How to Process an RMA in Magento Enterprise Edition

RMA in Magento

The following tutorial will walk you through how to process an RMA in Magento Enterprise Edition, a frequently needed but infrequently explained eCommerce process.

What's an RMA?

A return merchandise authorization, or RMA, allows your customers to request a return directly from your Magento store. An RMA in Magento Enterprise Edition allows you to process several return functions, such as exchanges, refunds, and store credits.

Once your customer requests a return, you are able to accept or deny the customer return directly from the Magento admin panel. If you choose to accept the request for a return, your customer will be notified, receive an RMA in Magento, be issued shipping labels, and be updated on the processing status.

RMA Functionality:

In My Account, a registered customer can view their past orders and click Return (on completed orders) to initiate the process.
The user then has the ability to fill out the return form and select the item(s) to return, quantity, resolution, condition, and reason to return.
The RMA is submitted and appears as pending to the store admin
Store admin users can manage the pending RMA request within the admin under Sales > RMA > Manage RMA.
The admin can then Authorize the RMA and create a shipping label.
The customer will get an email notification (with authorization) and can go back to My Accounts > My Returns and print their shipping label to send the item back.
The user then ships the item back to the store.
When the item is received, the admin will create a credit memo to either refund the order or give store credit (or give a partial refund).

RMA in Magento: The Workflow

The following is the workflow of an RMA in Magento:

Before You Begin:

To create an RMA, you will need to be enable yourself in the backend. Go to System > Config > Save > RMA tab. The order you are issuing an RMA for needs to be "complete".

Step 1: The Customer Receives an Order and Requests a Return

After you have enabled RMA in the Magento backend, then the first step of the process is when the customer clicks return in My Account to initiate the RMA in Magento:

The customer then selects the product they would like to return, the quantity to return, and the desired resolution (exchange, refund, or store credit):

The customer then specifies the condition of the item being returned:

The customer then enters the reasons for their return. The return reasons are configurable and can be set within the Magento Admin Panel:

Here is the customer's view of a completed RMA request in My Account:

Step 2: The Magento Administrator Approves and Processes the RMA in the Magento Backend.

The Magento "back office" displays the pending and in-progress RMA request. This can be accessed from the Sales tab:

Sales > RMA > Manage RMA

The Magento back-end allows RMAs to be approved and marked as received. To complete the process, the customer can either receive store credit, a refund, or an exchange of goods (via store credit):

Once an RMA has been authorized, you will be able to create a shipping label for the customer by clicking Create Shipping Label. The shipping carriers will need to be enabled for RMA by going to System > Config > Shipping Methods prior to creating the shipping label.

You will also be able to pick the shipping method for the return label:

Click the Add Products button to display the product(s) within the order:

Check the product(s) that you would like to create a label for. Then click Add Selected Product(s) to Package:

Adjust the total weight if necessary and then click OK:

You will now see the created label along with tracking information in the RMA section. You will be able to print the label (generates a PDF) and email it to the customer (if necessary):

The customer will be able to print the shipping label from the MY RETURNS section of MY ACCOUNT.

Clicking Print Shipping Label will generate a PDF label for them to print and attach to the package:

Once the return has been received, in the RMA Items section, enter the returned quantity and select Return Received, then click Save:

You will then enter the approved quantity and choose to Approve or Reject the return and click Save:

The RMA process has now been completed. You may now proceed by processing a Credit Memo for the customer.

Step 3: The Magento Administrator Processes a Credit Memo for the Customer.

In order to process a credit memo, click the order number from the RMA page, or find the order from the order grid:

Click Invoices:

Click on the invoice you would like to credit:

Then click Credit Memo at the top of the page:

From the Credit Memo page, there are several additional options:

Return the item to inventory
Apply a fee
Refund the customer’s shipping cost
Apply store credit

When all appropriate options are selected, click the Refund button
(do not click Refund Offline as it will not refund payment):

The Credit Memo process is now complete.

You may have noticed that the images in this tutorial weren't default Magento; they are EYEMAGINE's Magento customizations.