The Order Downgrades setting controls whether customers can remove items or switch to cheaper variants during the editing window. When enabled, customers can downgrade their order and receive an automatic refund for the price difference.
You'll find this at Settings > Order Downgrades.
💡 Tip: If you only want customers to swap variants at the same price or add items, leave order downgrades disabled. This prevents refund scenarios entirely.
Toggle Allow customers to downgrade their order to enable this feature. When turned on, customers can make changes that reduce their order total, such as removing a line item, reducing a quantity, or switching to a lower-priced variant.
When disabled, customers can only make edits that keep the order total the same or increase it. Any change that would reduce the total is blocked.
⚠️ Warning: If you disable order downgrades but have the Quantity Edits app block enabled, you'll see a "Conflicting features enabled" alert. With downgrades off, customers using the Quantity Edits block won't be able to reduce quantities or remove items from their order, since those actions would result in a refund. Either enable downgrades or be aware that quantity edits will be limited to increases only.
When a customer downgrades their order, they need to receive the price difference back. You choose how that refund is issued by selecting one of two options.
Refund Method | How It Works |
Store Credit Refund | The customer instantly receives store credit in their localized currency that can be redeemed on their existing or future orders. |
Payment Method Refund | The customer receives a partial refund to their original payment method or the gift card redeemed in their order. |
ℹ️ Note: Store credit refunds are instant and keep the revenue within your store. Payment method refunds depend on the payment provider's processing time and may take several business days to appear on the customer's statement.
When a customer makes an edit that reduces their order total, Order Editing calculates the price difference and issues the refund automatically using your selected method. The customer sees the refund confirmation on the Thank You page or Order Status page immediately after saving their changes.
Common downgrade scenarios include:
Removing a line item, for example deleting an accessory they no longer want
Reducing quantity, for example changing from 3 units to 2
Switching to a cheaper variant, for example changing from a premium material to the standard option
✅ Example: A customer orders a Large Premium T-Shirt for $45 and a Hat for $25 (total: $70). During the editing window, they remove the Hat. If you have Payment Method Refund selected, the customer automatically receives a $25 refund to their original payment method.
If you need more granular control over which orders allow downgrades, you can use Order Editing Rules instead of the global toggle. The Rules system includes an Order Downgrades option in the Rule-Specific Settings, letting you enable or disable downgrades based on conditions like order value, shipping destination, or customer tags.
This is useful when you want to allow downgrades for domestic orders but block them for international orders, or allow downgrades only on orders above a certain value.
Order Editing calculates the net difference when the customer saves their changes. If they remove an item but add a more expensive one, the final result may be an upgrade (they pay the difference) rather than a downgrade (they receive a refund).
Yes, you can change the refund method at any time. The new method applies to all future downgrades. Orders that were already refunded using the previous method are not affected.
Yes, store credit is issued as a Shopify gift card in the customer's localized currency. The customer receives it instantly and can redeem it on their current or any future order.
No, order cancellations are a separate feature. The downgrade setting only controls partial order reductions, not full cancellations. You can configure cancellation behaviour independently.
This appears when you have the Quantity Edits app block enabled but order downgrades turned off. The Quantity Edits block lets customers adjust line item quantities, but reducing a quantity results in a refund, which requires downgrades to be enabled. To resolve this, either enable order downgrades or understand that customers will only be able to increase quantities, not decrease them.
