordered with?
Customer: #4182, sam@example.com
AeroChat: Thanks, Sam. Order #4182 was delivered 9 days ago, so it is inside our 30-day return window (example). Is it the Ridge quilted jacket in size S you want to return, because it is too small?
Customer: Yes.
AeroChat: Done. I have submitted your return request for the Ridge quilted jacket. Our team will review it and send you the return instructions here. Would you like me to check whether size M is in stock?
In Shopify: a return request for one Ridge quilted jacket, reason “size too small”, appears on order #4182 for your team to approve.
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks to return an item, follow these steps.
- Ask for their order number and the email or phone number they ordered with. Verify them against the order in Shopify before going further.
- Check the delivery date against our 30-day return window (example). If it is outside the window, explain our policy and hand the conversation to our team.
- Confirm which item and how many they want to return, and ask for the reason.
- If the item is damaged, faulty or not what they ordered, ask for a photo before you continue.
- Open a return request in Shopify for those items with the reason, and add their own words as a note.
- Tell them the request is submitted and that our team will review it. Never promise a refund, an amount or a date.
- If the reason is size or fit, offer to check whether another size is in stock.
If they ask about the return later, check the order in Shopify and tell them its return and refund status. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the return window and the hand-over steps to match your returns policy before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store in the dashboard. AeroChat verifies the customer, reads the order and opens the return request there.
- Your returns policy. Add it to AeroChat’s knowledge, with your return window, the items you do not accept back and who pays return shipping.
- A shipping tool, if you send return labels. Shippo and Sendcloud can create a return label through their APIs once your team approves the return.
Questions
Does AeroChat approve returns or issue refunds?
No. AeroChat opens the return request in Shopify with the items, reason and the customer’s note. Your team approves it and handles the refund in the Shopify admin, as you do today.
Can customers send photos of a damaged item?
Yes. The customer sends the photo in the chat, and it stays in the conversation for your team to see when they review the return.
Does this replace Shopify’s self-serve returns?
It can sit alongside it. Customers who go to their order status page can still use it. Customers who message you get the same request opened for them in the chat.
Can the customer ask about the return later?
Yes. In the same chat, AeroChat checks the order in Shopify and tells them whether the return is still open and whether a refund has been issued.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
Take return requests in chat on your store
Install AeroChat, paste the returns recipe, and ask your own number to return an order you placed for testing.
7-day free trial.