Automate Out-of-Stock Exchanges

OVERVIEW

Automated Out-of-Stock Exchanges is an automation setting that allows you to improve your customer experience and save time for your support team by automatically resolving exchange requests that have gone out-of-stock. 

Unlike other solutions, Automate Out-of-Stock Exchanges gives your support team a way to automatically convert out-of-stock exchanges into a refund or store credit, without manual effort from your team and without delay for the customer. You also have the option to process out-of-stock exchanges manually, without the need to take action in Shopify.

• Automate Out-of-Stock Exchanges
• Manual processing
• Processed Out-of-Stock Exchanges
• Customer Experience
• FAQs

Automate Out-of-Stock Exchanges

Automate out-of-stock exchanges is located in Settings > General under the Inventory section. It can be toggled on or off. If toggled on, there are two options to select between: a refund to the Original Payment Method (selected by default) or Store Credit. Turning on automate out-of-stock exchanges will prevent them from going into the Needs Review tab.

Note: The Store Credit option is only available if store credit is enabled in your Settings > Return policies.

Manual Processing

If automate out-of-stock exchanges is not enabled, out-of-stock exchanges will go to the Needs Review tab under Returns and can be identified by the out-of-stock icon as seen below. 

How to Manually Process an Out-of-Stock exchange

1. Open the out-of-stock exchange by clicking on the corresponding Order number.
2. Locate the item marked by the orange Out-of-Stock tag and click Edit
3. Select either remove and refund original payment OR remove and issue store credit
4. Click Process items

Processed Out-of-Stock Exchanges

When the out-of-stock exchange has been processed, either automatically or manually:

• Refund to original form of payment or store credit will be issued in Shopify 
• Gift card order created in Shopify will have an order tag of Loop: Out of Stock
• Item will have a yellow O/S Credited tag
• Relevant notes will appear in Loop Return history and Shopify order notes

Customer Experience

When the out-of-stock exchange has been processed, either automatically or manually, the customer will receive a Loop email notification informing them the item is out-of-stock and either a store credit or refund has been issued. The email will link to the Return Status Page which will have a banner with a similar notification at the top of the page.

Note: This content of this email can be edited by going to Settings > Notifications and selecting the Out of Stock: Refunded email template.

FAQ

If processing events for refunds and store credit are later than the processing event for exchanges, will automated out-of-stock refunds and store credit be held until the scheduled processing events? No, automated out-of-stock events will occur automatically and separately from original return processing events.

What happens if the exchange order includes a Stripe upsell charge? If automated out-of-stock exchanges is enabled with refunds, the refunds will go to Stripe first, then their form of payment used in Shopify. If automated out-of stock exchanges is enabled with store credit, the entire value (including upsell) will go to a gift card. 

If a return has multiple items charged to Stripe and only one item is out-of-stock, will Loop be able to issue a partial Stripe refund? Yes, Loop will only issue a refund for the out-of-stock item.

If automatic restocking is enabled in Loop, will restock happen when the out-of-stock exchange is processed? Yes, the return product will be automatically restocked when the out-of-stock exchange is processed and this will be reflected in the Loop Return history.

What if the out-of-stock item comes back in stock after the exchange order processing event? If automated out-of-stock exchanges is enabled, the refund or store credit will automatically be issued at the exchange processing event. If automated out-of-stock exchanges is disabled, Loop will try to fulfill the exchange order at each subsequent processing event until the return is manually processed. 

What if automated out-of-stock exchanges for refunds is enabled and an exchange for a return with an Exchange only tag goes out-of-stock? The automated out-of-stock exchanges refund setting will override the exchange only tag and the refund will be issued.