SimpliSoda — WooCommerce Shipping & Returns Automation

The Challenge

SimpliSoda is a subscription e-commerce business where customers receive a product and must return it after use. As the subscriber base grew, manually generating return labels, monitoring inbound shipments, and following up on non-returns became operationally unsustainable. The entire return lifecycle needed to run automatically inside WooCommerce.

What Was Built

• Multi-carrier shipping label generation integrated directly into WooCommerce — active carrier switchable from the admin without code changes
• Product-type-aware label configuration: different order types automatically get the correct shipment specifications
• Inbound tracking webhook endpoints with signature validation, normalizing tracking events from multiple carriers into a unified status pipeline
• Seven custom WooCommerce order statuses driving the full product lifecycle from fulfillment through return confirmation
• Automated non-return fee collection — if a return is not tracked within the configured window, the customer's saved payment method is charged automatically via Stripe
• Scheduled refund system — refunds are queued for admin batch review rather than processed immediately on every return
• Bulk label generation via shell scripts to handle large order batches outside browser/PHP timeout limits
• Admin tools: per-user preferences on user profiles, zero-dollar order creation for return-only cases, and a payment method guard preventing deletion of the last saved card

Tech Stack

Outcome

Automated the entire return lifecycle end-to-end — from label generation to non-return fee collection — replacing a manual process that didn't scale. Bulk label generation handles large order batches without timeouts, and non-return fee charging runs without any admin intervention.