Introduction

Return merchandise authorization (RMA) describes an arrangement in which the seller of a good or product agrees to have a customer or client ship that item back to them in exchange for a refund or credit. This agreement allows for a higher degree of guaranteed quality. The Intershop Order Management (IOM) has the ability to retrieve returnable order positions, accept return requests, check for approvals, generate RMA numbers, and support the generation of return-related documents.

Intershop Order Management (IOM) has the ability to create return requests using the IOM REST API. The RMA business process can be used to attach automated or manual approvals for return requests using different status models.

This document describes the basic concepts of the RMA business process and how to configure it to make use of automated and manual approval. The target audience is partners and consultants.

Glossary

References

• Cookbook - IOM RMA Business Process
• Cookbook - IOM Generation of Shop-specific RMA Numbers
• Cookbook - IOM Return Request with Pickup
• Reference - IOM ImpEx Export RMA
• Overview - Intershop Order Management REST API
• Concept - IOM Order Life Cycle
• Order Business Process, Dispatch Business Process, and Return Business Process
• Reference - Return Announcement State Model

Business Process Customization

The RMA business process is a process that must be configured to be able to use a manual approval process. By default, after the initial setup of IOM, there is no configuration that uses a manual approval process.

The following model gives an overview of the RMA business process within the whole order life cycle, starting with the Order Business Process. After finalizing the order process, the Dispatch Business Process can be started. Subsequently, the Return Business Process or RMA Business Process can follow, depending on the shop configuration and workflow. For more details about the RMA business process, see the next sections.

RMA Business Process

IOM has the ability to create, approve and export return requests. The following diagrams show the entire RMA business process as well as the various subprocesses in detail.

Preconditional Statuses

To call the sub-processes, different statuses are used so that each process has an input and an output. These are presented below. Also, refer Reference - Return Announcement State Model.

• INITIAL: indicates that the return request is initially stored in the database. This applies as input to the check process.

• DO_APPROVE: indicates that the approval response is ready to process. This applies as input to the approval process.

• ACCEPTED: indicates that the approval for the return request has been accepted. This applies to internal status within the approved process.

• REJECTED: indicates that the approval for the return request has been rejected. This applies to internal status within the approved process.

• DO_CLOSE: indicates that the approval for the return request has been accepted or rejected. This applies as input to the close process.

• CLOSED: indicates that the RMA business process has been terminated. This applies as output to the close process.

Create a Return Request

Return requests could be created interactively within the OMT or directly via the Overview - Intershop Order Management REST API.

Within the OMT:

1. The business user selects the order with products to be returned.
2. The business user selects products, quantities, and return reasons and creates the return request.
3. The return request will be sent via REST API.
4. The return request will be validated.
5. After the successful validation, the return request will be stored and the status will be set to INITIAL.
   
   

RMA Numbers

Using the IOM REST API to create a new return request, a return request with a given RMA number can be created. This field is optional, see Overview - Intershop Order Management REST API.

Furthermore, IOM can also generate an RMA number (if it is not given), using the configuration described in Cookbook - IOM Generation of Shop-specific RMA Numbers. This includes the customization of number ranges for the shop as well.

Create a Return Request Process

Approve a Return Request

1. After the successful creation of a return-request data object within the IOM REST API, the RMA business process starts with the check process.
2. .Having done some validations and checks for the precondition status, the process checks if the approval is required or not. Refer Cookbook - IOM RMA Business Process about how to configure approval rules.
   1. In case there is no approval requirement, the status will be set to ACCEPTED. To call the close process, the status will be set to DO_CLOSE.
   2. If approval is required, the approve process will be called and the status will be set to DO_APPROVE.
3. In the approve process various checks and validations are carried out accordingly.

4. When the 3rd party (in this case OMT) sends the approval response, the process can be terminated and the status is set either to ACCEPTED or REJECTED.

5. This process sets the status to DO_CLOSE to call the close process, which also does various checks and validations, sets the status to CLOSED, starts the return announcement transmission (if the export of return announcement has been configured) and finally terminates the RMA business process.

Configuration of the RMA Business Process

The approval process is a process that must be configured to be able to use a manual process. By default, after the initial setup of IOM, there is no configuration that uses a manual approval process. Please refer to Cookbook - IOM RMA Business Process for more details about the major configuration steps to enable the RMA business process.

Create a Return Slip by 3rd Party System

Transmit a Return Request