The return process is quite complicated as soon as it involves a lot of steps, conditions, status changes, and constant communications between merchants and customers.

The main purpose of any business is to simplify and clarify the whole RMA workflow and make it less time-consuming.

Any considerable or even small improvements can serve the final goal, where each positive amendment (even the slight one) brings you closer to the smooth and fluid procedure reasonably arranged for both sides.

Today, we are glad to announce that the new version of the RMA extension introduces a lot of process improvements able to make your return management hassle-free.

RMA 1.3 for Magento 2

New RMA Requests Created from the Backend

The biggest benefit of this update is that now, Magento admins are able to initiate and create RMA requests right from the backend. This opportunity is especially valuable if you regularly receive return requests offline.

For this purpose, enter the Manage RMA page (Sales > RMA by Aheadworks > Manage RMA) and click the New Request button. This will open the New request page with the following sections: General Information, Products, Customer Information, and RMA History.

New Request Page

General Information. The section allows you to select the order to become a basis of the RMA request and specify, for example, the type of resolution (replacement or refund), and package conditions (opened, not opened, or damaged) if the above custom fields are used for your requests.

Products. As soon as the order to be returned is selected, the Products section contains all the items taken from the order and ready to be added to the RMA request.

The Products grid displays the detailed information about the available items, including:

• Product Title – active link leading to the item’s product page;
• SKU – item’s SKU;
• Product Price – price of the product;
• Qty to Return – textbox allowing you to specify the number of items to be returned;
• Qty in Stock – current number of items in stock;
• Total Paid – the amount paid;
• Reason – dropdown that allows you to select the reason for return of the particular item;
• Actions – the column allows you to remove the item from the RMA request.

Customer Information. The section contains the information about the customer, including Customer Name, Customer Email, and Shipping Information.

RMA History. The section makes it possible to leave a message for the customer, leave an internal note for other admins, select a canned Response to be sent, and upload an image.

As soon as you save the request, the page converts into the Manage Request page, where you can check all the details once again.

Note: The status of the newly created request depends on global settings specified for new requests. For example, it may turn to ‘pend for an approval’ by default.

Easy Replacement Orders and Refund Credit Memos

The most active phase of the process for a merchant happens when the returning package is received from the customer. So, when the request obtains the ‘Package Received’ status, you can create a replacement order for this request.

Creating a Replacement Order

When you click the Create a Replacement Order link on the Manage Request page of a particular request, the module redirects you to the Create New Order form where you can specify all the required attributes and submit the order.

Issue a Refund

If the status of the request is ‘Issue Refund’, the Manage Request page makes it possible to create a credit memo right here with no need to browse any additional pages.

The same as in the example above, the New Memo form contains all the required fields, including order account information, address details, payment and shipping methods, items to refund, credit memo comment, etc.

As soon as you press the Refund Offline button, you are redirected to the corresponding order page and receive the notification that your credit memo is successfully created.

Canned Responses

As we’ve already mentioned above, creating a new RMA request from the backend, a Magento admin is able to add Canned Responses and this way accelerate the whole process. In fact, canned responses are the new functionality brought by RMA 1.3.

In order to create one or several canned responses, you need to enter the Canned Responses page (Sales > RMA by Aheadworks > Canned Responses).

The page contains the Canned Responses grid enumerating all the created responses and containing the following columns: ID, Title, Status, Created, Modified, and Action. The latter column allows you to edit or delete individual responses.

Canned Responses Grid 

You can also take advantage of the provided mass-action functionality. Using the Actions drop-down menu, you can change statuses or delete multiple responses at once. In order to create a new response, please click the Add Canned Response button.

The New Canned Response page allows you to enable the response, specify its title, store view, and content. The responses can be used anytime you want to provide quick replies to your customers.

Internal Notes for Admins

Internal notes for Magento admins are also a new feature provided by this update. The module allows leaving notes  about the specifics of a particular return, customer, order, etc. visible to admins only.

When you click the Internal Note button in the RMA history on the Manage Request page, the whole text area turns yellow, so you can be sure that the notification left is for internal use only.

The notifications provided as notes are also colored in yellow across all RMA request communication threads.

Order Page Improvements

As soon as orders are the starting point and documented basis of any RMA return, the latest version of the extension makes it possible to create returns right from the order page and adds the new Returns section to default Magento order pages.

Returns Section on the Order View Page

Returns Section on the Order View Page. The section enumerates all the RMA requests created for this particular order. The dedicated grid contains the following columns: Request #, Order #, Customer, Product(s), Last reply by, Status, Store, Updated at, and Created at. The Request column contains an active link guiding to the Manage Request page of a particular RMA request.

New Return Menu. When you enter the Order View page of a completed order, you can create a new RMA request right here using the New Return menu. The menu allows you to create new requests with no additional browsing.

Migration Tool

For M1 merchants planning to migrate to Magento 2 and save the history of the RMA requests created by our RMA extension for M1, we provide a straightforward workflow designed to fulfill the above challenge. For more details, please refer to the technical documentation of the extension.

Extended API

Finally, with this update, the module obtained an improved API, which allows you to transfer RMA requests from Magento to any CRM or other third-party solution.

Conclusion

As you can see, the latest release of the RMA extension brings online merchants new powerful possibilities able to improve the whole RMA management process in a web store.

RMA 1.3 is already available for purchase. To see it in action, please visit the demonstration store and read the related User Guide.

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