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What happens to points when an order is refunded or returned?

Glow can remove points after Shopify refunds and approved returns, but only if the matching settings are turned on before the refund or return event is processed.

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Written by Sergey Rebbe

Glow can remove points after Shopify refunds and approved returns, but only if the matching settings are turned on before the refund or return event is processed.

Use these settings when you want customer point balances to stay aligned with orders that are reversed after purchase.

Open the refund and return settings

In Glow, go to Settings > Account Settings > Behavior.

Find the Order Processing section.

Glow Behavior settings showing refund, return, and redeemed reward restore controls

Choose how Glow should handle refunds

Set Automatically Remove Points for Refunded Orders to Yes if you want Glow to remove points when an order is fully refunded in Shopify.

This setting is for full refunds. If an order is partially refunded, review the customer balance and adjust points manually if needed.

Choose how Glow should handle returns

Set Automatically Remove Points for Returned Orders to Yes if you want Glow to remove points when products in an order are returned and approved in Shopify.

For returns, Glow deducts points proportionally based on the value of the returned items.

Example:

Original order

Return

What Glow removes

$100 order earned 100 points

Customer returns $30 of items

Glow removes about 30 points

The actual point activity can vary slightly because Glow rounds the calculated amount.

Decide whether to restore redeemed reward points

Set Restore Points Spent on Redeemed Rewards for Refunded/Returned Orders to Yes if you want customers to get redeemed reward points back when the order is later refunded or returned.

This only applies when the customer used a Glow reward discount code on the order. Glow looks for the reward discount code on the Shopify order and restores the points for that reward.

At least one of the refund or return removal settings must also be enabled. If both are set to No, the restore setting is ignored.

Save your changes

Click Save Settings after you choose the behavior you want.

These settings apply to new Shopify refund and return events after they are saved. They do not automatically recalculate old point activity.

What customers see

When Glow removes points, the customer may see a negative point activity entry for a refund or return.

When Glow restores points spent on a redeemed reward, the customer may see a positive Redemption Restore activity entry.

Glow will not push the customer's current point balance below 0. If the customer already spent some or all of the points from the original order, Glow subtracts what it can from the current balance and keeps the lifetime point total from going below 0.

How to verify it worked

After a test refund or approved return is processed in Shopify, go to Analytics > Points Activity in Glow.

Look for a refund, return, or redemption restore point activity connected to the order.

You can also open the member profile and confirm the customer's current point balance looks right.

Troubleshooting

A partial refund did not remove points

This is expected. Glow's refund automation currently applies to full refunds, not partial refunds. Use a manual point adjustment if the customer's balance needs to change.

A return did not remove points

Confirm the return was approved in Shopify and that Automatically Remove Points for Returned Orders was set to Yes before the return event was processed.

If the return happened before you enabled the setting, adjust the points manually.

Redeemed reward points were not restored

Check these items:

  • Restore Points Spent on Redeemed Rewards for Refunded/Returned Orders is set to Yes.

  • At least one of the refund or return removal settings is also set to Yes.

  • The order used a Glow reward discount code.

  • The reward still exists in Glow.

The customer's balance did not go negative

That is intentional. Glow does not reduce the current point balance below 0. If more points should be removed, review the customer manually and decide whether a manual adjustment is appropriate.

The refund or return already happened

Changing these settings does not rewrite old point activity. If the Shopify event has already passed, open the member profile and adjust the points manually.

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