Shop Now

Someone’s returning a £100 jacket. Normally that’s £100 leaving your business.

Shop Now catches them at that moment and offers them the £100 to spend with you instead — often with a bit extra on top. A good chunk of people take it, and plenty spend more than the credit was worth. The return stops being a loss and becomes another order.

It’s the setting that makes the biggest difference to what returns cost you, so it’s worth setting up properly.

When customers get offered it

Everything below has to be true:

• Shop Now is switched on
• They have credit left over after any swap
• The policy covering them allows it
• Your minimum basket and bonus rules are satisfied
• Any fixed bonus you offer isn’t larger than their credit

Normal returns use your return policy’s Shop Now settings, falling back to your swap settings if the policy doesn’t specify. Warranty claims use the warranty policy’s settings.

What they see

Two choices: spend the credit now, or carry on and take a refund or credit the usual way.

If they shop, what they pick is attached to the request. If they don’t, nothing changes and they continue as normal. It costs them nothing to look, which is the point.

Importantly, people who asked for a refund still get offered this. Someone can pick “I just want my money back”, and still be shown the option to spend it before they finish. That’s where most of the value comes from.

The bonus

You can add a bonus on top of their credit — a fixed amount, or a percentage.

Return credit: £100 Bonus: 10% They get to spend: £110

The bonus only lands when their basket is worth at least as much as the credit. So they can’t take £100 of credit, spend £30, and pocket a bonus on the rest.

Think of the bonus as what you’re willing to pay to keep the sale. Losing 10% of a £100 order is better than losing all of it, and people routinely spend past the credit anyway.

After they shop and submit

• The return is created as normal.
• What they picked is saved against it.
• A draft order is created for those items.
• If they owe anything on top, they get an invoice for the difference.
• The return still goes through your usual approval, shipping and processing.

They don’t get the goods for free — the return still has to happen the way it normally would.

Why it isn’t showing

Working down from most to least common:

• They have no credit left — the swap used it all, or cost more than they returned
• It’s switched off, or the policy covering them doesn’t allow it
• A workflow has restricted their options
• Their basket is under your minimum
• Your fixed bonus is bigger than their credit — a £20 bonus on a £15 return won’t offer

That last one is easy to create by accident. A fixed bonus that looks sensible against a typical order will silently switch itself off on small ones. A percentage avoids the problem.

Questions people ask

What bonus should I offer?

Start at 10% and see how many people accept it. You give up a small part of the sale to keep the rest, and most people spend more than the credit anyway. If almost nobody takes it, raise it. If nearly everybody does, you could probably have offered less.

Fixed amount or percentage?

Percentage, in most cases. A fixed bonus stops appearing on returns smaller than the bonus itself, which is exactly the small-value returns where you’d most like to avoid a refund.

Can they spend more than their credit?

Yes — they’re invoiced for the difference. This is common and it’s the outcome you want.

What if they spend less than their credit?

Their basket has to be worth at least the credit for the bonus to apply. What happens to any remainder depends on your settings.

Does this work for warranty claims?

Yes, using the settings on the warranty policy rather than your return policy. They’re set up separately, so switching it on for returns doesn’t switch it on for warranties.