Do I Need a Returns App, or Can Returns Run in Chat?
Many small stores can start with Shopify’s self-serve returns plus chat, and add a returns app when volume justifies it. Shopify lets customers request a return from the order status page and lets you send a return label when you approve it. AeroChat handles the conversation: it checks eligibility, collects the reason and photos, opens the return request in Shopify and, through a shipping tool’s API, can send the label once you approve. A returns app earns its fee when you need exchange flows, portals and return rules at higher volume.
Shopify behavior from Shopify’s help center: Self-serve returns and cancellations, checked 11 November 2026.
Why it happens
Store owners on the Shopify Community ask for a returns app without annual contracts, transaction fees or high monthly costs. A UK store wants one that creates local return labels and nudges customers toward exchanges instead of refunds. A low-volume store only needs to handle the odd international return. Others ask what still hurts once a returns app is in place: labels, carrier connections, refunds, automation, cost or the customer’s experience.
At low volume, a monthly subscription can cost more than the returns it handles. At the same time, doing everything by email doesn’t scale.
What Shopify’s help center says
Per Shopify’s help center, checked 11 November 2026:
- With self-serve returns and cancellations, customers request a return for delivered items, or a cancellation for items that haven’t shipped, from their order status page.
- You can customize the request form to collect return reasons and product condition.
- Your return rules control which items are eligible, how long customers have, and whether return shipping is free or paid by the customer.
- You approve or decline each request in the admin, and when you approve a return you can send the customer a return label.
The usual fixes and their limits
- Shopify’s self-serve returns. Built in and tied to your return rules. The customer has to find the order status page, and questions around the return still come by email or chat.
- A returns app, such as Loop Returns, ReturnGO, AfterShip Returns, Redo or Swish. Adds branded portals, exchange flows, rules and label options. Worth comparing plans against your monthly return count.
- A shipping tool for labels, such as Shippo, Sendcloud or Easyship. Creates return labels with the carriers it supports in your country. Check that your local and international carriers are covered.
- Email only. No cost, and a person reads, checks and replies to each return.
How to handle it in chat with AeroChat
The customer messages on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat or email. AeroChat verifies them against the order in Shopify, checks the delivery date against your return window, asks for the reason and, for damage, a photo. It opens the return request in Shopify. For size or fit returns, it can offer an exchange for an in-stock size first. Once your team approves the return, AeroChat can create the return label through your shipping tool’s API and send it in the same chat. If you use a returns app with a public API, AeroChat can open the return there instead and answer questions about its status.
Customer: I’d like to return the boots, they’re too narrow. (example)
AeroChat: Sorry about that. What’s your order number and the email you ordered with?
Customer: #9120, olivia@example.com
AeroChat: Thanks, Olivia. Order #9120 arrived 6 days ago, inside our 30-day window (example). The same boots come in a wide fit in your size. Would you like to exchange, or return them for a refund?
Customer: Return please.
AeroChat: Your return request is submitted. Once our team approves it, I’ll send your return label here.
In Shopify: a return request for one pair of boots, reason “too narrow”, on order #9120.
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.
- 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.
- Ask for the reason. If the item is damaged or wrong, ask for a photo.
- If the reason is size or fit, check stock for another size and offer an exchange first.
- Open a return request in Shopify with the items and reason.
- When our team approves the return, create a return label through Shippo (example) and send it in the chat with the drop-off instructions.
Never promise a refund amount or date. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the window and the label tool to match your store before you paste it.
What to connect
- Your Shopify store. Built in. Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store and connect your store. AeroChat verifies the customer, reads the order and opens the return request.
- A label provider, if you send labels. A shipping tool with a public API that covers your carriers.
- A returns app, if you use one. Connected through its API, so returns opened in chat land in the same place as portal returns.
Questions
When is a returns app worth it?
When you handle enough returns that portals, exchange rules and reporting save more staff time than the plan costs. Compare its pricing with your monthly return count.
Can AeroChat approve returns?
The recipe above has your team approve. You can let AeroChat approve returns that meet clear rules, such as unworn items inside the window, if you write that in.
Does this work for international returns?
Yes, if your label provider supports the carrier for that country. Otherwise AeroChat sends your written instructions for sending it back.
Where can I see the full return flow?
See starting a return in chat and returns and exchanges.
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.
Run returns in the chat your customers use
Install AeroChat, paste the returns recipe, and return a test order from your own phone.
7-day free trial.