In this article:
Refunding a product
If a customer in your store returns a purchase or receives a refund, the points they have earned will be automatically removed.
If a customer returns the order partially (and they didn't use the voucher with said order), points will be removed partially as well.
Example:
Customer A has a starting point balance of 0
Customer A makes a cart total of $10 for two items. They check out and pay their $20. They gain $20 (total) * 1 point/dollar = 20 points for making the purchase. Balance: 20 points
Customer A refunds one of the two items. LoyaltyLion deducts ($10 * 1 point/dollar) = 10 points for refunding that item. Their voucher is not refunded. Balance: 10 points
Customer A returns the remaining items in their order. Balance: 0 points
Please note that this will happen regardless of whether the customer has points in their account. If the customer earned points, redeemed them, and later returned their order, the points will be deducted from their account. You can read more about this here.
How refunds work behind the scenes
The store automatically sends our system a message via callback (also known as webhooks) for the returned order. We then remove any points that were accumulated for that particular purchase.
This all happens in the background without any need for action on your part.
If, for any reason, you believe the points have not been adjusted, please contact us via support@loyaltylion.com, and we will be happy to check for you.
Voucher refund
So what happens if a customer uses a rewards voucher with their refunded order?
When an order is fully refunded, we automatically return the customer's points for any rewards they used (this does not apply to Shopify gift cards). Refunding an order in full voids the used LoyaltyLion voucher and returns the points to the customer's account.
Important: If you do not refund shipping, this will not be treated as a full refund.
Partial return point refunds (opt-in)
By default, if an order is only partially refunded, the points a customer spent on a voucher are not returned.
However, you can enable Partial return point refunds in your Rewards settings. When turned on, customers receive a proportional refund of their points based on what they actually returned - calculated using Shopify's per-line-item discount allocations.
A few things to note:
Available on Shopify only, for flat voucher, % voucher, and seamless free product rewards
Only orders placed after you enable the feature are eligible for proportional point refunds
You can set an optional threshold - only refund points when the customer returns more than X% of the discounted value
If you turn the feature off and back on, only orders placed after the most recent activation are eligible - intermediate periods are not tracked
To enable this, go to Rewards settings in your LoyaltyLion dashboard and toggle on Partial return point refunds.
Note: The threshold option is only available for voucher-based rewards. It won't appear if your program uses only seamless free product rewards, as point refunds for those are based on whether the reward item was returned or cancelled.
Please note: Vouchers can only be used once. Each voucher is assigned to a single order and cannot be reused.
Example (Partial return point refunds enabled):
The below ignores points earned from the purchase to keep the example simple
Customer A has a starting balance of 1000 approved points
Customer A claims a $10 off reward for 500 points. Balance: 500 points
Customer A checks out with two items totalling $20, using their $10 reward voucher. Balance: 500 points
Customer A returns one of the two items ($10 value). LoyaltyLion refunds 250 points — 50% of the voucher value, proportional to the amount returned. Balance: 750 points
[Shopify only] Gift card refund
When an order is returned for which a customer redeemed a gift card, the points for the gift card are not returned to the customer.
Instead, LoyaltyLion will fully refund the order in Shopify and the gift card used. The funds return to the gift card and become available for the customer to use again.
FAQ:
Q. What happens if the customer has already spent their points when their order is refunded?
We suggest setting an "approval period" on points earned by purchases, equal to the return period your store policy allows. Until the approval period is up, your customer will see their points in their account but will not be able to spend them on rewards.
The approval period starts at the moment the order is marked as paid. You can read more about the approval period here.