Return labels
Make a prepaid return label for a shipment on your own UPS, FedEx or Shippo account, download it for the customer, and void it when it isn't needed.
Updated October 5, 2026
A return label lets your customer send boxes back to you, billed to your carrier account. You make it from the shipment on the order page, after the outbound label exists.
Before you start
- The shipment needs a label. Generate Return Label appears under a shipment once its label is created.
- The shipment must be domestic: the location it shipped from and the customer are in the same country. International shipments don’t show the button.
- The outbound label must be on UPS, FedEx or Shippo. Freight shipments don’t get return labels: freight returns are booked with Estes or FedEx Freight directly.
Make a return label
Pro and Advanced plans
- Open the order and find the shipment in the Shipments card.
- Click Generate Return Label.
Parcello buys a label for every box of the shipment, from the customer’s address (the address the outbound label used) back to the location it shipped from. It uses the same carrier and service as the outbound label and the same box sizes.
Operations plan
On the Operations plan, Generate Return Label first asks Which items are coming back?:
- Set the quantity for each item that comes back. Items that can’t come back show why under their name, for example “Already on a return label”.
- Pick a Reason (it applies to every item in the return). The list is Shopify’s: Changed my mind, Damaged or defective, Item not as described, Received the wrong item, Arrived late, Too small, Too big, Style, Color, Other, Unknown. It starts on Unknown.
- Optionally add a Note (up to 255 characters). It goes to Shopify with the reason.
- Click Create return label.
Parcello makes the return label for the boxes those items left in, creates the return in Shopify and attaches the label. Shopify emails the label to the customer. You see, for example, “#1001-R1 created in Shopify. Shopify emailed the return label to the customer.” The label then shows under the shipment as “#1001-R1 · 1× Prize wheel” with its own download and void buttons.
To make a label without a Shopify return, tick Make the return label only, without a Shopify return in the same window. Use it for items already in a return you opened in Shopify. You send that label to the customer yourself.
If Shopify has nothing left to return on the shipment (the items weren’t fulfilled in Shopify, or are already in a return), the window says so and makes the label only. See Returns from Shopify.
After the label is made
Under the shipment you see Download Return Label and Void Return Label.
- Download Return Label opens the label as a PDF. Send it to your customer, or print it and put it in the box.
- Void Return Label cancels the label with the carrier. Generate Return Label comes back so you can make a new one.
Only one plain return label can exist per shipment at a time. To make another, void the first.
How each carrier handles returns
| Carrier | Several boxes | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| UPS | One label per box: a three-box shipment gets three return labels, one per page of the PDF | Under the button: “Carrier fees may apply” |
| FedEx | One return covering every box | Set by FedEx |
| Shippo | One return through Shippo, on the outbound label’s carrier | Set by Shippo and the carrier |
UPS doesn’t allow several boxes on one return label, so Parcello buys one label per box. Print every page and put one label on each box.
Shippo makes the return on the carrier the outbound label used. Shippo doesn’t offer USPS return labels, so a shipment that went out on USPS through Shippo can’t get one.
Voiding the outbound label
When you click Void Labels on a shipment, Parcello also voids its return labels with the carrier. If a return label was for a return Parcello started in Shopify, that Shopify return is cancelled too while it is still open. A return opened in Shopify is never cancelled by a void.
Notes and limits
- The return label goes back to the location the shipment left from. To receive returns at another address, ship from that location.
- Return labels use the same service as the outbound shipment.
- International returns aren’t supported.
- When a Shippo return label is voided, the line under the button may read “Previous return label voided · No charge to refund. Return labels bill only when used.” That is expected: return labels through Shippo are billed only if the customer uses them.
Troubleshooting
“A return label already exists for this shipment. Void the existing return first.” The shipment already has a plain return label. Download it, or void it and make a new one.
“Outbound carrier must be UPS, FedEx or Shippo to generate a return.” The shipment’s label is on a carrier Parcello doesn’t make returns for.
“Shippo doesn’t offer USPS return labels” in the Which items are coming back? window: the shipment went out on USPS through Shippo. Make the return label in Shopify or in your Shippo account instead.
“Return label created, but the Shopify return wasn’t: … Download the label below and send it to the customer.” Shopify refused the return (the reason follows in the message). The label exists in Parcello: download it and send it yourself.
The carrier refuses the label. Its message shows on the order. Check the customer’s address and phone number on the shipment, then try again.