What if customer need to pay a separate shipping fee to get his returned item sent back to him?

Payments + Shipping & Fulfilment

Topic summary

Main issue: A merchant wants customers with denied return/exchange requests to pay a separate shipping fee before their item is sent back, and asks how to set this up in Shopify, ideally tied to the original order’s tracking number.

Proposed workflow:

  • Use a Shopify draft order (a manual order created by the merchant) to invoice the customer for the return shipping.
  • Create a product that represents the shipping fee, mark it hidden (not available on the storefront), and add it to the draft order.
  • From Admin: Orders > Create order > add the hidden shipping-fee product > add customer details > send invoice. The customer pays online; then the merchant ships the item.

Notes/definitions:

  • “Hidden product” means a product not published to sales channels so it isn’t visible for normal purchase.
  • The reply links to Shopify’s draft orders documentation for detailed steps.

Status and open questions:

  • The payment collection method is resolved with a clear, actionable process.
  • Integration with the original order’s tracking number for payment/visibility was not addressed and remains an open point.
Summarized with AI on January 13. AI used: gpt-5.
1

hi all,

I have a return policy below for my store:

If your return/exchange request was denied, you will have to pay the
shipping fee and we will send your item back to you. We will not send it back
to you before you finish shipping payment.

do you have any suggestion how can I setup this procedure on my shopify store?

Can it be integrated in order tracking system? So that customer can track him order and pay a separate shipping fee by the same order tracking number.

Please advice, thanks

2

Hi @jessica_0430 , great question.

You can create a draft order for your customer and then send them the invoice for them to pay before you ship out their product. You’ll need to add a product to the draft order, so create a product that is the shipping amount and then hide the product so it’s not available in your store. Read more about draft orders here.

To send an invoice on Shopify, go to Orders in your admin, click Create order, and add products. Add customer details, optional details, then send the invoice. The customer will be notified and can make their payment.

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