Terms of Service

Last updated: July 5, 2026

Return Wise is operated by BrightLayer Lab LLC, a Virginia LLC ("BrightLayer Lab," "Return Wise," "we," "us," "our"). References to "Return Wise" and "the App" throughout these Terms refer to the software service operated by BrightLayer Lab LLC.

1. Acceptance of Terms

By installing, accessing, or using the Return Wise application ("the App"), you ("Merchant," "you") agree to be bound by these Terms of Service ("Terms"). If you do not agree, do not install or use the App.

2. Description of Service

Return Wise is a Shopify application that provides:

• A customer-facing return portal integrated via Shopify App Proxy, available in English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese, with optional customer photo upload for returned items (plan-dependent)
• A merchant dashboard for managing return requests, including a guided setup wizard
• A rules engine for configuring return policies and store credit incentives, with an optional AI assistant that drafts suggested rules and customer-facing copy from your written return policy (see Section 9)
• An optional, plan-dependent AI return-reason classifier that categorizes customer return reasons (intent, likely root cause, and an abuse-risk signal) to help you understand and triage returns
• Automated native Shopify store credit refunds and bonus credit incentives
• Exchanges (plan-dependent): when a customer chooses an exchange, the App creates a Shopify draft or replacement order for the requested item — invoicing any price-up difference to the customer or issuing any price-down remainder as store credit — including same-item variant swaps, cross-product and multi-item "shop the catalog" baskets, optional exchange incentives, and, where you enable it, creating the replacement before the returned item is received ("instant exchange," a bounded, opt-in leakage trade-off you control; see Section 6)
• Return shipping labels (plan-dependent): generate prepaid or pay-on-use return labels through a shipping-label provider you connect (Shippo, EasyPost, or ShipStation), including carrier QR codes for box-free drop-off, per-return policy controls (free label, customer-paid label deducted from the refund, or customer self-ship), carrier tracking, and optional store-credit release on first carrier scan (see Section 6)
• Inventory restock (plan-dependent): optionally adjust Shopify inventory to restock returned items at a location you select
• Merchant-configurable return fees (such as restocking or return-shipping deductions) that reduce the refund or store-credit amount according to your rules (plan-dependent)
• Merchant-initiated refunds to the customer's original payment method — a one-click refund action (plan-dependent) and a guided refund workflow (see Section 6)
• Optional manager-approval workflows and staff roles for gating money-touching actions (plan-dependent)
• Return analytics and reporting, including a retention dashboard
• An audit trail of money-touching actions and settings changes, exportable as CSV
• Abuse detection and prevention, including merchant-configurable thresholds and a behavioral risk score (see Section 7)

3. Eligibility

The App is available to Shopify merchants with an active Shopify store. You must have the authority to bind your business to these Terms.

4. Merchant Responsibilities

4.1 Legal Compliance

You are responsible for:

• Ensuring your return policies comply with all applicable consumer protection laws in the jurisdictions where you sell (including but not limited to the EU Consumer Rights Directive, UK Consumer Contracts Regulations, and Australian Consumer Law)
• Where you enable return fees (such as restocking or return-shipping deductions), clearly disclosing those fees to your customers before they submit a return and ensuring the fees are permitted under the consumer-protection and distance-selling laws of the jurisdictions where you sell. The App applies the fees you configure and deducts them from the refund or store-credit amount; you are solely responsible for whether and how such fees may lawfully be charged
• Where you enable return shipping labels, connecting your own carrier or label-provider account (Shippo, EasyPost, or ShipStation) and authorizing the App to send the return's shipping addresses to that provider to generate the label; you are responsible for your agreement with that provider, the carrier charges incurred on your account, and any customer-paid label deduction being lawful and disclosed in the jurisdictions where you sell
• Where you enable exchanges — including instant exchange, which ships a replacement before the returned item is received — reviewing the bounded loss exposure the App describes in-app, and ensuring your exchange and replacement-order practices (including any price-up charge collected through a Shopify checkout link) comply with the consumer-protection laws of the jurisdictions where you sell
• Providing accurate return policy URLs and privacy policy URLs in the App settings
• Maintaining a monitored compliance contact email address in the App settings for privacy and data-rights requests
• Responding to customer data subject requests (access, deletion, portability) as the data controller
• Ensuring your use of the App does not violate any applicable laws or Shopify's Terms of Service

4.2 Customer Communication

The App displays refund options to your customers. You acknowledge that:

• By default, the App presents customers with both store credit and original-payment refund options. You can configure which payout options are offered — for example, running a store-credit-only portal — and the App displays only the options you enable. You remain responsible for ensuring your return policies and refund practices, including any consumer-protection or right-of-withdrawal requirements, meet applicable law in the jurisdictions where you sell
• The App shows customers the payout options you have enabled at the time of return, alongside a link to your store's return policy
• You are responsible for honoring the refund method chosen by the customer
• Bonus percentages and rule configurations are your responsibility to set appropriately

4.3 Data Processing

As the data controller, you are responsible for:

• Having a lawful basis for processing customer data through the App
• Informing customers about how their data is processed (via your privacy policy)
• Maintaining accurate support and compliance contact information in the App settings
• Responding to data subject requests within legally required timeframes
• Configuring an appropriate data retention period in the App settings

5. Shopify API and Permissions

The App requires the following Shopify API scopes to function:

• read_orders / write_orders — To look up orders, add order notes/tags, and create refunds (store credit and original-payment) when you initiate them
• write_draft_orders — To create the Shopify draft/replacement order that fulfills an exchange
• read_customers / write_customers — To retrieve customer information and, when needed, create or locate minimal customer records for native store credit
• read_products — To access product information for return eligibility and exchange item selection
• read_returns — To read Shopify's native return-reason definitions so return reasons stay aligned with your Shopify return settings
• read_locations / write_inventory — Used only when you enable inventory restock, to list your locations and adjust inventory for restocked returned items
• write_store_credit_account_transactions — To issue bonus store credit transactions for customers who choose store credit
• write_app_proxy — To host the customer-facing return portal at /apps/returns on your storefront domain, so shoppers can look up orders and initiate returns without leaving your store
• write_files — To upload your portal logo to Shopify Files (the logo is stored in your own store's Files area and served from Shopify's CDN)

Return shipping labels additionally require the App to read the order's shipping address (a Shopify Protected Customer Data field); the App requests this access only where needed for the label feature. See the Privacy Policy for how that address is processed.

The App also subscribes to Shopify webhooks — including refund creation, order creation and updates, shop updates, app uninstallation, and Shopify's mandatory privacy (GDPR) topics — to keep return, refund, and exchange state in sync and to honor data requests.

You authorize the App to access these scopes when you install it. The App will only use these permissions for the purposes described in these Terms and the Privacy Policy.

6. Refund Issuance

6.1 Store Credit

When the App issues store credit:

• The refundable return amount is issued as native Shopify store credit through Shopify's refund APIs
• Any merchant-configured incentive is issued as a separate native Shopify bonus store credit transaction
• The App stores Shopify refund IDs, store credit account IDs, and bonus credit transaction IDs for reconciliation and retry handling
• Store credit is linked to a Shopify customer account. For guest orders, the App may create or locate a minimal customer record and attach it to the order before issuing store credit.
• Failed store credit issuances are flagged in the return queue for manual retry or resolution

6.2 Original-Payment Refunds

When a customer chooses a refund to their original payment method:

• Original-payment refunds are strictly merchant-initiated. The App never creates a refund to a payment method without an explicit action by you or your staff — either the one-click refund button in the return detail page (available on plan-dependent terms and for eligible orders) or the guided refund workflow that deep-links you into Shopify admin to complete the refund there.
• One-click refunds are created through Shopify's refund APIs against the order's original payment transaction, use idempotency controls to prevent duplicate refunds, and are recorded in the audit trail.
• For orders where the one-click action is not available (for example, depending on your plan or order characteristics such as currency), the App provides the guided workflow instead; the refund is then executed by you inside Shopify admin.
• The App reconciles refund state using Shopify's refund webhooks, so refunds completed in Shopify admin are matched back to the corresponding return request.
• You are responsible for reviewing the refund amount and the return before initiating any refund. Failed refund attempts are flagged in the return queue for retry or resolution.
• Refund processing to the customer's card or payment method is performed by Shopify and your payment provider; the App does not hold or transmit payment card details.

6.3 Exchanges

When a customer chooses an exchange (plan-dependent):

• The App creates a Shopify draft or replacement order for the requested item(s). The value of the returned items is applied to the replacement; an exchange is never also paid out as separate credit or cash.
• If the replacement costs more, the difference is billed to the customer through a Shopify checkout link — never auto-charged. If it costs less, the remainder is issued as store credit. Even swaps move no money.
• Where you enable instant exchange, the replacement order is created as soon as the return is submitted — before the returned item is received — for customers who pass the trust conditions you configure (repeat customers, under a value cap you set, even swaps only, no active abuse flag). You accept that if a customer keeps both items, you absorb the cost of the replacement, bounded by the cap you set. This feature is off by default.
• Price differences are computed from the merchandise value of the returned items; you remain responsible for the tax treatment applied by Shopify at the replacement checkout and for the lawfulness of any price-up charge.

6.4 Return Shipping Labels

When you enable return shipping labels (plan-dependent):

• The App generates the label through the provider account you connect (Shippo, EasyPost, or ShipStation), using your own credentials, and sends the return's ship-from (customer) and ship-to (your return location) addresses and parcel details to that provider. See the Privacy Policy and Section 4.4 of the Data Processing Agreement for the data flow.
• Carrier charges are incurred on your provider account. Depending on the provider and service, a label may be billed at purchase or on first carrier scan.
• Per your configuration, a label may be free to the customer, deducted from the customer's refund or store credit as a fee, or replaced by a self-ship instruction; where offered, a carrier QR code enables box-free drop-off.
• Voiding a label requests a carrier refund through your provider; where a carrier declines the refund (for example, a scanned or expired label), you remain charged for it, and the App tells you so rather than silently absorbing the cost. Any customer-facing label fee already deducted is reversed when a label is successfully voided.
• You are responsible for the accuracy of the addresses on the order and for your relationship with the label provider and carrier.

7. Abuse Prevention

The App includes abuse detection features that, based on the thresholds and risk settings you configure:

• Track return frequency and cumulative refund value per customer email within your configured rolling windows
• Compute a behavioral risk score from return-pattern signals (such as rapid repeat submissions, repeated returns of the same product, a first-time customer's high-value return, and missing required photos) and — where you enable it — hold a return for manual review or block it at the score thresholds you set
• Record internal abuse flags in the App's database when a customer exceeds those thresholds
• Send you an optional alert email — immediately on each flag or as a daily digest — when a customer is flagged
• Enforce automated blocks on the self-service return portal, preventing flagged customers from submitting new return requests through the portal until you remove the flag or adjust thresholds

You are responsible for configuring abuse thresholds appropriately and for any decisions made based on abuse flags. The App does not apply tags or other modifications to customer records in Shopify, and does not make decisions about refund eligibility outside the self-service portal — merchants remain in control of approving, rejecting, and issuing refunds through their own review workflow.

8. Pricing and Billing

8.1 Plans

The App is offered in a free plan and paid subscription plans, all managed through Shopify's billing system. Each plan includes a monthly allowance of processed returns and a set of plan-dependent features. Current pricing, allowances, and feature availability are displayed on the App's Shopify App Store listing page, in the Shopify admin during installation, and on the in-app billing page. We do not process payments directly; all charges appear on your Shopify invoice.

8.2 Included Usage and Caps

• The App counts returns processed through it against your plan's monthly allowance. Usage notifications are sent to your configured contact email when you reach approximately 80% and 100% of your allowance.
• Free plan: the included allowance is a hard cap. When it is reached, the customer-facing return portal pauses new return submissions until your next billing period or until you upgrade. Your merchant dashboard and already-submitted returns are unaffected.
• Paid plans: when your allowance is reached, what happens next depends on your Monthly Overage Budget (Section 8.3).

8.3 Metered Overage and Monthly Overage Budget

• On paid plans, returns processed beyond your included allowance may incur a per-return overage charge at the rate shown for your plan on the App Store listing and the in-app billing page. Overage charges are submitted through Shopify's usage-based billing and appear on your Shopify invoice.
• Overage accrues only up to your Monthly Overage Budget — a spending ceiling you set in the App. The default budget is zero, meaning no overage charges are ever incurred unless you explicitly raise the budget.
• When your Monthly Overage Budget would be exceeded (or, with a zero budget, when your included allowance is reached), the customer-facing return portal pauses new return submissions for the remainder of the billing period, and you are notified by email. You can resume processing at any time by raising the budget or upgrading your plan.
• If an overage charge cannot be submitted to Shopify, the App retries and reconciles against Shopify's records; confirmed-failed submissions are not re-billed. Overage activity is recorded in the audit trail.

8.4 Free Trial

New installations may include a free trial, administered through Shopify-managed pricing. The exact trial terms — including length and eligibility — are displayed to you during the subscription approval step in Shopify admin and are authoritative. No charges are incurred during the trial. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, your subscription will automatically begin and you will be billed through Shopify. Shopify manages trial eligibility, duration, and billing transitions; Return Wise does not process payments directly.

8.5 Cancellation and Refunds

You may cancel your subscription at any time by uninstalling the App. Billing is managed entirely by Shopify and subject to Shopify's billing policies. We do not process payments directly.

9. AI-Assisted Features

The App includes an optional AI policy assistant (available on plan-dependent terms) that drafts suggested return rules, settings, and customer-facing copy from return policy text you provide. By using it, you acknowledge that:

• AI-generated drafts are suggestions only. Nothing takes effect until you review and explicitly apply a draft, and you are responsible for reviewing every suggestion for accuracy, completeness, and fit with your policies before applying it.
• AI output may be inaccurate or incomplete. We make no warranty as to the correctness of AI-generated content, and applied configurations are your configurations for the purposes of Sections 4 and 11.
• Policy text you submit is processed by our AI service provider as described in the Privacy Policy and the Data Processing Agreement. Do not include personal data in policy text; the assistant needs only your policy wording.
• AI-assisted drafting is limited to setup suggestions. The App does not use AI to approve or reject returns, evaluate customers, or make refund decisions.

10. Availability and Support

10.1 Service Availability

We strive to maintain high availability but do not guarantee uninterrupted service. The App depends on Shopify's platform, APIs, and our hosting and infrastructure providers.

10.2 Support

Support is available via:

• Email: support@returnwise.app
• Website: https://www.returnwise.app/

We will make reasonable efforts to respond to support requests in a timely manner.

11. Limitation of Liability

11.1 Disclaimer

THE APP IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

11.2 Limitation

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL RETURN WISE BE LIABLE FOR:

• Any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages
• Loss of profits, revenue, data, or business opportunities
• Damages arising from store credit issued incorrectly due to merchant misconfiguration
• Damages arising from customer disputes, chargebacks, or regulatory actions related to the merchant's return policies
• Any amount exceeding the total fees paid by you for the App in the twelve (12) months preceding the claim

11.3 Merchant Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Return Wise from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from:

• Your use of the App in violation of applicable laws
• Your return policies or customer disputes
• Your failure to respond to data subject requests
• Misconfiguration of rules, bonus percentages, or abuse thresholds

12. Data and Uninstallation

12.1 Data Ownership

All return data processed through the App belongs to you (the merchant). We process it on your behalf as a data processor.

12.2 Uninstallation

When you uninstall the App:

• Shopify sends an app/uninstalled webhook, followed by a shop/redact webhook (ordinarily 48 hours later under Shopify's compliance schedule)
• On app/uninstalled, the App marks the shop for cleanup and preserves its configuration during a short reinstall grace period (approximately 48 hours, aligned with Shopify's compliance schedule). A merchant who reinstalls within that window keeps their settings. After the grace period elapses, the App's scheduled cleanup permanently deletes all shop data held in the App's systems.
• On shop/redact, the App deletes all shop data held in its systems immediately, without waiting for the grace period.
• Both paths delete all data the App holds for your shop — return data (including uploaded photo files in object storage), configuration, audit trail and billing-usage records, and session data. Section 5.2 of the Data Processing Agreement carries the authoritative enumeration.
• Deletion from the App is permanent and cannot be reversed
• Data previously written to Shopify's own systems by the App — including store credit refunds, bonus store credit transactions, customer records, order notes, and order tags applied during return processing — remains on the Shopify platform as Shopify-owned resources, governed by Shopify's own policies and not by the App

12.3 Data Export

At any time before uninstalling, you can self-serve a full export of your shop's data from the App admin (a structured, machine-readable JSON archive — see Section 5.2 of the Data Processing Agreement). We recommend exporting before you uninstall. Once the post-uninstall grace period elapses, data is permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

13. Modifications to Terms

We may modify these Terms at any time. We will update the effective date above when changes are posted. Where required by law, we will provide additional notice through the Shopify App Store listing, email, the app interface, or another appropriate channel before the changes take effect. Continued use of the App after changes take effect constitutes acceptance.

14. Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to the App if:

• You violate these Terms
• Your Shopify store is suspended or terminated
• Continued provision of the service becomes commercially impractical

15. Governing Law

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, without regard to conflict of law principles.

16. Entire Agreement

These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and Data Processing Agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and Return Wise regarding the App and supersede all prior agreements.

17. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.

18. Contact

For questions about these Terms:

• Email: support@returnwise.app
• Website: https://www.returnwise.app/

BrightLayer Lab LLC · Registered legal address published in the Privacy Policy