Blackcart supports two different workflows for managing returns and exchanges.
- Blackcart Customer Portal
- Merchant Return Workflow
The Blackcart Customer Portal workflow is Blackcart's default and gives your shoppers direct access to Blackcart's Customer Portal where they have the ability to manage their order which includes making a keep, send back, or exchange decision on items in their order without the manual intervention of your support team.
The Merchant Return Workflow instead requires shoppers to get in touch directly with your customer support team in order to initiate an exchange or send back decision. This is a good fit if your support team is already managing returns directly. It is also a good option for any merchants who do not accept physical returns and need a way to opt customers out of paying for their order before the trial period expires.
Below you will find more about each returns and exchanges workflow including what the end-to-end shopper experience looks like, implementation and configuration options, and instructions for your customer support team.
Blackcart Customer Portal
Shopper Experience
High-level overview of customer flow
Shopper enters the Blackcart Customer Portal
The shopper has direct access to manage their order in the Customer Portal through a direct link included in Blackcart's transactional emails. Merchants can also implement Blackcart's lookup form on their website as another way for shoppers to directly access their order in the Customer Portal. If you are using a third-party application to manage your returns (Loop, Returnly, etc.) it is highly recommended that the Blackcart lookup form is implemented. More about the Blackcart lookup form here.
Example of Blackcart transactional email
Example of Customer Portal
Shopper Initiates a Send Back or Exchange Decision
From the Customer Portal, the customer has access to manage the keep, send back, or exchange decisions for the items in their order.
Return Shipping Label is Automatically Generated for the Shopper to Print
If they choose to send back or exchange any items, they will enter into a flow to complete their purchase & return decision and automatically generate a returns shipping label. The returns shipping label is generated through your EasyPost account and is available for the shopper to print directly from the Customer Portal. In the Customer Portal, the shopper is also notified of their drop-off deadline.
If the shopper misses this drop-off deadline, they will be charged for keeping all items in their order.
Example of final page of the Customer Portal where the shopper can print their return shipping label and is notified of their drop-off deadline (after submitting a send back or exchange decision).
Blackcart also sends a transactional email to the shopper with a link to print their shipping label and instructions for sending back their item(s).
Once the items are dropped off and scanned at the post office, the order moves into the returns processing flow where once processed, the shopper receives a final transactional email from Blackcart with the receipt for their order.
Example of Blackcart order receipt email
If your shoppers need any help accessing their Customer Portal at any point, your Customer Support team can access their unique Customer Portal link through the Order Details page in the Merchant Portal Admin.
Note that this is a live link, meaning that any action taken in the Customer Portal by your support team will be applied to the live order.
Implementation
By default, all merchants are initially set up with the Blackcart Customer Portal workflow. You can view or change your returns & exchanges workflow by logging in to your Merchant Portal account and going to the My Store section.
From here, click Edit in the top right corner of the page.
Scroll down to the Shipping & Returns section.
Under the configurations field, Returns Management Channel, select Blackcart Customer Portal.
To save your settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save & Go Back.
Merchant Return Workflow
Shopper Experience and Customer Support
The main differences with the Merchant Return Workflow start with the transactional emails sent from Blackcart to the shopper. There are two main differences:
- A direct link to view the order in the Customer Portal will no longer be included in the transactional emails.
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It is a requirement that you fill in the Trial & Returns Policy in the Merchant Portal with custom copy that outlines your trial & returns policy, including how the shopper can initiate their send back or exchange decision. This custom copy will be added to your Order Delivered, Trial Ending, and Trial Extended emails.
Trial & Returns Policy
Example of Order Delivered transactional email below.
Customer Support: Processing TBYB return requests
When the shopper contacts your customer support team during their trial with a return or exchange request, your team will complete the send back or exchange decision on behalf of the shopper from the Customer Portal.
Before doing so, it will first be important for your CS team to identify that the return request is tied to a Blackcart order and not a regular order. They can do this by referring to the Blackcart tag added to the order in Shopify.
Once it has been determined that the request is for a Blackcart order, your CS team will need to follow the steps below to process the request:
- Log in to your Merchant Portal account and click on the Orders section from the left menu.
- From the search bar, enter the Shopify order number. Note that the search does not support prefix or suffix characters, only numbers. Click on the "view" icon to open up the order details page.
- From the order details page, click on the Customer Portal button to access the unique Customer Portal for the particular order.
- Within the Customer Portal, select "Send Back | Exchange" on the items that the customer wants to return or exchange. If a return is selected you must select a reason. If an exchange is selected you must select the product variant the shopper will be exchanging for. Click Continue and then Complete Purchase on the following page to confirm the return or exchange.
- At this point, the customer will receive an email from Blackcart with instructions to return their item(s). This email will now include a link to the Customer Portal so that the customer can print their return label. The customer must return their items before the drop-off deadline + any grace period days. If they miss their deadline they will be automatically charged. Once completed, the shopper will be emailed a receipt for their order.
Implementation
To begin using the Merchant Return Workflow you will need to select it as your Returns Management Setting. You can view or change your returns & exchanges workflow by logging in to your Merchant Portal account and going to the My Store section.
From here, click Edit in the top right corner of the page.
Scroll down to the Shipping & Returns section.
Under the configurations field, Returns Management Channel, select Merchant Return Workflow. When you are using this flow, it is a requirement to include custom copy that informs shoppers how to initiate a return. Insert this custom copy into the Trial & Returns Policy text field.
To save your settings, scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save & Go Back.
Other Returns and Exchanges Settings
There are a few other settings related to how returns and exchanges will be managed. Ensure you've reviewed and set these according to your preferences prior to launch.
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Returns Shipping Address: This is the address that will be added to your returns shipping labels.
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Restock on Refund: This setting is disabled by default. If enabled, when a refund is issued, the item is added back to the inventory and the product will be marked as "restocked" in Shopify.
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Auto Refund: This setting determines how and when refunds are processed in Shopify in the event of a return.
- Disabled: The refund will be automatically processed in Shopify 10 days after the return package is dropped-off and scanned at the post office if your warehouse team hasn't already manually processed the refund upon receipt of the returned package at the warehouse.
- On Drop-off: The refund will be automatically processed in Shopify when the return package is dropped-off and scanned at the post office.
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At Warehouse: The refund will be automatically processed in Shopify when the shipping status of the returned package updates to received at the warehouse.
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Returns Carrier: The carrier options are pulled directly from carrier accounts added to your EasyPost account. You are limited to selecting one per store.
- Exchanges: If enabled shoppers will be able to exchange a product variant for another variant from the Customer Portal. More about Blackcart exchanges here.