Keep Item and Instant Resolution

Updated 11 November 2026

Overview

This article explains the two ways a shopper can keep the goods and still be paid. Keep item is a policy rule: any item at or under a price threshold is refunded or credited with nothing sent back. Instant Resolution is an offer: a shopper on the refund path is shown a partial refund for keeping their items, and if they accept, the refund goes to their original payment method right away. It covers the settings for each, how a resolution is matched, and what the shopper and your team see.

Use the menu on the left to quickly navigate this article.

Before you start

• For Keep item, a return policy with the Keep item card switched on under Policy > Return Policies, the Return outcomes tab.
• For Instant Resolution, a return policy with Refund switched on. Instant Resolution pays a refund, so it is never offered under a policy with refunds off.

Keep Item and Instant Resolution

Keep item

In the admin, go to Policy > Return Policies, open a policy, Return outcomes, the Keep item card.

• Threshold amount: the maximum item price a customer can keep. An item at or under it is offered Keep item in the portal and no label is made for it. Keep item credit is the item value plus the sales tax paid on it.

Screenshot

The Keep item card with its Threshold amount

Instant Resolution

In the admin, go to Shopper > Instant Resolution.

The Resolutions list shows Order, Name, Conditions, Refund, Basis and Status. Resolutions are checked in order, top to bottom, and the first one that every item matches is offered; use Move up and Move down to reorder. Add Resolution opens a New Resolution page. Edit Return Costs opens the costs the analytics use.

• Details: a Name the customer does not see.
• Resolution status: Draft or Active. A draft resolution is never offered. Default: Draft.
• Offer icon: None, Money, Refund or Coin. None shows no icon.
• Show savings summary: when on, the offer shows the customer's total savings on the order. When off, the offer shows only the refund amount. Default: on.
• Offer text: Header (up to 50 characters) and Description (up to 250) replace the default copy, Keep your items and No need to ship anything back. Keep what you have and get a partial refund. Preview shows the card with sample figures.
• Reasons: tick return reasons; leave all unchecked to match any reason.
• Products: Product tags, Product type and Collection. Each list narrows the match on its own; leave a list empty to match any product.

• Policies: limit the offer to returns under the policies you select; leave empty to match any policy.

  Note: Selecting the default policy limits the offer to orders that no other policy matches, not to all orders.

• Amount mode: Fixed percentage refunds a Refund percentage of each item. Target total (off retail) brings every customer to the same total off retail.

• Apply the refund to the original price, before discounts: when on, the refund is a percentage of the item's full price before discounts. When off, the refund is a percentage of what the customer paid. Shown in Fixed percentage mode. Default: off.

• Target percentage (off retail): the refund is the difference between the customer's existing discount and this target. Shown in Target total (off retail) mode.

  Note: A customer whose discount is already at or above the target is not offered the resolution.

• Refund cap: when on, the refund never goes over the Maximum refund (store currency) you set. When off, the refund is never more than what the customer paid. Default: off.

• Limit to first-time purchasers: when on, only customers on their first order are offered this resolution. When off, repeat customers are offered it too. Default: off.

• Limit to one offer per customer: when on, a customer who already accepted an Instant Resolution is not offered another. When off, earlier Instant Resolutions do not limit the offer. Default: off.

  Note: Customers are matched by email and shipping address.

• Applies to: Any return, Full-order returns only or Partial returns only.

The Example panel on the Amount card works the numbers as you type: a 100.00 item with 15 percent off (they paid 85.00) at a 20 percent fixed refund gives back 17.00, a total of 32 percent off retail. With nothing ticked anywhere the editor warns This matches every return. Click Save Resolution. On a saved resolution, View Analytics opens Insights > Analytics filtered to that resolution.

Screenshot

Shopper > Instant Resolution, the Amount card with the Example panel

What the shopper sees

Keep item. For an eligible item, Keep item as a choice on the item's resolution step. On the review page the shipping card reads Keep your items and No need to ship these back. You'll receive store credit. (or the refund wording), and no label is made.

Instant Resolution. After choosing items, when every item is on the refund path and a resolution matches, the offer card replaces the review step with the refund amount, the total savings when the savings summary is on (Bringing your total savings to when the order already had a discount), and two buttons: Accept Partial Refund and Keep My Items and Continue with My Return. Accepting issues the partial refund to the original payment method; declining continues the normal return.

Screenshot

The Instant Resolution offer card in the portal

Status page. After accepting, the status page reads Your return has been submitted, or Your return is being reviewed when the return is held, with You're keeping your items, so there's nothing to send back. The progress bar has no refund step until the refund is issued, when it shows Refund issued ticked with its date. The summary total is labelled Total, and the page promises no email. The Shop Later page on an Instant Resolution return shows the return's state, not an offer.

Emails. The confirmation email leaves out everything about sending items back: no label sentence, no packing or return address lines, and no refund or store credit question in its FAQ. If the shopper cancels the return, the cancel email reads Your refund for this return was already issued to your original payment method, and the return is now closed. when the refund was issued, or The return was cancelled before any refund was issued. when it was not. It has no line about a voided label.

How it works

On the returns list an accepted offer shows as Instant Resolution (pending) until the refund lands. Once Shopify shows the refund, the returns list, bulk processing, the return page and Process Return all read Shopify shows this Instant Resolution refund was issued, and it is recorded on this return. Process Return does not run on an Instant Resolution return. On the return page the summary line reads Agreed amount rather than a return credit, and the items card is titled Kept items.

The timeline records Customer accepted an Instant Resolution offer (resolution #N) for a partial refund of $X. and, when a matching refund is found already on the Shopify order, matched to an existing Shopify refund. No second refund was issued. If the return is cancelled before its refund is recorded, the timeline reads Instant Resolution offer closed: the return was cancelled while its refund was not recorded as issued.

Instant Resolution is not offered when the return's policy has refunds switched off; the timeline says so on that return.

The Instant Resolution tab under Insights > Analytics and the Instant Resolution report under Insights > Reports show acceptance and an estimated net benefit, built per accepted offer from the returned items' paid value, minus the partial refund, plus the label and processing cost saved, minus resale value forgone at the recovery rate you set under Edit Return Costs. See Return Costs.

Important: Both outcomes pay real money on goods you will never inspect, so set thresholds and caps with that in mind.

Return costs

This section covers the Edit Return Costs page. It holds the costs used to compare a keep-and-partial-refund offer with a full return, which Instant Resolution reports in its analytics. Values the app pulls automatically are shown for reference; you only fill in the rest. Nothing here changes what a customer is paid.

Before you start: Instant Resolution set up under Shopper > Instant Resolution, with at least one resolution. Item costs filled in on your products in Shopify, or a default item cost ready to type here.

Settings

In the admin, go to Shopper > Instant Resolution and click Edit Return Costs in the resolutions section. The page is titled Edit Return Costs and saves with Save Changes in the header; Saved appears beside it.

Pulled automatically

The card reads You don't need to enter these. Each line carries a Syncing chip.

• Order total paid: from each order.
• Partial refund amount: order total times the resolution's refund percent.
• Item cost (COGS): from Shopify.
• Customer shipping charged: from each order.

Return shipping

• Do you cover return shipping?: when on, Analytics counts your average return label cost as saved on each Instant Resolution. When off, no label cost is counted. Default: off.
• Average return label cost: what a return label costs you on average. Enter it when Do you cover return shipping? is on.

• Count original shipping as saved: when on, Analytics counts the original shipping the customer paid as saved on each Instant Resolution. When off, it is not counted. Default: off.

  Note: This setting only feeds Analytics. It refunds nothing, and an accepted Instant Resolution never includes the original shipping.

Return processing

• Return processing cost: None, Fixed per return (with Amount per return), Per item (with Amount per item), or First item plus each additional (with First item and Each additional item). Default: None.

Item cost

• Default item cost: used when Shopify has no cost for an item.
• Resale recovery rate: the share of returned items that come back sellable (default 100). Used only to value returned stock in the keep-versus-return estimate; it does not change what any customer is paid.

Screenshot

Shopper > Instant Resolution, the Edit Return Costs page with the Pulled automatically card and the Return shipping and Return processing cards filled in

Note: Costs must be 0 or more and the resale recovery rate must be a percent between 0 and 100; the save is refused otherwise. Blank fields are treated as not set, never as zero.

What the shopper sees

Nothing. These figures feed the Net benefit vs a standard return section on the Instant Resolution tab under Insights > Analytics.

How it works

For each accepted offer, the estimate is the paid value of the returned items, minus the partial refund, plus the return label and processing avoided, minus the resale value forgone at your recovery rate, plus the original shipping the customer paid when Count original shipping as saved is on. Label and processing are the averages you type here rather than per-return actuals, so it is an informed estimate, not exact profit and loss. A kept item with no recorded cost has no resale value to take off, and the Analytics tab says so.

A shopper starts a return for a 40.00 item. Do you cover return shipping? is on with a 9.00 average label cost, processing is Fixed per return at 4.00, and Count original shipping as saved is off. The shopper accepts a 40 percent Instant Resolution offer, so the partial refund is 16.00. The estimate counts the 40.00 paid value minus the 16.00 refunded, plus the 13.00 of label and processing you did not spend, minus the resale value you gave up: with a recovery rate of 100 percent and an item cost of 20.00, that is 20.00. The net benefit for that offer is 17.00. Lower the recovery rate and the resale value forgone falls, so the net benefit rises.

Tip: Revisit these figures when your label rates or handling costs change. The estimate is only as good as the numbers you enter.

FAQ

Can I offer Instant Resolution only for cheap items? Yes. Use Refund cap for a maximum refund, and narrow Products to the tags, types or collections you want. There is no price threshold on a resolution; the policy's Keep item threshold is the price-based rule.

Why was a resolution not offered on a return that matched? The return had an item not on the refund path, the resolution is a Draft, a higher resolution matched first, the customer hit an abuse guard limit, the customer's discount is already at or above a target total, or the policy has refunds off.

Does original shipping come back on a kept item? No. Kept items and an accepted Instant Resolution never include the original shipping, whatever the policy's Original shipping boxes say.

Why does the Analytics tab show a different figure from my own sums? The tab adds the per-offer estimate across accepted offers only, using the values pulled from each order and the costs here as they were when you looked. Check the How this estimate is built tile on the tab.

Do these costs change the offer a shopper sees? No. The offer percent is set on the resolution under Shopper > Instant Resolution. This page only values the outcome afterwards.

Please reach out to support@returnzen.app with any additional questions.