Set Up Exchange Recommendations

Overview

AfterShip Returns supports an AI-powered exchange recommendation feature on your store and the AfterShip Returns page to offer customers personalized recommendations when they are exchanging their original purchase for a different item in your store.

• You can select a preferred AI-powered product recommendation strategy to give customers the best return experience and increase the likelihood of them clicking the Shop Now button.
• You can also control which products appear as recommendations by filtering by collection or excluding products with specified product tags, such as digital products (gift cards) and shipping insurance.

What you’ll learn

In this article, we will show you:

• Important considerations
• Set up exchange recommendations
• Recommendation strategy
• Product filters

a. Filter by collection

b. Exclude by product tag

• Store banner
• Customer experience

Important considerations

• The product recommendations engine has been moved to the AfterShip Returns page editor from the Refunds and Exchanges section.
• You must enable the Shop with refund value resolution method under the Refunds and Exchanges section before setting up exchange recommendations.

Set up exchange recommendations

1. Go to Customizations > Returns page in your AfterShip Returns admin.
2. Select Customize in editor to open the returns page editor.
3. From the dropdown, select Return request > Shop now step.
4. Select Shop with refund value/Ship without refund value from the list of resolution methods.
5. Edit the customer-facing content as needed, including the title, price description, and primary, secondary buttons, marketing image, [store banner]((#3-store-banner)), background color, font..
6. Exit the Shop with refund value settings and select Recommended products.
7. Toggle on Product recommendations to activate the feature.
8. Select a Recommendation strategy from the options. See Recommendation strategy for details.
9. Configure Product filters as needed. See Product filters for details.
10. Select Save.

Recommendation strategy

AfterShip Returns uses AI to power all four recommendation strategies. Select the strategy that best fits your store's goals:

Product filters

Toggle on Product filters to control which products are offered for an exchange. You can apply both filter types together. AfterShip Returns applies them using AND logic, meaning a product must meet all active filter conditions to appear as a recommendation.

Filter by collection

Use the Filter by collection dropdown to either include or exclude specific collections from recommendations:

• Include collections: Only products from the selected collections appear as recommendations.
• Exclude collections: Products from the selected collections are excluded from recommendations.

Exclude by product tag

Use the Exclude by product tag field to prevent products with specific tags from appearing as recommendations.

Example:

To exclude gift cards from recommendations, go to your Shopify admin and verify the product tag assigned to your digital products, for example, Digital product. Enter that tag in the Exclude by product tag field. AfterShip Returns will exclude all products carrying that tag from the AI-powered recommendation results during the exchange selection step.

Demo

Store banner

Under the Store banner section, you can edit the text that will be displayed to your customers to remind them of the credits they have to buy a new product from your store catalog. This text editing is only applicable to the banner that will be displayed on your store if you have selected Exchange on your store as your exchange resolution method.

• Irrespective of how you edit your store banner text, we recommend using the ${RemainingCredit} merge tag as it dynamically shows your customers' remaining store credit for their exchange.
• Set up the background color of the banner and the text font as per your needs.

10. Once you are satisfied with the changes, click Save.

Customer experience

• Let's say a customer has purchased a pair of sunglasses from your store and now wants to return them. You offer customers an exchange option, allowing them to exchange their purchase for any other item in your store, with additional credit for choosing an exchange instead of a return.

• To ensure that gift cards don't appear as product recommendations during the exchange process, you've excluded them from the recommendations list by adding the associated tags— "Digital products" in the Exchange for other items settings within the returns page editor.

• As a result, when customers reach the exchange selection step during the return process and click the Shop now with ${creditTotal} button, the product recommendations shown will exclude items tagged as "Digital products." This applies both in the Resolution selected popup and the Recommended for you section on your returns page.

Need help?

For any further questions or help, please contact our chat support team or reach out to us at support+returns@aftership.com.

Updated on: 15/06/2026