ChannelEngine: cancelations

About this article

This article describes how cancelations work on ChannelEngine: how you cancel an order and how you handle cancelations that come from a marketplace.

Table of contents

Introduction

Cancelation vs. return

Cancelations overview

Merchant cancelations

• Create a cancelation

Channel cancelations

• Cancelation requests
• Automatic cancelation of new orders
• Enforced cancelations

Channel-specific behavior

Cancelations through the Merchant API

Frequently asked questions

Introduction

An order on ChannelEngine ends in one of two ways: you ship it, or you cancel it. A cancelation can start on either side:

• Merchant cancelation: you cancel the order on ChannelEngine or through the Merchant API. ChannelEngine sends the cancelation to the marketplace.
• Channel cancelation: the customer or the marketplace cancels the order, or asks to cancel it. ChannelEngine imports the cancelation or cancelation request and updates the order.

Not all marketplaces support both types. Some support only merchant cancelations, others only cancelations registered on the marketplace. Cancelation options differ per channel; see Channel-specific behavior.

Marketplaces also differ in whether they support partial cancelations. On those marketplaces that support them, you can cancel a full order or only some of its lines or units. The remaining lines stay active and can still be shipped.

Cancelation vs. return

A cancelation and a return can have the same outcome: the customer is refunded. The difference is when it happens:

• Cancelation: the order is not shipped yet, i.e.: it is still Awaiting payment, New, or In progress. The customer does not receive the items, so there is nothing to send back.
• Return: the order is shipped. The customer sends the items back, or the marketplace registers a return. You can only create a return after the order is shipped.

ChannelEngine decides which one applies: as long as no shipment exists for the order, the order can still be canceled. This applies even if you already handed the parcel to the carrier but did not yet create a shipment on ChannelEngine. However, once the shipment exists, the order can only be handled as a return.

Cancelations overview

Access your cancelations at Orders, Cancelations. This overview shows all cancelations: both created by you and the marketplace.

Cancelations are sorted from newest to oldest. Click the eye icon to open the details of a cancelation. Use the search bar and filters at the top to narrow the list:

• Search - search by ChannelEngine order ID, channel order number, shipment ID, merchant order number, merchant shipment number, or the last name on the invoice address.
• Channel - show cancelations for one or more channels. With no channel selected, all channels are shown.
• Status - filter by status, i.e.: Closed or Pending. Cancelations are always Closed.
• Clear filters - clear all filters.

The overview table shows the order and cancelation details.

• Order ID - the unique ID of the order within your tenant on ChannelEngine. Click the order ID to open the order details page.
• Order number channel/merchant - the unique reference assigned to the order by the channel and/or your own system.
• Channel - the channel for which the cancelation is intended.
• Order date - when the order was placed on the marketplace.
• Cancellation ID - the unique reference assigned to the cancelation by ChannelEngine.
• Merchant cancellation number - the unique reference assigned to the cancelation by your own system. This column can be empty if no number is assigned.
• Created date - when the cancelation was created on ChannelEngine.
• Status - the status of the cancelation on ChannelEngine.
• Channel status - whether the cancelation reached the marketplace, e.g.: Exported at followed by the date and time.
• Cancellation reason - the reason for the cancelation, if one was provided.

Merchant cancelations

Create a cancelation

To cancel an order via the ChannelEngine web interface:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Orders.

2. Locate the order and click the cross icon to create a cancelation.

   

3. Indicate the quantity of units to cancel. To cancel part of an order, enter a quantity lower than the ordered quantity.
4. Select a cancelation reason from the dropdown, e.g.: Out of stock.
5. Enter a Merchant cancelation number. This is the unique reference assigned to a cancelation by your system. If you do not have one, use the order number or any other unique number. Do not reuse a number.
6. Optionally, provide a cancelation comment.
7. Click Create cancelation.

Test cancelations

To cancel a test order, select Channel (Test) option in Created by. This simulates a cancelation that comes from the marketplace. To simulate a cancelation that you create, select Merchant.

Channel cancelations

Channel cancelations work in one of two ways, depending on the marketplace:

• Request-based: the marketplace sends a cancelation request. The order stays In progress, and you decide whether you can still stop fulfillment. If you can, you confirm the cancelation on ChannelEngine by creating a cancelation. See Cancelation requests.
• Enforced: the marketplace cancels the order itself, and you cannot decline it. A marketplace can do this at any point until the order is delivered, including after you pick and pack it. If the order has no shipment on ChannelEngine at that moment, ChannelEngine cancels the order, whatever your internal process is. See Enforced cancelations.

Cancelation requests

As long as the order is not Shipped, some channels allow the customer to request a cancelation for it. A cancelation request does not always result in an actual cancelation, but it does tell you that someone wants to cancel one or more order lines.

Whether the order is actually canceled depends on its status at the time of import:

• Awaiting payment or New (not yet acknowledged) - ChannelEngine cancels the order automatically. The order status changes to Canceled. See Automatic cancelation of new orders.
• In progress (acknowledged) - ChannelEngine does not cancel the order; it marks the requested order lines as Cancelation requested, and the order remains In progress. You decide on further action. To receive cancelation requests, enable the New order cancellation request notification. See ChannelEngine: how to configure notifications.

To see if the order has an open cancelation request, on the order details page, check if there is a Cancellation requested quantity label:

If you use the Merchant API, see the Merchant API orders documentation to retrieve orders with open cancelation requests.

When you see a cancelation request on the order:

• If you can still stop fulfillment, stop it in your own system and confirm the cancelation on ChannelEngine or through the Merchant API. ChannelEngine sends the cancelation to the channel.
• If the order is already shipped or cannot be stopped, ship it as usual and handle it as a return with the customer or the marketplace.

Automatic cancelation of new orders

By default, when ChannelEngine receives a cancelation request for an order with status Awaiting payment or New, it cancels the order automatically. ChannelEngine assumes that an unacknowledged order has not entered your fulfillment process yet, so canceling it right away keeps it out of your warehouse.

You can disable ChannelEngine’s default cancelation behavior on unacknowledged orders. Do so if:

• Your OMS or ERP retrieves orders without acknowledging them, so orders stay on Awaiting payment or New while they are already being processed.
• You handle orders manually on ChannelEngine. Orders handled this way might stay on Awaiting payment or New (unacknowledged) until shipped.
• You have a high order volume, and orders and cancelation requests are imported at the same time, causing timing issues.
• You work with multiple systems that import orders. So the order might be Awaiting payment or New on ChannelEngine, but already exists in your system (e.g.: ERP) through a different integration (e.g.: with an OMS).

To disable automatic cancelation:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Settings, Advanced settings, Orders.
2. Activate the Disable auto order cancelation for new orders setting.

This setting applies to your whole tenant. When it is enabled, ChannelEngine treats a cancelation request for an Awaiting payment or New order the same way as for an In progress order: it marks the order lines as Cancelation requested and leaves the decision to you. Make sure your integration or your team monitors cancelation requests and creates a cancelation while fulfillment can still be stopped.

This setting does not apply to enforced cancelations. See Enforced cancelations.

Enforced cancelations

Some marketplaces do not send a cancelation request that you can confirm or reject. They enforce the cancelation instead. Examples are Lazada, Shopee, Noon, Namshi, and TikTok Shop. Such a marketplace can enforce a cancelation at any point until the order is delivered, including after you pick and pack it.

When a marketplace enforces a cancelation:

• If the order has no related shipment on ChannelEngine, ChannelEngine cancels the order and creates a channel cancelation.
• If you create a shipment after the cancelation was created, the shipment request returns an error. A canceled order can no longer be shipped.

If this already happened, see the FAQ "What if the customer canceled, but I already shipped?"

Channel-specific behavior

Marketplaces differ in how they handle cancelations:

• Some marketplaces send a cancelation request that you confirm or reject.
• Some marketplaces enforce a cancelation, and the order is updated to Canceled on ChannelEngine without a request.
• Some marketplaces do not allow cancelations initiated by the merchant.
• Some marketplaces do not communicate cancelations initiated on their side, and you have to handle them outside of ChannelEngine.
• Some channels have settings that change the default behavior, e.g.: Shopify, where you can allow cancelations of unshipped orders.

Check the related marketplace guide to learn which cancelation flow is supported.

Cancelations through the Merchant API

If your OMS or ERP is connected through the Merchant API, you can create and retrieve cancelations from your own system. For the endpoints, request fields, reason codes, and examples, see the Merchant API: cancelations article.

That documentation also explains how to check which cancelation options a marketplace supports (the ChannelOrderSupport field on the order) and what to do when exporting a cancelation to the marketplace gets stuck.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a cancelation and a return?
A cancelation happens before the order is shipped on ChannelEngine; a return happens after. See Cancelation vs. return.

I already handed the parcel to the carrier. Can I still cancel the order?
Yes, as long as the shipment is not yet created on ChannelEngine, because ChannelEngine does not know about the physical parcel. Cancel only if you can stop the parcel. Otherwise, create the shipment and handle the order as a return instead. To avoid unwanted cancelations, create the shipment as soon as you hand the parcel to the carrier.

Can I cancel only part of an order?
Yes, if the marketplace supports partial cancelations. Enter a quantity lower than the ordered quantity, or select only some order lines. The remaining lines stay active and can still be shipped. Check the corresponding marketplace guide to see if partial cancelations are supported.

Why was my order canceled when I did not cancel it?
The customer or the marketplace canceled it. Open the cancelation in Orders, Cancelations to see the details. There are two common causes:

• The order was Awaiting payment or New when a cancelation request came in, so ChannelEngine canceled it automatically. See Automatic cancelation of new orders.
• The marketplace enforced the cancelation, and the order had no shipment on ChannelEngine. See Enforced cancelations.

What does the Cancelation requested label on the order mean?
The customer or marketplace asked to cancel one or more order lines, and the order was In progress. ChannelEngine did not cancel the order but labeled it instead. You decide whether to confirm or reject the request. See Cancelation requests.

Can I decline a cancelation from a marketplace?
Not for enforced cancelations. For request-based cancelations, you can confirm or reject a request: if you can no longer stop fulfillment, ship the order as usual and handle it as a return with the customer or the marketplace.

Does every marketplace accept merchant cancelations?
No. Some marketplaces do not accept cancelations from merchants and only allow cancelations that they start themselves. Check the corresponding marketplace guide for exact details.

Why does creating a shipment return an error?
The order was probably canceled already. This happens when a marketplace enforced the cancelation before the shipment was created on ChannelEngine. A canceled order can no longer be shipped. Check Orders, Cancelations for a cancelation on the order.

What if the customer canceled, but I already shipped?
This applies to marketplaces with enforced cancelations, when you shipped the parcel but your system had not created the shipment on ChannelEngine yet. ChannelEngine canceled the order because no shipment existed at that moment, and you can no longer create a shipment for it. Contact the customer to agree on how to proceed. This needs to be handled outside of ChannelEngine.

Which cancelation number should I enter?
Enter the unique reference from your own system. If you do not have one, use the order number or another unique number. Do not reuse a number for another cancelation.

My cancelation does not arrive at the marketplace. What can I do?
ChannelEngine retries failed exports automatically. If the cancelation still does not arrive, contact ChannelEngine Support with the ChannelEngine order ID. If you use the Merchant API, see the Merchant API cancelations article for how to flag a stuck export.

Should I disable automatic cancelation of new orders?
Disable it if orders can stay Awaiting payment or New while you are already processing them, e.g.: when your OMS or ERP does not acknowledge orders. See Automatic cancelation of new orders. The setting does not apply to enforced cancelations.