Who pays for the cost of the return labels?

Quickly: that's up to you! :)

Let's explore two topics:

1. How you are billed for return labels
2. How to make it so your customers absorb the cost of shipping 

How am I billed for return labels?

First, please know that Return Magic does not bill you for or add any fees to your return labels. Our charges are associated to the use of the customer portal & dashboard to process returns and gather data on your returns, so if you do not want to offer return labels to your customers, you do not have to.

If you have questions on our pricing, you can take a look at our website, or reach out to us at support@returnmagic.com!

EasyPost & ShipStation

With EasyPost and ShipStation, you are billed for the labels when they are created (because you are always generating return shipping labels - a type of return label). Labels are created when your customers place a return request and their return is approved. As soon as that label is created, EasyPost and ShipStation will bill you for the label.

This is why you always need to make sure you have a sufficient balance in your EasyPost and ShipStation accounts to be able to purchase labels as your customers request returns. In both cases, you are able to automatically add funds to your account when a certain low threshold is reached: EasyPost | ShipStation.

Here is more on EasyPost and ShipStation's pricing model.

What happens if your customers never use the label you were already billed for? We have your back! Return Magic automatically tries to refund all labels either when you mark the customer's package as received inside of the dashboard, in case your customer used another label to ship their item back to you, or after 30 days if the label remains unused. You should see a credit in your invoices for the voided postage. With EasyPost, it should be on your EasyPost invoice. With ShipStation, it should be on your carrier invoice.

Also note that you can always be billed only once for a label: if your customers reprint the same label they first generated from the portal or their confirmation email, you are not billed again incrementally.

Shippo

With Shippo, when you are billed will depend on the type of labels you are generating. If you are using one of USPS, UPS, Australia Post or FedEx, and you are using the same carrier to ship out your orders, then you are generating scan-based return labels. Those labels allow you to only be billed when your customer actually uses the label (i.e. it is scanned by the carrier).

For any other carrier or any other case (e.g. you are using USPS for returns but not to ship out your orders), then you are billed for the label when it is created. This is when your customers place a return request and their return is approved.

Shippo will bill you when you've exceeded $100 in purchases, or after 7 days have passed since your last invoice (whichever comes first). There's more information on this here, and here is Shippo's pricing model.

Canada Post

With our Canada Post integration, you are able to generated scan-based return labels regardless of the type of account you have with Canada Post. This means you will be billed for the labels only when they are used by your customers (i.e. scanned by the carrier).

How can I make it so my customers pay for their own return shipping?

You can decide who pays for shipping in your rules - this is modulable per rule and per return option. This means you can offer free labels only for certain returns, and have the customer pay for shipping for others.

There are two ways of making your customers pay for return shipping back to you:

1. You generate a label for them, but the cost of that label is subtracted from their refund
2. You have them send their package back to you by their own means

What if I want to offer both options?

You can offer both shipping options, just please know that that means you will have to have twice the same refund method with different shipping options on the portal (head to your Settings, under Policies > Rules, and click on "Add an option" within the concerned rule to add it). This might confuse your customers if they do not read the options carefully (see example below).

A couple of things to be aware of if you decide to do this:

• If your customers choose to ship the item back to you themselves (select the second option shown above) and then change their mind, you will have to provide them with a return label manually since Return Magic cannot edit the shipping method after a return is requested.
• Usually the price you pay for your own labels will be a lot less than what an individual will pay for at the post office (since you can consolidate larger volumes than an individual), so shipping costs will most likely be a lot lower if they choose to use your label than if they decided to ship the item back to you manually. Make your customers aware of this so they do not have any bad surprises.

Knowing this, we recommend to always provide your customers with a label (only have the first option in the screenshot appear), but tell them they can choose to use it or not.

Here are some tips to be able to allow your customers to compare prices for their return shipping:

• Return Magic isn't able to display the cost of the label on the portal because we cannot know the postage before we actually generate the label, but if you see a pattern on your end you can also add a blurb in your return policy or directly on the portal to specify that labels you generate usually cost between $3.00 and $6.00 for example.
• Some carriers display the cost of the label right on the label, so your customers could choose to use it or not by checking the label and comparing prices.
• If you want to display the cost of the label in the confirmation email, the variable would be {{return.label.price}}​. The variable for your currency is {{currency}}​.

If your customers decide to not use your label and create their own: don't worry, Return Magic will automatically refund labels when you mark their package as received.

Option 1: Generating a label for your customers, but having them pay for shipping

To do this, head to your Settings, under Policies > Rules. That's where you have automated your return policy. Click on "Edit" next to a return option: you'll see you are able to select different fees, including "Cost of the label". This will automatically subtract the cost of the label from your customers' refunds.

Note that this is not automated for exchanges. Since we do not refund anything during exchanges, we are not able to charge your customers for any fees. Just make sure you account for this when processing exchanges for your customers.

Option 2: Have your customers send the package back themselves

To do this, head to your Settings, under Policies > Rules. That's where you have automated your return policy. Click on "Edit" next to a return option: you'll see you are able to select different logistics, including "No Label". This option will automatically send your return address to your customers by email so they can ship their package back to you themselves.

If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to us at support@returnmagic.com, we'll be happy to help!