A restocking fee is an amount you keep from a refund to cover the cost of taking an item back. Used narrowly, it recovers real costs. Used broadly, it puts shoppers off before they buy. Here is when a fee is reasonable, when to skip it, and how to set it up. This is general information, not legal advice.
What the fee is for
A restocking fee should reflect a cost you actually carry when an item comes back. If you cannot name the cost, the fee is hard to defend to a customer.
- Inspection and handling: Staff time to check, clean and repackage
- Lost value: An opened item that can only be sold as open-box
- Packaging: A replacement box, seal or inserts
When a fee makes sense
Fees fit products where a return leaves you clearly worse off, and where the customer chose to return for their own reasons.
| Situation | Fee reasonable? |
|---|---|
| Opened electronics returned for a change of mind | Often yes |
| Bulky items that are costly to handle | Often yes |
| Special-order or made-to-order items | Often yes, if returns are allowed at all |
| Unopened item in resellable condition | Usually no |
| Item arrived damaged, defective or wrong | No |
Check the rules where you sell
Rules on restocking fees and return deductions vary by country and US state. Depending on where your customer is, there may be rules on disclosing a fee before purchase, limits on what you can deduct, or cancellation rights that a fee cannot reduce. Check the law for each market you sell to, or ask a lawyer, before you add a fee. In every case, do not charge a fee when the fault is yours.
Setting it up in Shopify
Shopify's return rules include a restocking fee. According to the Shopify Help Center, the fee is a percentage of the return, and once it is active it is shown to customers when they request a return. You can edit the fee for a specific return, including by item.
- Where: Settings > Policies, in the return rules
- Not automatic: Shopify says return fees are not deducted from refunds for you, so you deduct them when you create the refund
- Manual returns: The rules still apply to returns you process in the admin without self-serve returns turned on
- Timing: Changes apply to future orders only
Say it plainly
A fee the customer did not expect causes more disputes than the fee recovers. Put it on the product page for affected items and in your policy, with the amount and the exceptions. These are illustrative examples to adapt.
- Scope: "A 15% restocking fee applies to opened electronics returned for a change of mind."
- Waiver: "No fee applies to unopened items, or to items that arrive damaged, defective or incorrect."
- Alternative: "Choose an exchange or store credit and we will waive the fee."
See refund, exchange or store credit and how to write a Shopify return policy.
Doing this at scale
ReturnSage reads your full return policy, including any fee clauses, plus the order and customer context for each return request created in Shopify. It recommends approve, exchange, store credit, deny or escalate, with a confidence score, risk flags, cited policy clauses and a draft reply. You decide with one click, and every decision is logged. See ReturnSage.