Returns, NDR & Order Cancellation

Handle failed deliveries, customer returns, RTO, and the full order cancellation cascade — stock, refunds, and courier interception.

Not every delivery goes to plan. Here's how BillionBiz handles failed deliveries, returns, and cancellations — and what happens automatically versus what needs your attention.

Failed delivery — NDR (Non-Delivery Report)

An NDR is raised when a courier agent attempts delivery but can't complete it.

Find every NDR under the Shipment → NDR Center tab — each entry shows order number, AWB, failure reason, date of the failed attempt, and attempts so far. For each one you can:

• Reattempt Delivery — the courier tries again, with any updated instructions (call before arriving, leave with a neighbour, new phone number) you provide.
• Mark as RTO — Return to Origin. The parcel is sent back from the courier's sorting facility to your warehouse. Use this after multiple failed re-attempts, or if the customer no longer wants the order.
• Email Customer / SMS Customer — send the customer a notification about the failed delivery directly from the row, without leaving the NDR Center.

Automating NDR handling

Instead of actioning every NDR by hand, click Edit Auto-Action Rules at the top of the NDR Center. Each failure reason (e.g. "Customer unavailable") has its own rule: a maximum number of attempts before the rule fires, the action to take once that's reached (e.g. auto-RTO), a delay in hours before it fires, and an Active toggle to turn the rule on or off. Adjust the values and click Save Rules — only active rules run automatically; anything you leave off still needs manual handling from the row actions above.

RTO — Return to Origin

When a parcel can't be delivered and either you or the courier initiates an RTO (after exhausting attempts), the parcel travels back to your warehouse. Once BillionBiz receives the RTO confirmation:

You don't need to take any manual action for inventory or refund — the platform handles both.

Customer returns

A return starts on the customer's side: they open their order on the customer portal, click Request Return on the item(s), choose a reason ("Wrong item received", "Damaged on arrival", "Changed my mind"), and submit. The request appears in your admin dashboard under Shipment → Return Requests — a dedicated tab for customer-initiated requests, separate from the Returns tab described below.

The Return Requests tab

Every request moves through its own state lifecycle, shown as a filter above the list: Requested → Approved/Rejected → Picked Up → In Transit → Delivered Back → Refund Pending → Refunded, with Cancelled possible along the way. Filter the list to any one of these states, or view all.

Search return requests

On the new admin panel, the filter bar above the list has a search box with the placeholder Search by order or customer, next to the Filter by status dropdown. It appears in both places the list is shown: Shipment → Return requests and Orders → Returns.

1. Open Orders → Returns (or Shipment → Return requests).
2. Click the search box and type. The list updates about a third of a second after you stop typing, so you don't need to press Enter.
3. Optionally pick a state in Filter by status. The search and the state filter work together: you see only requests that match both.
4. Clear the box to return to the full list.

What it matches

The search covers every return request in your store, not just the rows currently on screen. The page count and the page controls at the bottom follow the matches, so a search with many results is paged like the normal list. Typing a new search or changing the state filter always takes you back to page 1. Anything past 100 characters is ignored.

The search box is part of the new admin panel only. The older admin panel's Shipment → Return Requests tab has the state filter but no search box.

Click the row's expand chevron to see the returned item's detail (product, quantity, reason). Click Timeline to see the full history of state changes for that request instead — the two views share the same expand row and toggle between each other.

For a request still in Requested or Approved state, click Approve or Reject. Either opens a small dialog with an optional merchant note — for a rejection, use the note to tell the customer why (e.g. "outside the return window", "item shows signs of use").

Returns a customer files from the Request a Return dialog on the order detail page appear in the same list as the other requests, so you manage every return in one place. For these rows:

1. Click Approve on a Requested row (or Reject on a Requested or Approved row). The same note dialog opens; add a merchant note if you like and confirm.
2. Once the return is Approved or Delivered Back, a green Complete button appears on the row (in both the list and the newer card view). It opens a Complete Return Request dialog with the optional note. Confirming records the goods as received if that has not happened yet, then issues the refund. For a rejection, the note you enter is saved as the rejection reason.
3. The refund is the net amount allocated to the returned lines (for a bundle component, its share after the bundle saving), and is capped at what the customer paid minus earlier refunds. If nothing is left to refund the dialog shows that no paid money remains for the return. The same limit applies as for refunds started from the order.

Their state names follow the courier workflow: a return whose pickup label has been generated shows as Approved, and one the courier has delivered back shows as Delivered Back; the other states keep the same name. Complete is only offered on these order-page returns.

The customer sees the same return in their order history and on the order tracking page, with the refund amount once it is known (see Orders, tracking and returns).

Approving a return initiates a reverse pickup — the courier collects the item from the customer's address and brings it to your warehouse. You'll see the reverse shipment tracking in the Returns tab.

There is no separate "confirm receipt" button for these requests. Receipt is recorded by the courier: when the return parcel's tracking reports it delivered to your warehouse, the request moves to Delivered Back on its own.

Returns filed from the order page (the Complete flow above) do not wait for the courier: Complete records receipt and issues the refund when you click it.

If a customer tries to return an order after the window has closed, the Request Return button disappears from the customer portal. To make an exception, create the return manually from Shipment → Returns → + New Return — manual returns bypass the window check.

Order cancellation — the full cascade

Cancel an order from the Order Detail screen (not from the Shipments tab) and the platform triggers a three-step cascade automatically.

Next steps

• Common errors and their recovery steps
• Shipping zones, rules, and advanced features