Get a Return Label on WhatsApp with Shippo
Yes. AeroChat works directly with Shippo. When a customer asks to return an item, AeroChat verifies the order in Shopify, checks it against your return policy, creates a return label in Shippo and sends it in the chat.
This recipe takes a return from “can I send this back?” to a label in the customer’s hands in one conversation, on WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger, web chat or email. Part of connecting Shippo to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What happens today
A customer asks how to return something. Your team checks the order date in Shopify, reads the policy, opens Shippo, creates a return shipment and emails the label. The customer waits a day for something that takes a few minutes, and asks again in the meantime. Returns that sit in the inbox also tend to turn into refund requests instead of exchanges.
The flow that works
- The customer asks to return an item.
- AeroChat verifies the order in Shopify by the email or phone number on it and asks which item and why.
- It checks the order date and the item against your return policy in the knowledge base.
- If the return is allowed, it creates a return shipment in Shippo from the customer’s address to your warehouse and buys the return label.
- It sends the label link and drop-off instructions in the chat.
- If the return is outside your policy, it explains the policy and hands the conversation to your team.
What it looks like on WhatsApp
Customer: The linen shirt from order #6031 is too big. Can I send it back? (example)
AeroChat: Sorry it didn’t fit. Your order arrived 9 days ago, so it is within our 30-day return window (example). Would you like a refund or a smaller size?
Customer: A refund please.
AeroChat: Here is your prepaid USPS return label: https://example.com/label/6031-return.pdf (example). Print it, stick it on the parcel and drop it at any post office. We’ll refund you once it arrives.
In Shippo: a return label is created from the customer’s address to your warehouse, with order #6031 as the reference.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks to return an item, follow these steps.
- Ask for the order number and the email or phone number on the order, and verify the order in Shopify.
- Ask which item they want to return and why. Offer an exchange first if the reason is size or color.
- Check the delivery date and the item against our return policy in the knowledge base.
- If the return is allowed, create a return shipment in Shippo from the customer’s shipping address to our warehouse, with the parcel size from our knowledge base, and buy the label with our usual return service.
- Send the label link and the drop-off instructions. Tell them when the refund or exchange happens.
- If the return is outside our policy, or the item is marked final sale, explain the policy and hand the conversation to our team.
Never promise a refund amount. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the return window, the return service and the exchange offer to match your 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, so AeroChat can verify the order and the delivery address.
- Shippo. Open the API page in your Shippo settings and copy your live API token. Use the test token first if you want to try it without buying real labels. Paste it in when AeroChat asks.
- Your knowledge base. Add your return policy and parcel sizes.
Shippo’s return labels for USPS, FedEx and UPS are scan-based, so Shippo’s docs say you are only charged when the label is used. Labels are billed to your own Shippo account. AeroChat does not pay for labels.
After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist: connect Shippo, add your knowledge base if the recipe uses one, then switch it on. If it built the connection from Shippo’s public documentation at docs.goshippo.com, the checklist asks you to check it once against the current docs.
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.
What you still decide
- Your return window and which items can come back.
- Whether AeroChat sends the label itself or leaves it for your team.
- When the refund or exchange is issued, which stays with your team or your returns process.
The result to expect
Customers get a return label in the same chat, within your policy, at any hour. Your team stops creating labels by hand and only sees the returns that need a decision.
Measure it with your own numbers: return labels sent from chat, and exchanges against refunds, for a month before and after.
Next: see every Shippo workflow, or how returns and exchanges on Shopify run in chat.
Works on every chat channel
This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, the chat on your store and email, with the same Shippo connection behind it. See what each channel does on the Shippo integration page.
Send your first return label from chat
Install AeroChat, paste the recipe, add your Shippo test token, and ask your own chat to return a test order.
7-day free trial.