How can I track order return status in CSV exports?

Shopify Discussion
1

Hello ,

We would like to export orders to CSV but we would like to track which orders are being returned (and not refunded yet).

We can add a filter to the report (e.g. by Return Status = Return Requested OR Return in progress)

but the resulting sheet does not allow to discriminate the line items being returned (i.e. partially returning orders).

Can you help, is there a way in Shopify or do we need to resort to APIs ?

Thanks & Best Regards
D

2

Hey @dbidinost,

Shopify’s built-in CSV exports are pretty limited, they don’t expose line-level return status out of the box. You can filter by “Return Requested / In Progress,” but as you’ve noticed, that only marks the order as a whole, not which line items are actually coming back.

Your options are:

  • API route: Using the Returns API you can pull return objects tied to specific line items. That’s the only way to get clean visibility into partial returns programmatically.

  • Apps: If you don’t want to build against the API, apps that specialise in returns like ParcelPanel Returns & Exchanges give you detailed exports where you can see return reasons, statuses, and which SKUs are affected. Since it’s a self-service portal, customers’ requests are logged neatly, and you can export everything for reporting without digging through Shopify’s limited CSV.

So short answer: Shopify CSV alone won’t give you item-level return tracking. You’ll either need to pull via API or use a returns app that logs and exports those details for you.

Hope this helps a bit! If it does, feel free to mark it as a solution so others can find it too :slightly_smiling_face: