How does Shopify handle theme sale refunds?

Theme Store
1

I noticed that 20+ of our theme sales were refunded this month, but these refunds didn’t appear in the payment history unless I searched by the store’s domain.

I discovered this through our internal dashboard, which tracks theme sale transactions via the Shopify Partner API.

Here’s what surprised me: one of the stores purchased our theme on March 24, 2025, and has been using it for over a year. Yet, the payment was refunded yesterday.

As far as I know, Shopify doesn’t have a refund policy or a straightforward process for refunding theme purchases, even when partners or merchants contact support to request one manually.

So, how did these refunds happen? Is there a refund mechanism or exception that theme developers aren’t aware of?

Has anyone else experienced something similar? I’d like to understand how Shopify handles these cases.

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Hi @James_Ngx,

Theme purchases are generally non-refundable, but there is a limited exception for transferring a theme to another store. The merchant must close the original store and repurchase the same theme on the new store before the original invoice can be refunded. Essentially, the theme developer is paid for the purchase on the new store, while the original purchase on the old store is reversed.

Charges can also be reversed when a transaction is determined to be invalid or unauthorized.

Outside the documented theme transfer process or a reversal of an invalid or unauthorized transaction, theme purchases remain final sale.

You can read more about the theme transfer process here.

3

Thanks for clarifying this