Clear Prepaid Return Label Fees with Synctrack Returns & Exchanges

Nothing hurts the post-purchase customer experience quite like “refund shock.” You know the scenario: a customer returns an item, expects a full refund, but receives a smaller amount because return shipping fees were deducted behind the scenes. They are left asking, “Why did I receive less money than expected?”

To help Shopify merchants eliminate this friction, Synctrack Returns & Exchanges is launching a highly anticipated update: Clear Prepaid Return Label Fees.

Now available on the Starter Plan, this feature gives you complete control over who pays for return shipping and lets you display transparent, upfront cost estimates to your shoppers before they submit their return.

What’s New?

1. Transparent Shipping Costs Upfront

If your store policy requires customers to cover return shipping, they will now see a “Return label fee” line on the review page before submitting.

• Dynamic Cost Estimates: The portal displays an estimated range (e.g., $5.20 ~ $8.40) based on the lowest and highest rates across your connected carriers.
• No Upfront Charges: The label fee is simply deducted from their final refund, and they know exactly what to expect.
• Smart Fallbacks: If only one rate is available, a single flat rate is shown. If rates cannot be fetched, the line is gracefully hidden so the customer can still complete their return without interruption.

⚠️ Important Setup Note: To show this estimated range to shoppers before they submit, you must have an active automation rule that auto-selects the cheapest or fastest carrier. Without this automation, the fee will only appear after you manually approve the request and generate the label.

2. Flexible “Who Pays” Configurations

At the top of your Return shipping method tab, you can easily toggle who covers the label cost:

• Merchant pays (Recommended): Your store covers the fee. Shoppers see no label fee on the return portal, and their refund is untouched.
• Customer pays (Label fee): The fee is dynamically estimated and deducted from the refund.

The setup screen features a handy badge on the “Ship with pre-paid label” method (updating to “Paid by store” or “Paid by customer”) so you can verify your settings at a glance. You can also click the eye icon to preview exactly what your shoppers will see.

3. Customizable Display Titles and Descriptions

To make your portal even more user-friendly, you can now fully customize the Display Title, Display Description, and Instructions for each active shipping method. This ensures your shoppers understand their options clearly, reducing support tickets.

How to Set It Up in 3 Steps

Configuring this feature in your Synctrack Returns admin takes less than two minutes: