Shopify announced on November 10, 2026, in its changelog, that merchants can now turn self-serve returns and cancellations on or off for each market they sell in. Before this, the setting covered the whole store, so once it was switched on, a buyer in any country could request a return or cancel an order from their account.
What’s new
The toggles sit under Settings, Customer Accounts, Order Actions. You set a store default first, then pick a market from the dropdown and give it its own rules. Shopify says existing settings carried over automatically, so nothing changes in your store until you edit it.
The new toggles also appear next to third-party returns apps in the checkout editor. That makes it easier to compare Shopify’s built-in option with a returns app you already pay for.
Who it affects
Any store selling into more than one market, for example a US store that also ships to Canada, the UK or Australia. International returns usually cost more to process, and the old single switch meant allowing self-serve returns everywhere or nowhere.
One line in Shopify’s changelog deserves a second read. If you turn on self-serve returns for a market that has no return rules, buyers in that market can request returns with no time limit.
Our take
With Black Friday about two weeks away, we’d treat this as a short job for this week. Go through each market, set a return window before switching anything on, and decide whether international returns should stay manual for now. If you use a returns app, compare it with the built-in option before your next renewal.
It’s also a good moment to check that your returns policy page matches what the settings now allow in each country. A buyer who can request a return from their account will expect the policy page to say the same thing, and mismatches tend to turn into support tickets and chargebacks during the holiday rush.
If your store needs help with markets, returns or checkout setup, our Shopify development team works on exactly this, and you can see the rest of our ecommerce development services or our work for ecommerce brands.
