How Sumtracker handles Order Returns, Exchanges, and Cancellations

This article explains how Sumtracker handles inventory adjustments when you process a return, exchange, or cancellation in Shopify or Amazon.

Shopify

What Sumtracker handles automatically

Sumtracker automatically handles

Order changes
Order fulfillments
Order cancellations
Order returns with and without restock
Order refunds with restock

What Sumtracker does not handle automatically

The only cases that is not handled automatically

Order refunds without restock

Shopify API does not send the location id in this case. Due to this limitation of the Shopify API, Sumtracker does not know where to deduct the inventory of the SKU that is not restocked.

There are 2 separate cases here

Fulfilled orders - Refunded without restock - Mark as “No action required” in Sumtracker (watch video)

In case of “No Restock” for fulfilled orders, the inventory of the product is already reduced in Sumtracker. Therefore your inventory will automatically be correct.

In Sumtracker, you can select these products and mark as “No action required”.

Unfulfilled orders - Refunded without restock - Select the warehouse to decrease inventory from correct warehouse (watch video)

In this case, the inventory of the product needs to be correctly reduced in Sumtracker. You have select the products and select the warehouse from where you want to reduce the inventory.

‘My returns are handled by a third-party app. Does Sumtracker work with that?

Sumtracker detects the state of the order based on the actions performed in Shopify order by the third party app. All of the above cases apply for the returns handled by third party app as well. If its an order refund without restock, you will need to follow the steps outlined above.

Returns for orders created before Sumtracker was connected

Sumtracker only pulls in orders from the day you turn on inventory sync. If you process a return for an order that was created before Sumtracker was connected to your store, Sumtracker will not be able to detect this return and your inventory will not be automatically adjusted.

For example:

A customer places an order on 20th May
You turned on inventory sync with Sumtracker for your store on 1st June
That customer returns the order on 5th June

Because the original order was placed before Sumtracker was connected, Sumtracker has no record of it. When the return is processed on 5th June, Sumtracker will not detect it and your inventory will not be updated.

To fix this, manually adjust the inventory in Sumtracker whenever you process a return for a pre-connection order.

Amazon

Sumtracker can automatically add inventory back when Amazon processes a customer return.

Amazon processes returns on a monthly cycle, so Sumtracker syncs returns from the previous month on a weekly basis. Every seven days, Sumtracker checks for returned items and restocks them in your inventory.

💡 Returnless refunds: If you process a returnless refund on Amazon (where the customer keeps the item), Sumtracker will not restock the product, since no inventory was actually returned.