This section allows you to configure and manage cancellation settings for customer orders. By setting up cancellation rules here, you can determine whether customers are able to cancel their orders after placing them and under what conditions.
When this feature is enabled, customers can cancel their orders after placing them—directly from their Thank-You page, Order-Status page, or Customer Account area.
For example: If a customer accidentally orders the wrong product or changes their mind before shipping starts, they can cancel the order themselves without needing to contact support. This helps prevent unnecessary fulfilment work and refunds after shipping.
Smart cancellation settings
⚠️NOTE: Enabling Smart Cancellation is a prerequisite for using other cancellation features.
This is the foundation of the cancellation process.
It controls whether customers are allowed to cancel their orders before they are processed.
This setting controls whether customers can cancel their own orders before they move into the processing stage and give customers the option to cancel their orders before processing begins, helping you reduce returns, customer complaints, and manual cancellation requests.
Allows merchants to manage customer order cancellations automatically and efficiently by setting rules for when cancellations are possible.
It’s designed to reduce unnecessary shipments, returns, and customer service workload by letting buyers correct mistakes themselves.
When checked: Customers will see a "Cancel Order" button on their order status page while the order is still in a pending or awaiting fulfillment state.
Once clicked, the order will be canceled automatically, inventory will be restocked (if enabled), and refund processes will begin based on your payment provider’s settings.
Customers will see a "Cancel Order" button in their order status page only if the order is still unprocessed (e.g., status is “Pending” or “Awaiting Fulfilment”).
The system will:
Update the order status to “Cancelled” instantly without merchant intervention.
Trigger inventory restock.
Reverse payment holds or start a refund process (depending on your payment provider).
This automation reduces the need for merchant action and speeds up customer resolution.
Example Workflow When Enabled:
Customer orders a product → order enters Pending status.
Customer realizes they ordered the wrong item and clicks Cancel Order.
Order status changes to Cancelled instantly → stock is released back to inventory → refund process starts.
Merchant doesn’t have to manually process the request.
When unchecked: Customers cannot cancel their orders themselves. All cancellations must be handled manually by the merchant or customer support, requiring extra time and effort.
Even when the cancle order widget appears, and customer actually moves forward to cancle the order, they will get a message saying :
All cancellation requests must be submitted through customer support by filling the form below or handled manually by the merchant.
Just after the customer submits the form the merchant manually needs to perform the following actions:
Locate the order in the admin panel.
Change status to Cancelled.
Manually restock inventory and process refunds.
This gives the merchant full control over cancellations but increases manual workload.
Example Workflow When Disabled:
Customer orders a product → order enters Pending status.
Customer wants to cancel but cannot do it themselves.
They contact support → merchant manually cancels order and processes refund.
Customer waits longer for resolution.
Best Practices:
Enable this feature if you want to give customers quick control over mistakes while the order hasn’t been processed yet — reduces customer frustration and workload.
Disable if your fulfillment process is highly automated and cancellations at the last moment could cause disruptions.
Cancel & Refund Options
This setting determines how refunds are processed after a cancellation request is submitted.
Key rules:
You cannot deselect both options — one must always be selected.
You cannot choose both at the same time — only one refund method can be active at once.
Available options (only one can be active at a time):
Original payment method: Refund is sent directly back to the customer’s original payment method (e.g., credit card, PayPal, etc.). This is the most straightforward and automatic option.
Store Credit: We’ve introduced a new Store Credit option for handling cancellations. Instead of refunding directly to the customer’s original payment method, merchants can now choose to issue store credit equal to the refund amount.
This credit remains with the store and can be applied to future purchases, helping you retain revenue while still giving customers flexibility.
Key Benefits of Store Credit:
Keeps funds within your store for future orders.
Encourages repeat purchases and customer loyalty.
Provides a smooth alternative for customers who are open to using credits instead of cash refunds.
Available options now include (choose only one):
Original payment method – Refund back to card, PayPal, or other payment source.
Store credit – Issue refund as credit balance for future use.
Trigger Shopify Flow – Run a custom workflow for manual handling or advanced rules.
When Store Credit is selected, the issued credit will appear in the customer’s account and can be applied automatically during checkout on their next order.
Trigger Shopify Flow: Instead of sending the refund automatically, this triggers a workflow in your Shopify Flow app. This can be used for custom refund handling such as manual review, store credit issuance, or sending additional notifications.
NOTE: A text box appears only if you select Trigger Shopify Flow allowing you to add a note for the customer (up to 100 characters).
Customer View When Trigger Shopify Flow is Selected:
This note is displayed to the customer when they request cancellation, providing instructions or details about the next steps.
They select a reason from the provided list (e.g., “Found a better price”, “Changed my mind”).
The not that you add here is reflected to the customer here:
As soon as they hit the request button,they will get a message:
The Shopify Flow workflow can be set up to handle custom refund processes, notifications, or other actions.
Order Cancellation Trigger – Admin View
In your admin dashboard, the order’s Fulfillment status will change to On hold, letting you know a cancellation is pending.
This allows the admin to quickly identify canceled orders that are pending further action.
Choosing the right option ensures your refund process matches your business needs and automation preferences.
Customer Experience:
When they request a cancellation, they see their selected reason + the note you’ve added (if using Shopify Flow).
If “Original Payment Method” is chosen, they don’t see extra messages — refund happens automatically.
Example:
If “Trigger Shopify Flow” is active and you enter “Our team will contact you for refund processing” in the note field, the customer will see this message when they attempt to cancel, helping set clear expectations.
Note: This feature ensures that one refund process is always defined, preventing cancellation requests from going unhandled.
Restocking fees
⚠️NOTE: Only available when “Original Payment Method” is selected.
When checked: You can set one of three fee types:
Percentage: Deducts a percentage of the total order value from the refund.
A % of the order value is deducted.
Example: 10% fee on a $100 order = customer refunded $90.
Fixed – Deducts a set amount in your store currency.
A flat amount is deducted.
Example: $20 fee applied regardless of order total
Shipping Taxes – Retains the original shipping fee and taxes, refunding only the product price.That's why it shows up like this.
Customer gets item cost refunded, but not shipping/tax.
⚠️ Not available with Shopify Flow (since refund is handled manually).
Why Shipping Taxes is not available for Shopify Flow refunds:
Since Shopify Flow handles refunds manually or through custom logic, the system cannot automatically calculate and deduct shipping/tax amounts during the cancellation. That’s why this option is only possible with Original Payment Method refunds.
Add Note for Customer:
You can add a note explaining the fee — this appears during cancellation so customers understand why less than the full amount will be refunded.
(e.g., “A 10% restocking fee is applied to all cancellations”)
This note appears during the cancellation request popup.
Cancellation retention
The Cancellation Retention feature lets you show an incentive to customers who attempt to cancel their order. Instead of letting them cancel immediately, you can display offers such as a discount, free gift, free shipping, gift card, or store credit — encouraging them to keep their order.
When Disabled: If this option is not enabled, customers will be able to cancel their orders directly without seeing any retention offer. This means there is no way to stop or reduce cancellations using incentives, and the order will be canceled immediately once they proceed.
When Enabled: If this option is enabled, customers who try to cancel their order will first see a retention offer.
Once enabled, a Create rule button appears.
You can use this button to define what type of incentive to show, who it applies to, and under what conditions.
This ensures you have a chance to retain the customer before the cancellation goes through.
Creating a Retention Rule
When you enable Cancellation Retention and click on Create rule, you’ll be able to configure how the incentive works. Four key fields are available:
Offer Type
Decide what kind of incentive you want to provide (e.g., discount, free gift, gift card, etc.).
When creating a retention rule, you can select one of the following incentives to encourage customers not to cancel their order:
Gift card — fixed amount
Provide the customer with a gift card of a specific value (e.g., $10).
Useful if you want to encourage them to keep their order while giving store credit for future purchases.
Free shipping
Waive the shipping cost for the customer if they complete the order.
Great for reducing cancellations when high shipping fees might be the reason for abandonment.
Free item
Offer a free product from your store as an incentive.
Can be used for low-cost items or samples that increase customer goodwill.
One-time use code — % off
Provide a discount code that gives a percentage off the new/next order (e.g., 10% off - editable).
The code is one-time use only, so it can’t be reused.
Customer will receive an email including the discount offer details once accept they accept this offer.
Discount — percent off on current order
Apply an immediate discount directly to the order before completion (e.g., reduce total by 15%).
Unlike the code option, this is applied automatically and doesn’t require entering a code.
Store credit
Provide a set amount of store credit for future purchases.
Encourages repeat business by locking customers into shopping with you again.
Eligibility
Choose which customers should see this retention offer (all customers, specific customers, or customer segments).This section allows you to define which customers are eligible to see and redeem the cancellation retention offer.
You have three options:
All customers
The offer will be shown to everyone who tries to cancel their order.
Best for general promotions or when you want broad coverage.
Specific customers
Target individual customers by searching and selecting them from your store.
Useful for testing retention on selected users or rewarding key customers.
Example: Show the retention offer only to a VIP customer.
Specific customer segments
Choose an entire customer segment (for example, "Frequent Buyers" or "High Order Value").
Great for personalizing incentives based on customer groups.
Example: Offer free shipping only to customers in your "Loyalty Program" segment.
Redemption Limit
Control how many times the same customer can redeem this offer.
The Redemption Limit setting allows you to control how many times the same customer can use a cancellation retention rule.
When unchecked: Customers can use the offer without restriction (but still only once per order cancellation attempt).
When checked: You can specify how many times a customer can redeem the same rule.
For example:
If you set the redemption limit to 1, a customer can only use this incentive once across all their orders.
If you set it to 3, the same customer could receive the incentive up to three times before it stops applying.
This feature is useful to:
Prevent abuse of discounts or gifts.
Ensure retention offers remain special and limited.
Control costs by capping the number of times an offer is applied.
Conditions
Define rules that must be met for the offer to apply (like minimum order amount, product-specific rules, or collection-based conditions).The Conditions setting lets you decide under what circumstances the incentive is shown to customers who try to cancel. This ensures that your retention offers are targeted and only apply when certain rules are met.
Condition Matching
All conditions: Customers must meet every condition you set to see the offer.
Any condition: Customers will see the offer if they meet at least one condition.
Condition Types
You can add one or multiple conditions. The available condition types are:
Minimum order amount
Offer only applies if the order total meets or exceeds the amount you specify.
Example: Only show the retention offer if the order total is $50 or more.
Collection
Offer only applies if the product(s) in the order belong to a specific collection.
Example: Only trigger the offer if the order contains items from the Winter Collection.
Minimum shipping value
Offer applies if the shipping cost meets or exceeds a certain value.
Example: Incentive appears if the shipping charge is at least $10.
Minimum order quantity
Offer applies if the order has a minimum number of items.
Example: Customer must have at least 3 items in the cart for the offer to show.
Product
Offer applies if the order contains specific products.
Example: Show the retention incentive if the order includes the Premium Jacket.
Workflow
Select whether conditions must match all or any.
Use the dropdown to choose the condition type.
Enter the required value (e.g., dollar amount, product name, collection, etc.).
Click Add condition to include additional rules.
Once all rules are set, click Add rule to save your retention offer.
Cancellation reasons
This setting allows you to customize the list of reasons customers can choose from when canceling an order.
It gives structured cancellation reasons helps you understand customer behavior, identify product or pricing issues, and make informed business decisions.
How it works:
When a customer initiates a cancellation (via Smart Cancellation), they will see a dropdown or list of the reasons you’ve added here.
You can create, edit, or delete reasons at any time.
Then edit the field here and save.
Reasons can be detailed (e.g., “Shipping cost too high”) or simple (e.g., “Changed my mind”).
When Smart Cancellation is enabled:
The customer must pick one of these reasons before submitting the cancellation request.
The selected reason is recorded in the order’s history so you can track trends.
Extra Features:
You can add translations for these reasons using localization settings (helpful for multilingual stores).
Unlimited reasons can be added, but keeping them concise makes the cancellation process smoother for customers.
Auto Refund Settings
This setting controls how refunds are handled when customers change or cancel their orders.
When Enabled:
Refunds are issued automatically whenever a customer is owed money.
Example: If a customer cancels an item worth $20, the $20 is refunded right away without any extra steps.
When Disabled:
Refunds are still calculated, but they are not issued immediately.
Instead, the balance is adjusted.
Example: If a customer removes a $20 item but later adds a $15 item, only the difference ($5) is refunded — no need to charge them again.
💡 Why use this?
Enable it if you want refunds to happen instantly and automatically.
Disable it if you’d rather hold refunds and adjust them in case customers make more changes later.