Letting customers open their own returns

A customer who wants to send goods back can open the return from their own account, without contacting support first. The portal is enabled with a single field.

That field does not make the route appear on every order. The module offers it only where at least one delivery of the order has left, which follows from the order itself rather than from any setting.

Before you start

There have to be orders that have actually gone out. Nothing can be returned before it has been sent.

The length of the window has to be decided. The window is expressed in days and defaults to fourteen, which is the statutory minimum in the EU; a shop may be more generous, never shorter.

The handling of guests has to be decided. Customers without an account reach their return through a link, which is controlled by a separate setting.

1. Switch the portal on

Stockly → Returns → Settings → General → Let customers raise returns themselves.

2. Set the window

Default return window (days) defines how long a customer has and applies where no return rule matches. Assumed transit time (days), three by default, defines how long the goods are expected to be travelling back, and it prevents a return from being shown as overdue while it is still in the post.

3. Decide about guests

Let guests open a return extends the same route to customers without an account. They reach it through a link tied to their order rather than through a login.

4. Set the photo allowance per item

Photos per item determines how many photographs a customer can attach to one item, and Largest photo (MB) limits the size of each of them.

Caution

If a reason requires a photo and this value is zero, the customer is asked for something the form cannot accept. The module reports that combination as a finding. → Configuration integrity

Checking it works

Open a delivered order in the customer account. The return route is offered, the configured reasons are listed, and the resulting claim appears in the returns list for somebody to accept. → Raising a return

When the button is missing

Three conditions are read together, and the route is offered only where all three hold: the portal is switched on for that sales channel, at least one delivery of the order has left, and the order is no longer cancellable. An order that is still cancellable is not missing its return route by mistake: cancelling is the correct route at that stage, and the module offers that instead.

The return window is not part of this decision. It is judged line by line inside the wizard, so an order past its window still offers the route and states there which items can no longer be sent back. → What the customer sees

Where to go next

• What the customer sees — the whole customer-facing flow.
• Raising a return — what happens on your side once a claim arrives.
• Returns settings — every field on this screen in detail.