Create a customer paid forward and return label - They are sending items to me for repair

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Need: a workflow where customers mailing items in for repair can receive both shipping labels without manual handling. The main request is for Shopify to generate a customer-to-business label and a business-to-customer return label, with charges handled through checkout or billed shipping labels.

Key constraints:

  • One use case involves repair orders where the customer includes a return label in the box.
  • Another requires customers to buy a return label even when the original purchase was made outside Shopify through other sales channels.
  • The goal is to have labels emailed automatically and avoid creating return labels manually.

Current findings:

  • Existing return apps appear limited because many only support orders created inside Shopify.
  • Shippo reportedly cannot support this setup.
  • ShippyPro requires signup before support details are available.

Outcome:

  • No confirmed Shopify-native solution was identified in the discussion.
  • The question remains open, with participants still looking for an app or workflow that supports standalone or non-Shopify-order return labels.
Summarized with AI on March 8. AI used: gpt-5.4.
1

Hi all -

I have some folks sending me shoes for repair. The idea is that they send me their shoes with a return label inside the box, i repair and send back.

In a perfect world, I would love to have Shopify print both the forward (customer to me) and return (me to customer) as billable shipping labels, and provide them to the customer on checkout. I dont want to mess with printing my own labels for the return.

Is there a way to get this done through Shopify?

Thanks!!

1 Like
2

I have a very similar situation - need to have customer have the ability to purchase a return label, have the label emailed to them, and can’t have this tied to a Shopify order (our customers make the initial purchase through a variety of sales channels, not just our website).

I have looked at a variety of apps - Shippo says they can’t help. ShippyPro wants me to sign up before I get support. Returnly (and several other returns apps) only seem to work with orders that were generated inside of Shopify.

Does anyone have any suggestions on where to look next?