How to Cancel an Order in Magento 2 Backend & Frontend?

If you are a store owner, you’ll understand that order cancellation is a part and parcel of running an online business. It is not necessary that only the customer cancels an order. In certain cases, the store may actually be forced to cancel an order. For instance, they have run out of stock, or they don’t deliver to the customer’s specified location. This article discusses about Magento 2 cancel order from backend and frontend.

Reasons for Magento 2 Cancel Order

Order cancellations can happen due to a wide variety of reasons, including:

Change of Mind

The customer has had a change of mind, and they are no longer interested in buying the product.

No Stock

As said earlier, the store admin may need to cancel an order because they don’t have stock of the ordered product.

Order Duplication

Due to a technical glitch or some mistake, the customer may have placed the order twice.

Pricing Error

There may be a situation where the product was incorrectly priced. Of course, no store owner is willing to take a loss, forcing them to cancel the order.

Payment Error

The customer’s payment did not go through due to a glitch or inadequate funds.

In short, order cancellations in Magento 2 can occur for various reasons. Also, they can be initiated by both customers and administrators. While order cancellations are a part of running any business, it is pertinent to understand the reasons behind them. This information is critical to refine business processes, improve product listings, enhance customer service, and develop policies that minimise cancellations while maintaining customer satisfaction.

Magento 2 Cancel Order by Customer (Frontend)

As stated above, both administrators and customers may need to initiate an order cancellation and should have the option to do so. However, the default Magento 2 does not allow customers to request an order cancellation. When an order is placed, only the store admin can cancel it, and that's possible only when it is in the "pending" state.

Nevertheless, using the Magento 2 Cancel Order by Customer Extension by FME Extensions, you can allow customers to request a cancellation. The plugin allows customers to cancel an order from the frontend. They also have the option to cancel either the entire cart or specific items or cancel orders by statuses.

Cancel Order By Customer

The Magento 2 Cancel Order by Customer Extension allows customers to request order cancellations directly from the "My Account" section.

Check it out! >

How To Cancel an Order in the Magento 2 Backend?

Follow the steps below to cancel an order in Magento 2 from the admin panel.

1. Login to Magento 2 admin panel
2. Click Sales > Orders on the left menu
3. Click View in the 'Action' column of any order you want to cancel

On the next page, click Cancel on the top menu to cancel the order. Note that the Cancel option will only appear if an order is in the Pending state. If it's in the Processing or Closed state meaning if it has been shipped or invoiced, you won't see this option. 

After canceling the order, the status will be changed to 'Canceled'.

Final Thoughts on Magento Cancel Order

That's all you need to do to cancel an order from Magento 2 backend. If you want to allow customers to cancel orders from the frontend, you might want to consider our Magento 2 Cancel Order by Customer extension.