How to handle order exchanges and swaps on BigCommerce

Exchanges look simple — swap product A for product B — but on BigCommerce they're deceptively messy, because editing the line items doesn't reconcile with the original payment.

Why native swaps break

When you swap items in the native order editor, BigCommerce rewrites the order total but doesn't touch the captured transaction. The partial-refund button often does nothing, and tax doesn't re-net — so the order and the money are out of sync.

The clean way to run an exchange

• Even swap: change the variant in place — no money movement, nothing to reconcile.
• New item costs less: refund the difference (plus tax) at your payment gateway, then adjust the order to match.
• New item costs more: send a separate payment link for the difference rather than editing in place.
• Don't want to touch the charge: issue store credit for any delta.

Make it self-service

If exchanges are frequent, let customers initiate variant/size swaps themselves within your edit window, with the refund rule (automatic, original payment, or store credit) enforced for you. That turns a manual, error-prone task into a bounded, automated flow.