What the customer sees when requesting a withdrawal
At a glance
- What you get
- Know exactly what the customer does, so you can answer their questions and try the form yourself.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- Plan
- All plans
Before you start
The form must be published on your theme: see Publish the form on your store. The texts below are the standard English ones; you can change them as explained in Customize the form’s texts, languages and reasons.
The customer’s path
The customer doesn’t need to log in. At the top of the form they see a bar with three steps: 1. Order Details, 2. Items & Reason, 3. Confirmation. On phones the bar becomes “Step 1 of 3”.
Step 1 — Order details
The customer sees the title “Withdrawal Request” and a short hint: enter email, order number and order date exactly as shown in the order confirmation email. The order number works with or without the hash (#1001 or 1001).
They fill in these fields:
- First name and Last name
- Address, Postal code and City
- Your Email
- Phone, only in the Module block and only if you show it
- Order number
- Order Date
- Reason or return details, optional unless you make it required
Below the fields is the legal text referring to Directive 2011/83/EU and, if you set it, the sentence about who pays return shipping. Then the Review request → button.
When they click it, the app checks the order in your store. If something doesn’t match, the customer sees a message and stays on step 1. The possible messages are in the table further down.
Step 2 — Items and reason
The customer sees “Select the items to return”, the order summary and the list of items found, with photo, price and quantity purchased.
- They tick the items to return and, if they bought more than one, choose the quantity.
- They pick the reason from the Return reason menu: “Item was defective”, “Changed my mind”, “Incorrect size” or “Other”. With “Other” they must type the reason. If you created custom reasons, they see yours instead of the standard ones, with “Other” always last.
- They click Next →. ← Back returns to step 1.
On the Free plan there is one reason for the whole request. On the Grow and Unlimited plans the customer gives a reason for each item.
An item excluded from withdrawal (by tag, product, collection or category) shows the note “This item cannot be returned through this form. Please contact us directly.” and cannot be ticked.
Step 3 — Summary and confirmation
The customer sees “Summary of your request”: name, email, order number and date, notes, reason and items, marked “TOTAL RETURN” if they return the whole order or “PARTIAL RETURN” if only part of it.
- They check the details. To correct something they click ← Edit.
- They click Confirm withdrawal. The button changes to “Sending…”.
What the customer sees at the end: the message “✅ Request successfully submitted! We have received your request.”, the sentence “Our internal team will review the request and provide feedback as soon as possible.”, the Case reference and the Download PDF receipt button.
The emails the customer receives
- Right after sending: the acknowledgment of receipt, with the request details. It is always sent, because the law requires confirming the withdrawal on a durable medium.
- When you approve: the approval email. If you filled in the return address, it tells the customer where to send the goods.
- When you reject: the rejection email with the reason you wrote.
- When you confirm the goods arrived and when the refund is done: the matching emails.
Details are in Emails to the customer and to you.
Messages the customer may see
| Message | Why it appears |
|---|---|
| “The email or order number do not match. Please check your details and try again.” | The order number doesn’t exist or the email isn’t the one on the order. |
| “This order is associated with a business account (B2B): the EU 14-day withdrawal right applies only to private consumers.” | The order was placed by a company. |
| “This order has been cancelled. It is not possible to request a withdrawal.” | The order is cancelled in Shopify. |
| “This order has already been fully refunded. Operation not allowed.” | The order is already fully refunded. |
| “This order has no registered contact email. Please contact the store to request the withdrawal manually.” | The order has no customer email. |
| “The 14-day withdrawal period has expired. Last delivery was on …” | The period is over. The number of days is the one you set. |
| “Your withdrawal request falls outside the maximum allowable window permitted by our policy or the input date does not match the original order…” | Grow and Unlimited plans only: the order date entered doesn’t match, or the period is over. |
| “A withdrawal request has already been registered for this order number.” | A request already exists for that order. |
| “A return request for this order has already been submitted and refused…” | The earlier request was rejected. |
| “One or more selected items can’t be processed through this form’s automatic method…” | One of the chosen items is excluded. |
| “Too many requests. Please try again in a few minutes.” | Too many attempts in a short time. |
Some of these texts can be changed in the theme editor: see Customize the form’s texts, languages and reasons.
Try the form yourself
- Place a test order on your store with your own email, or use a real order whose email and number you know.
- Open the published store (not the theme editor preview) and go to the form page.
- Fill in step 1 with that order’s details and click Review request →.
-
Choose an item and a reason, click Next →, then Confirm withdrawal.
What you’ll see: the case reference on the store, the confirmation email in the customer’s inbox and the new request in Apps › IFG Returns › Returns, with status “In progress”.
Warning: a test request is a real request: the order’s customer receives the confirmation email, and no other request can be sent for that order. Use an order with your own email.
Troubleshooting
A customer says the form rejects their order number. Ask them to copy it from the order confirmation email and to use the same email they bought with.
The form is in an unexpected language. The form language follows the “Primary language” on the Form editor page. See Customize the form’s texts, languages and reasons.