Shopify Return Labels: How to Create, Send and Automate Them

Written byAyushi Tyagi

Reviewed byAnuj Goel

Shopify return labels are prepaid shipping labels that you create in your Shopify admin and send to a customer, so they can ship an item back to you. This guide covers the clicks, what each label costs, how to send it and when it expires. It also shows when an app should make the labels for you. For the rest of the returns process, read our Shopify returns management guide.

What a Shopify return label is, and your three return shipping options

A return label is a prepaid shipping label that your store buys for the customer’s return parcel. The customer puts it on the box, then drops the parcel at a carrier location or schedules a pickup. You buy the label through Shopify at discounted carrier rates, and Shopify adds the cost to your Shopify bill.

When you create a return in the admin, Shopify gives you three return shipping options, as its guide to creating returns and exchanges lists:

• Create a return label in Shopify. Shopify makes the label for you. The rest of this guide covers this option.
• Upload a return label. You upload a PDF, PNG or JPEG file, or add a label URL, and you can enter its tracking number and carrier. This is the route for a label you bought from a carrier or a shipping app.
• No shipping required. You record the return without any return shipping details.

How to create a return label in Shopify

These are the desktop steps from Shopify’s guide to buying return labels, with the button names as they appear in the admin.

1. In your Shopify admin, go to Orders and click the order.
2. Click Return. If the order still has unfulfilled items, click More actions, then Return.
3. Enter the quantity of items coming back.
4. Under Return shipping options, select Create a return label in Shopify, then click Create return.
5. In the Return to section, pick the saved location the parcel should go to.
6. Select the expected package size in Package and weight, and enter the expected weight.
7. Under Shipping service, select a shipping method, then click Create return label.
8. Send the label to the customer (next section) and click Done.

The Shopify mobile app works the same way: tap the Orders icon, open the order, tap the menu icon and then tap Return. Also, to change where returns go by default, click the address under Return to and choose Update default location for return labels.

Before you start: what Shopify needs

• At least one item in the order is fulfilled. Shopify can’t make a return label for an unfulfilled order.
• Your return address comes from your fulfillment locations and needs a valid street address. PO Boxes aren’t valid return addresses.
• For FedEx, both the return location and the customer’s shipping address include a phone number.
• You have a location in the same country as the customer. The country rule is explained further down.

Return labels for part of an order

Shopify creates return labels for the whole order rather than per item. So if a customer sends back two of five items, enter the weight of those two items when you create the label. When the return needs several boxes, you can create several labels from the same order page and set the weight for each box.

How to send a return label to your customer

Once you click Create return label, Shopify gives you three ways to get the label to the customer:

• Email customer. Confirm the customer’s email address, and Shopify sends the label.
• Copy link. Paste the link into an email or message thread you already have with the customer.
• Print label. Print it and send it with the order.

If the customer asked for the return through Shopify self-serve returns, you pick the label option while you approve the request. Shopify then adds the label to the return confirmation email, as its guide to managing self-serve returns explains.

To resend a label later, open the order, click View details in the Return label section and choose one of the same three options. You can also rewrite the instructions in that email under Settings, Notifications, then Order-level return label created.

A label in the box, or a label on request?

If you print a label into every outgoing box, it is ready before the customer has said why they want to return. A label sent after a request works the other way round. You see the return reason first, and you can add exchange items before you approve. Either way, an unused label costs nothing, because of the billing rule below.

What Shopify return labels cost and when you pay

Return labels use pay-on-scan billing. Creating a label costs nothing, and Shopify charges you only after the carrier scans the parcel. Here is the timeline from Shopify’s return label billing section:

1. You create the label and send it to the customer.
2. The customer drops the parcel at a carrier location or schedules a pickup.
3. The carrier scans and weighs the parcel.
4. Shopify adds the shipping cost to your Shopify account.
5. You get an invoice when you reach your billing threshold, or the charge joins your monthly subscription bill.

If a label expires unused, you pay nothing. Shopify always bills return labels to your own Shopify account, and you can see each charge under Settings, then Billing, in the Shipping section of the bill.

Shopify Help gives no fixed price per label. Instead, the label shows an estimated price when you create it, based on the weight you enter. The carrier then sets the final cost after it weighs and measures the parcel. So a heavier parcel costs more, and a large but light box can be priced by dimensional weight.

Charging the customer for return shipping

Shopify can’t charge the customer for the label automatically. If you want the customer to cover it, you take the cost off the refund yourself when you process it.

Your return rules set the policy side. According to Shopify’s return and cancellation rules, you can offer free return shipping, add a flat return shipping fee charged once per return, or have customers buy their own label. Even so, Shopify doesn’t take return fees off refunds automatically, so you deduct them each time you create a refund.

One recent change affects US orders. Since October 23, 2026, Shopify calculates tax on return shipping fees for orders shipped to a US address when the store uses Shopify Tax or Tax Platform. This applies only where the fee is taxable, and the tax appears next to the fee when you create the return. If you already handle that tax by hand, review your process so the tax isn’t collected twice.

Carriers, expiry and rules for Shopify return labels

Shopify sells return labels from four carriers. The table sums up the services and expiry dates in Shopify Help’s list of return label carriers.

Return labels can’t be voided or canceled. If the customer never ships the parcel, the label simply expires, and you aren’t charged for it.

A few more rules come from the same page. USPS return labels include up to $100 of carrier coverage, and you can’t buy extra insurance for any return label. For tracking, you check the carrier’s website, because the admin shows no Delivered status for return labels. Finally, for a lost or damaged return, UPS claims go through Shopify Support, while USPS and FedEx claims go to the carrier.

Where Shopify can create return labels

Shopify creates return labels only for domestic returns inside the United States or inside Canada. You also need a fulfillment location in the same country as the customer’s shipping address. Some older guides still say the feature works only in the US, but Shopify Help now lists Canada too. Shopify can’t create a label for:

• returns between the United States and Canada
• international addresses
• US military addresses (APO, FPO and DPO)
• US territories that require a customs form

For those returns, Shopify’s considerations for return labels point you to a shipping carrier, a third-party service or an app. You then add that label with the Upload a return label option.

When making labels by hand stops working

Shopify’s built-in labels handle a few returns well. However, each label is manual work. For every return, you open the order, click Return, enter the weight and pick a service. With self-serve returns turned on, you still review and approve each request yourself.

The money side is manual as well. Shopify bills the label to you and can’t pass the cost to the customer automatically. As a result, any return fee comes off the refund by hand, one refund at a time.

When returns arrive every day, those steps repeat every day. A returns app can take them over with automatic labels and rule-based return approvals.

Automate Shopify return labels with QuickReturns

QuickReturns is the simpler way to handle Shopify return labels when you would rather not open every order. It generates return labels automatically, so nobody on your team creates or uploads them one by one. 1,000+ brands use QuickReturns.

Here is how a return runs. First, the shopper opens your branded returns portal and finds the order with the order number and an email or phone number, with no sign-in. Next, they pick the items and a return reason. Before they submit, the portal shows any return fee you set, including a label fee. The portal is available in 15 languages.

For shipping, you switch on the return methods you want: Automatic Label Generation, Self Ship and Green Return. Carrier integrations include UPS, Shippo, Canada Post and DHL. Our help center shows how to set up automatic prepaid return labels step by step.

After that, you approve requests by hand or automatically with rules; automatic approval comes with the paid plans. Shoppers can also ask for an exchange, including another size of the same product.

Automatic return shipping labels come with every plan, including the Forever Free plan for 10 requests a month. Growth costs $19 a month for 60 requests, and every paid plan includes every feature. You set the app up yourself in about 30 minutes. In addition, every plan comes with an account manager, a 1:1 onboarding call and live chat support.

Shopify’s built-in labels fit a store that handles a few returns a month by hand.

Shopify return labels vs QuickReturns

Sources for the Shopify column: Shopify Help on buying return labels · creating returns · managing self-serve returns · return rules. For request limits on each plan, see QuickReturns plans and prices.

Frequently asked questions

Creating and sending Shopify return labels

Countries, charges and apps