A refund, also referred to as a return, is a reimbursement given to a customer after they have returned a product. It can be full when it matches the entire order, or partial, if only some of the product's order were returned. Please read our technical documentation on the topic if you would like to know more.
There are two different ways to handle refunds:
- with a holding period (>= 1 day), (in this case, points will be canceled - see use case A)
- without a holding period (0 day(s) and points will be debited instead - see use case B).
Note that in both cases, the refund will be based on the system field “total_line_amount” (the product price) and if this value is negative, the refund rule will be triggered.
We are detailing the two use cases below.
When refunds happen, you must create a new negative order and send it to us; however, this new negative order won't be ever linked to the first original order. Because of this mechanism, refunds must be handled by creating a loyalty rule, which will process the order and cancel or debit the points.
Use case A (holding period)
Your customer has recently purchased an item in your store spending 50€ and earning 50 NQ points. However, the item doesn't fit and your customer has 30 days (which is the set holding period in your program - check our glossary for more details) to return the product in-store. When returning it in the 30 days, they are given their money back and the points are being canceled. That’s the typical use case of a refunded article.
If your member has 2 purchases with 2 different retention periods, and asks for a refund, points will be canceled from oldest retention period.
Use case B (at any time)
Your customer has recently purchased an item in your store spending 50€ and earning 50 NQ points. However, the customer decides to use the recently granted points in exchange for a 5% discount voucher while at the same time, returning the item purchased. In this same scenario where there is no holding period set, the points that have been used will be debited. The points that have already been used by the customer can no longer be retrieved. That’s another use case of a refunded article, less recommended, however, because you cannot prevent customers from spending points before potentially returning a product.
- Enabling the refund option
- Creating the refund rule
- Viewing the orders statuses
- Viewing the refunded points history
Enabling the refund option (step 1)
In Loyalty > Settings, you can enable refunds in two different ways:
In a holding period (use case A)
Enabling the holding period option with a defined number of days is the preferred option. If your customer returns something they will get their money back and the points previously earned will be canceled.
At any time (use case B)
If there is no holding period set, this represents a potential risk since your customers could use all their points before potentially asking for a refund. Note that the platform doesn't allow to manage a negative point balance.
We strongly advise always adding a holding period to handle refunds properly.
Creating the refund rule (step 2)
Go to Loyalty > Rules > New rule
Add refund in conditions > add filter "amount spent" >"every X transaction"
For the refund to work, you must enter the amount with the negative.
For example, condition "every -1€ per transaction" and outcome "non-qualifying points debit" -1. Indeed, instead of granting 1 NQ point on each 1€ spent, you’re canceling/debiting -1 point per -1€ inside a negative order.
Viewing the orders statuses
All newly created orders will have a status that is added automatically from our end (see below for explanation).
| Order status | Order type | Rule in Loyalty |
| If the order contains only positive values | purchase | |
| If the order contains only negative values (API import only) | refund | |
|
If the full order contains negative and positive values, when a customer proceeds with a refund and makes a purchase at the same time (API import only) |
purchase and refund |
Viewing the refunded points history
Go to Data > Contacts, click on a selected Contact > Loyalty > Loyalty points history.
- Canceled = when there is a holding period linked to the points (points are canceled after returning the item in the holding period)
- Debited = when there is no holding period linked to the points (points have been already used before asking for the refund)
- Pending = points linked to the holding period, displaying the number of days remaining
- Expired = can no longer be used because they have passed the expiration date
For more information on all the loyalty statuses, please refer to our dedicated article.