Points refund and deduction policy for Refunded orders (2025 update)
Understand how BON Loyalty processes points for refunded orders
Introduction
When an order’s value is changed due to a Return/Refund action, in addition to the buyer receiving a refund for the product, the store owner will also reclaim the loyalty points previously awarded for that order.
How order points are deducted based on the Complete an Order settings
In BON’s settings for the Complete an Order action, merchants can customize conditions for the point-earning process, such as including or excluding specific products.
As a result, points for refunded orders are handled differently depending on whether the Include/Exclude conditions have been set:
1. If NO Include/Exclude conditions are set:
For fully refunded orders, all points earned from that order will be deducted.
For orders with multiple partial refunds (both by line items and custom refunds), BON reviews all of the refunds made on that order each time you issue a new partial refund, and calculates the total number of points that should be deducted for each partial refund. The customer is only deducted the difference compared to the previous refunds, so points are never deducted twice for the same refund.
For example, a customer purchased:
Product X – $40
Product Y – $60
Product Z – $20– Refund of Product Y ($60) → 60 points deducted
– Later refund of Product Z ($20) → additional 20 points deducted
2. If Include/Exclude conditions are set:
- For fully refunded orders, all points earned from that order will be deducted.
- When refunding by line item, BON will deduct points proportionally based on the refund value of included products only.
- For custom refund amounts (manually entered), points will be deducted proportionally based on the total refund value, regardless of product inclusion or exclusion.
- For multiple partial refunds, points will be deducted for each partial refund, with the total point deduction reflecting all partial refunds combined. Of course, only products that are eligible to earn points will have points deducted when they are refunded. Refunding an excluded product does not deduct any points. The total points deducted will never exceed the points the customer earned from that order.
For example, a customer purchased:Product X – $40 (excluded from earning points)
– Refund of Product X ($40) → no points deducted
Product Y – $60
Product Z – $20
– Later refund of Product Z ($20) → 20 points deducted
– A manual refund of $30 → 30 points deducted
How redeemed points are added back for refunded orders
If a refunded order had a BON discount applied, the system will return the previously redeemed points to the customer in the following scenarios:
1. Full refunds: All points used to redeem a discount coupon for the order will be fully returned to the customer’s loyalty account.
2. Partial refunds: BON will calculate the ratio of Coupon value/Refund amount and return a proportional amount of points based on that ratio.
Some example scenarios
Complete an Order = 1 point per $1 spent.
Customer A purchased:
– Product X: $40
– Product Y: $60
– They redeem 100 points for a $10 discount coupon.
– The order earns 90 points.
Case 1: Refunding Product X ($40) by line item.
- 40 points earned from Product X will be deducted.
- If the refunded product is excluded (based on Complete an Order settings), no points will be deducted.
The redeemed points (from the coupon) will be refunded proportionally:
- BON deducts points using: Redeemed points used × (Refund amount/Total order value).
- Refunded points = 100 × ($40 / $100) = 40 points.
- Please note that Shopify automatically applies discounts proportionally across items.
Case 2: Refunding a custom amount (no line item product selected for refund).
- In Shopify, a store owner can manually enter a refund amount without selecting products.
- BON deducts points using: Points × (Refund amount/Total order value).
- If the store owner enters a custom $20 refund amount, the deducted points are: 90 × ($20 / $100) = 18 points
IMPORTANT NOTES:
– Shopify automatically distributes applied discounts proportionally (e.g., if a $10 coupon is applied to a $100 order, each $40/$60 product gets $4/$6 deducted).
– VIP tier status is recalculated when a refund is processed.
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