Cancel an Order (Customer Flow)
Customers can cancel an order themselves if you have Cancel order turned on in Settings → Allowed edit types. Cancellation is immediate — no approval queue, no merchant action.
What the customer sees
On the Order Status Page, inside the Edit your order card, a row labelled Cancel this order. Clicking it expands a small confirmation:
- A short reason dropdown (Changed my mind, Bought wrong item, Found a better price, Other).
- A red Cancel order button.
- A Keep order button to back out.
When the customer clicks Cancel order:
- We mark the order as cancelled in Shopify.
- We auto-refund the full amount to the original payment method.
- We auto-restock every line item that was reserved.
- The Order Status Page updates with a Cancelled badge.
What happens behind the scenes
| Action | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Refund | Full, to original payment method | Stripe / Shopify Payments / PayPal — whatever was used |
| Restock | All items, all locations | Respects original reservation |
| Email to customer | Shopify's standard cancellation email | We do not send a duplicate |
| Email to merchant | Sent immediately | Cancellations always email you regardless of notification setting |
What customers cannot cancel
- Orders past the time window you configured.
- Orders that are already fulfilled, partially refunded, or on hold for risk review.
- Orders paid via methods we cannot auto-refund (rare — manual gateways). The row hides for those.
What if the customer changes their mind?
Cancellation is final. To re-create the order, the customer places it again on your store. We do this on purpose — restoring a cancelled order would re-reserve inventory and re-charge, which is rarely what anyone actually wants.
See also
- Email delivery rules — why merchant gets the email instantly
- Refund & restock behavior — edge cases with mixed payment / multi-location