Auto-Refunds

DotApparel has introduced a new feature that enables online refunds that were paid via Shopify Payments and other native payment gateways supported by Shopify. With this feature, merchants can easily sync Apparel21 refunds back to the original orders in Shopify.

This guide will walk you through the steps to initiate transaction refunds within DotApparel.

The benefit of the feature

The main advantage of this feature is the streamlined refund process for payment refunds, here's how it primarily benefits merchants:

• Refund Shopify order from AP21: Merchants can handle returns within AP21 without any extra steps. There is no need to handle refunds separately in both Apparel21 and Shopify, instead, they can process refunds exclusively in Apparel21, saving time and effort.

• Refund Shopify order from POS (in-store): When a refund is processed in Apparel21, the payment status of the corresponding order in Shopify will be automatically updated. This sync ensures that the payment status is accurate and up to date in both systems without manual intervention. (this requires a refunds.csv for in-store refunds only) Note: The merchant will need to configure the refund.csv files. See more info here

What does Auto-refunds do?

Feature	Possible?
Refund online orders via Apparel21 Mail Order (Head Office)	✅
Refund online orders via Apparel21 POS (In-store)	✅ Note: The requires a refunds.csv
Refund should be deducted from Shopify order	✅
Capture the return reason	✅
Ability to refund online orders back to the original payment method. The module can process refunds for all payment methods supported by Shopify: PayPal AfterPay Shopify, ShopPay Apple Pay Google Pay	✅ Note: The feature does not support Refunds for orders paid with gift cards
Exchange of size or colour	❌
Exchange with different products requiring more payment	❌
exchanges with different products requiring a monetary refund	❌

How to set up Auto-Refunds

Staging Environment

Merchant to provide:

• Access to Shopify Staging store

• (For in-store refunds via POS) Access to test Apparel21 POS

• Apparel21 Return Reasons

• Return Reason IDs

  These should include all reasons involving refunded or exchanged items.

• Freight SKU Index

• (For in-store refunds via POS) A sample refunds.csv from AP21 Consultant containing refunded POS transactions

DotApparel to configure:

• Return Reasons, IDs, and Freight SKU Index in staging

• (For in-store refunds via POS) SFTP setup for uploading refunds.csv in the staging environment

Merchant to provide:

• Merchant ID and Card Type for Shopify_payments

  Used to correctly map payment methods in DotApparel

DotApparel to verify:

• Payment mappings are correctly configured

• The Allow Auto-Refund toggle is enabled View this step in our documentation →

Merchant to:

• Enable Shopify Test Payments in staging store

• Place test orders

• Trigger a return in AP21 using a configured return reason

If setup is correct, refund will process automatically in the staging Shopify store

Live Environment

• Merchant to approve module deployment to live

• DotApparel to configure Auto-Refunds in the live app and enable the module

Configuration steps for DotApparel once prerequisites are met

Responsibility: DotApparel

Step 1: Set up a new return reason in Apparel 21.

This step requires the merchant to set up the new return reason on their end. The new return reason can be anything such as Shopify Refund but should be a unique reason to avoid potential coupling issues with existing ones.

After completing the setup for return reasons, open the DotApparel Core app and navigate to the settings page. Find the Refund section and select the newly created return reasons for Auto-Refunds.

You can also configure multiple return reasons.

Auto-Refunds configuration

Step 2: (Optional) Set up freight SKU IDX

The "Freight SKU IDX" field is now required in the settings. This value is used to determine if a returned item corresponds to a shipping fee and whether it can be refunded.

Step 3: (Optional) Set up refund payment origin

The "Refund Payment Origin" field is used to help with refunding shipping fees for cancelled orders.

Step 4: (Optional) Configure "virtual partial refund SKU IDX"

The "Virtual Partial Refund SKU IDX" field enables merchants to configure virtual products in AP21 specifically for partial refunds. This feature allows merchants to create a new returned item and immediately specify a total partial refund amount without the need to modify existing order items in AP21, thereby enhancing flexibility in handling partial refunds.

Step 5: Activate the feature

Make sure to enable the "Active Auto-Refund in Shopify" option.

Step 6: Save your changes

After configuring the settings, click the "Update settings" button to save the changes and complete the setup.

Step 7: Enable fulfilment automation in DotApparel.

1. Within the settings page, navigate to the automation section.

2. Find the option to enable fulfilment automation and activate it.

3. Save the changes.

Step 8: Configure payment gateways

By default, Auto-refunds only handles orders that are paid through "Shopify payment". However, an enhancement now allows users to customise this rule. Users can navigate to DotApparel's settings, locate the payment gateways section, and enable the "Allow Auto-Refund" checkbox for third-party gateways like Afterpay.

How Auto-Refund works (detailed)

Every Auto-Refund workflow consists of 3 main steps:

Step 1: The merchant returns one or multiple items in Apparel21

After an item is refunded in Apparel21, it must be assigned a specific return reason designed for auto-refunds. In DotApparel, a pre-defined return reason ID is established to identify eligible items for auto-refunds. To trigger the auto-refund process in Shopify, the following conditions must be met:

1. The Apparel21 OrderDetail (line item) status should be marked as "Returned".

2. The return reason ID assigned to the refunded item in Apparel21 matches the pre-defined return reason ID in DotApparel.

Step 2: DotApparel downloads the updated orders from Appare21

DotApparel is running an automation task to regularly download the most recently updated orders from Apparel21. By default, this task occurs once per hour, ensuring the system stays updated with the latest order information. However, if the Apparel21 Retail API version is 2022.3 or newer, the download task is more frequent, running every 5 minutes for faster synchronisation.

Once the orders are downloaded into DotApparel, the system proceeds to evaluate each order's eligibility for automatic refunds in Shopify. DotApparel checks various criteria to determine if an order can be automatically refunded using the payment gateway. If an order meets the necessary conditions for automatic refunding, DotApparel lists the refund requests within the app for merchant review and processing.

Step 3: The refunded orders are processed in Shopify

Once an order is processed in DotApparel, the corresponding items are immediately refunded in Shopify. DotApparel communicates with Shopify's refund functionality, initiating the refund process for specific items.

Upon successful refund in Shopify, the "refund notes" section within the order will be updated with a reference ID. The reference ID format is as follows: "Reason: '[AP21 Refund] - ref: 4a00e8e1-cd94-46f8-9090-f5d9f9e4107b'". This reference ID serves as a unique identifier and enables merchants to easily locate and view the AP21 refund details within the DotApparel app.

In the event of any error during the auto-refund process, DotApparel promptly displays an error message. The order associated with the failed refund is labelled as "Failed to refund" within DotApparel, indicating that the refund was not successful. Merchants can review the specific error message in DotApparel to identify the cause of the failed refund and take appropriate action, such as manual refund processing in Shopify if necessary.

Limitations

This section highlights the limitations of the auto-refund feature in DotApparel and its integration with Shopify. It covers scenarios where manual refunds in Shopify, cancelled AP21 orders, and gift card payments are not supported.

1. If an order has already been refunded manually in Shopify, the auto-refund process in DotApparel will be halted to prevent duplicate refunds. Merchants are required to manually process the refund in Shopify for such cases.

2. By default, if an order is cancelled in AP21, DotApparel will not automatically process a refund in Shopify. If you require automatic refunds for these types of orders in Shopify, please contact our support team for assistance.

3. The feature does not support refunds for orders paid with gift cards. In cases where an order is paid using a combination of gift card and normal payment, only the portion paid with the payment can be refunded through Shopify. Merchants need to process any gift card refunds separately, outside the auto-refund process.