Aftership Returns
Aftership Returns (formerly Returnly) is one of the most common RMS platforms Pinch merchants run. The integration is bi-directional: Pinch ingests every return Aftership creates plus disposition data from the warehouse-receiving step, scores it, and writes the decision back as a Shopify customer tag that Aftership reads inside its policy engine.
What data Pinch gets from Aftership
Pinch subscribes to Aftership's return events and pulls the following on each return:
| Data | Used for |
|---|---|
| Return ID, parent order ID, customer email | Linking the return to the order and the Pinch Identity |
| Line items being returned (SKU, quantity, price, reason code) | Workflow conditions, abuse-pattern detection |
| Customer-stated return reason | Wardrobing, switch-fraud, size-abuse signals |
| Return method (mail-in, in-store, instant exchange) | Differentiating risk by return channel |
| Return state transitions (requested → approved → label issued → received → resolved) | Time-in-transit signals, return-tag-not-used detection |
| Inspection / disposition outcome from Aftership's warehouse-receiving step | Disposition data — Aftership is often Pinch's primary disposition source |
Pinch receives these via Aftership webhooks (live) plus a historical backfill on first connect.
What Pinch writes back
Pinch writes the decision back to Shopify as customer tags (e.g. pinch-allow, pinch-review, pinch-deny, plus Sub Decision labels). Aftership reads those tags inside its Return Workflows engine.
Using Pinch tags inside Aftership Return Workflows
Aftership's rule engine for tag-based decisioning is called Return Workflows and lives at Aftership Returns Admin → Return policy → Workflows. (There's a separate Automation Rules feature for auto-approve / auto-refund — tag-driven logic belongs in Workflows.) Aftership exposes an Customer info → Customer tag condition with operators is any of and contains, available for Shopify and Magento 2 stores.
Recommended Pinch-tag → Aftership workflow mapping:
| Pinch tag | Aftership workflow | Aftership action |
|---|---|---|
pinch-deny | Customer tag is any of pinch-deny | Block return item with custom block reason ("Not eligible for self-serve return — contact support") |
pinch-review | Customer tag is any of pinch-review | Process return: Manual (route to manual review queue) |
pinch-vip | Customer tag is any of pinch-vip | Charge cost of return: Waive, offer instant exchange, extend return window |
pinch-suspect-abuse | Customer tag is any of pinch-suspect-abuse | Restrict resolutions to Exchange-only or Store-credit-only; charge flat handling fee |
pinch-first-order | Customer tag is any of pinch-first-order | Offer Shop Now bonus to encourage exchange instead of refund |
| Default (no Pinch tag) | — | Standard return policy |
Concrete example — set up the deny rule:
- Aftership Returns Admin → Return policy → Workflows → Create from scratch
- Conditions: Customer info → Customer tag is any of
pinch-deny - Action: Block return item → enter the block reason customers will see
- Enable
Aftership evaluates workflows top-down, so place Pinch-tag workflows above your default policy so deny / review decisions catch first.
How to connect
In the Pinch dashboard, go to Integrations → Returns System → Aftership. Authenticate via OAuth or paste an API key from your Aftership admin. Pinch verifies the connection and begins ingesting events within a few minutes.
See also
- Disposition data — Aftership's inspection notes feed the highest fidelity tier
- Workflows — where Aftership return data is evaluated
- Install on Shopify — the customer-tag writeback path Aftership reads from