Zalando Return Solutions
Zalando Return Solutions (ZRS) Plus is a return service for Zalando’s Partner Program partners. Zalando handles partner returns, while partners benefit from reduced costs and the customers enjoy a frictionless shopping experience. ZRS Plus service is available to partners using self-fulfilment (own logistics) or combined with Zalando Shipping Solution (ZSS) for outbound to customer.
Please note: If you are also going live with Zalando Shipping Solutions (ZSS) for outbound shipment service to customers in combination with Zalando Return Solutions (ZRS) Plus as return service, then please only refer to this page for enablement guidance.
The below description is only valid for enablement of own logistics (outbound) and ZRS Plus (returns) setup.
ZRS Plus
- The customer can return your articles, together with other Zalando articles in one single box
- All returned articles are sent to one of Zalando’s return centres, where articles are received, inspected, and the customer reimbursement is triggered; they are then forwarded to a Zalando fulfilment centre
- Once the articles have arrived at one of our fulfilment centres, they are available online for resale; they remain stored here until the next outbound order, which will be fulfilled by Zalando
The ZRS Plus process for orders requires REST calls to the following zDirect APIs:
- Orders API for updating orders
- Shipping Documents API for generating ZRS Plus shipping documents
ZRS Plus orders belong to the order type PartnerFulfilled
. Throughout the order life cycle the status of an order item can change to shipped
, returned
or cancelled
.
Best practice for updating a ZRS Plus order to “shipped”
- Get the orders from the Orders API as described here.
- Once the orders are shown with the
approved
status, add the order number you are using in your system to the Zalando order as described here. - Generate and download the ZRS Plus shipping documents by calling the Shipping Documents API as described here.
- Update the tracking information via the Orders API as described here. The tracking IDs need to be mapped as followed:
- Copy the value of
tracking_id
from the RETURN_LABEL found in the ZRS shipping document to updatereturn_tracking_number
in the order.
- Copy the value of
- Update all the products you are going to ship by setting their status to
shipped
in the Orders API as described here.
Best practice updating a ZRS Plus order to “returned”
Partners do not need to provide an update to Orders API as Zalando will set the status to returned
.
There’s no precise call to query the Orders API for ZRS Plus returns. However, it is possible to keep track of returned items in two steps:
- Retrieving fulfilled orders from the Orders API with
GET merchants/{merchant_ID}/orders?include=order_items,order_lines&order_status=fulfilled&exported=true&order_type=PartnerFulfilled&page_number=0&page_size=1000&last_updated_after=[YYYY]-[MM]-[DD]T[hh]:[mm]:[ss]Z
Best practice updating a ZRS Plus order line to “cancelled”
- Get the orders from the Orders API as described here.
- Optional step: If any order lines are to be shipped, perform step 2 from Best practice for updating an order to “shipped” for those items.
- Update all the products you are going to cancel by setting their status to
canceled
in the Orders API as described here.
Note: It’s not possible to cancel ZRS Plus shipping documents. In case you cancelled all products/lines of an order but generated the ZRS Plus documents by accident, simply discard them. Zalando will not charge you as long as you don’t use them.
Currently ZRS Plus is only available in some selected markets. Please refer to the table below for the latest updates:
Country/Region | Status |
---|---|
Germany (de) | LIVE |
France (fr) | LIVE |
Belgium (be) | LIVE |
Netherlands (nl) | LIVE |
Finland (fi) | LIVE |
Sweden (se) | LIVE |
Denmark (dk) | LIVE |
Austria (at) | LIVE |
Italy (it) | LIVE |
Poland (pl) | LIVE |
Czech Republic (cz) | LIVE |
Spain (es) | LIVE |
For more information on the stages of integration, see
Stages of Integration in the Getting Started Guide.