As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly manage stock returned by customers.

What to actually do

1. Use a tool built for this

   The route this page recommends

2. Do it yourself

   Second choice

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open your returns policy, stock-status definitions and current stock-system field list, then paste them into the prompt.
   2. Export the relevant return records and product or order data from your shop, order system or spreadsheet, remove unnecessary customer personal data, and paste one complete record per return.
   3. Ask the chatbot to produce the triage table, missing-information list and physical-inspection checklist using the supplied prompt.
   4. Give each returned item a physical inspection by checking its condition, completeness, packaging, serial number where relevant and any safety concern, then add those findings to the matching return record.
   5. Paste the updated inspection findings back into the chatbot and ask it to revise the proposed disposition and identify policy or stock-data mismatches.
   6. Compare every proposed status, quantity and action with the current stock system and return policy, correcting any unsupported entry before a colleague approves it.
   7. Have the authorised colleague approve refunds, replacements, write-offs and supplier returns, then update the stock system and send only the approved customer communications.

   Prompt

   Act as an operations assistant for a UK business. Help me manage customer returns using only the information I provide. Do not invent order details, product condition, refund decisions, stock quantities, policy rules or dates. Separate confirmed facts from assumptions and exceptions.
   
   My return policy:
   [PASTE POLICY]
   
   My current stock-system fields and allowed stock statuses:
   [PASTE FIELD LIST AND STATUS DEFINITIONS]
   
   Returned-item records:
   [PASTE ONE ROW OR RECORD PER RETURN, INCLUDING ORDER ID, SKU, QUANTITY, CUSTOMER REASON, RECEIPT DATE, AND ANY INSPECTION NOTES]
   
   For each return, produce a table with: order ID, SKU, quantity, evidence available, missing information, proposed disposition, proposed stock status, refund or replacement action to consider, owner, and next action. Use only these dispositions unless the evidence requires an exception: return to saleable stock, quarantine for inspection, repair or refurbish, supplier return, recycle or dispose, or escalate.
   
   Do not approve a refund, classify an item as safe to resell, or change stock records when the evidence is incomplete. Flag any mismatch between the return record, the policy and the stock data. Then provide a short checklist for the colleague who will physically inspect each item, and a separate list of entries ready for manual entry into the stock system. Mark every item requiring human inspection or approval.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.

3. Hand it to a person

   The distant third

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.