Returns and Exchanges in Chat for Shopify
Yes. Customers can start a return or exchange in the chat, with your Shopify store built in. AeroChat verifies the order, checks the delivery date against your return window, collects the reason and photos, offers only sizes and colors that are in stock for an exchange, and opens the return request in Shopify. Your team approves it as usual, and the customer stays in the same conversation.
This recipe handles “I want to return this” and “can I swap it for another size?” in one conversation. Part of connecting Shopify to WhatsApp and AI chat.
What happens today
A customer wants to send something back or swap it. They message you, and someone finds the order, checks the date, asks for the reason, checks stock for the new size, explains how to send it back and opens the return in Shopify. It takes several messages. If the size they want is sold out, it takes more.
Shopify lets customers request a return from their order page within your rules, but questions about which size to pick and how it works still arrive by chat.
The flow that works
- The customer asks to return or exchange an item.
- AeroChat verifies them against the order in Shopify.
- It checks the delivery date against your return window and which items can be returned.
- It asks for the reason, and for a photo if the item is damaged or wrong.
- For an exchange, it offers only sizes and colors that are in stock.
- It opens the return request in Shopify with the reason and a note with the exchange variant, and tells the customer what happens next.
What it looks like on WhatsApp
Customer: Can I swap the linen shirt from order #4419 for a size L? (example)
AeroChat: Happy to help. Please confirm the email on the order.
Customer: omar@example.com
AeroChat: Thanks, Omar. Order #4419 arrived 9 days ago, inside our 30-day window (example). You have the linen shirt in M, white. L in white is in stock. Shall I set up the exchange?
Customer: Yes.
AeroChat: Done. Your exchange request for the linen shirt, M to L, is in. We’ll send the return instructions here once it’s approved.
In Shopify: a return request for the linen shirt, reason “size too small”, appears on order #4419 with the note “Exchange for L, white”.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer wants to return or exchange an item, follow these steps.
- Ask for the 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 which item and why. If it is damaged or wrong, ask for a photo.
- For an exchange, check which sizes and colors of the same product are in stock and offer only those. If none are, offer a return instead.
- Open a return request in Shopify for the item with the reason. For an exchange, add the note “Exchange for [size, color]”.
- Tell them the request is in and our team will send the return instructions once it is approved.
Never promise the new item ships before the return is approved. Reply in the customer’s language.
Change the return window and the items that can’t be returned 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. AeroChat verifies the customer, reads the order and checks stock from your synced catalog. The return request goes to Shopify through its Admin API, and your team approves or declines it there.
- A returns app, if you use one. Loop Returns, AfterShip Returns, ReturnGO and Redo connect through their APIs, so AeroChat can start the return in the app you already run.
- A shipping tool, if you send return labels. Shippo and Sendcloud can create a return label through their APIs once your team approves.
- Your knowledge base. Add your returns policy and the items that can’t be returned, so AeroChat answers from your own rules.
After you paste the recipe, AeroChat builds the workflow as a draft and shows a checklist of what is left: add your returns policy and connect your returns app if you use one, then switch it on.
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’t be returned.
- Whether exchanges wait for the return to arrive or ship once approved.
- Who approves returns, and whether some, such as damaged items under a set value, skip the return.
The result to expect
Returns and exchanges start in one conversation, with the right reason and an in-stock size already on the request. Your team approves instead of chasing details.
Measure it with your own numbers: returns and exchanges started in chat, exchanges kept instead of refunded, and messages per return, for a month before and after.
Next: see the returns and exchanges workflow across every channel, starting a return in chat and size exchanges in chat.
Works on every chat channel
This workflow runs the same way on WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, the chat on your Shopify store and email, with the same Shopify connection behind it. See what each channel does on the Shopify integration page.
Channel versions: WhatsApp returns and refunds and Instagram returns and refunds.
Start your first return in chat
Install AeroChat, paste the recipe, and ask your own store chat to swap a size on a test order.
7-day free trial.