Return and shipping policies for AI shopping

A shopper asks an assistant whether they can return a pair of shoes. The assistant does not phone you. It can only go on what you published: your returns page, your feed, your markup. If those say different things, or say nothing, the answer is a guess. This guide shows how to write an ecommerce return policy and a shipping policy that people, Google and AI shopping agents can all read, and where to edit them on Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Wix, Squarespace, Magento or a custom site.

What should a return policy include?

A return policy should state the return window and when it starts, the condition items must be in, who pays return shipping, how and how fast you refund, which items cannot be returned, how to start a return and how to reach you. Write each fact as one plain sentence.

These are the facts shoppers ask about, and they are the same facts Google’s return policy markup has a property for:

• Window. How many days, counted from what. Google’s merchantReturnDays property counts the days from the delivery date, so say “30 days from delivery”, not “30 days”.
• Condition. Unused, in original packaging, with tags, or any condition.
• Return shipping. Free, a fixed fee, or the shopper pays. Say so for change-of-mind returns and for faulty items separately if they differ.
• Refund. Full refund, store credit or exchange, to which payment method, and within how many days of receiving the item.
• Exceptions. Final-sale items, gift cards, personalized or opened items. Name them.
• Restocking fee. If you charge one, state it as a percentage or an amount.
• How to start. A form, an email address or an account page, and what the shopper receives next, such as a prepaid label.
• Contact. One email address or phone number for return questions.

Here are the same facts by name in Google’s markup and in OpenAI’s product feed:

What is a shipping policy?

A shipping policy is the page that tells shoppers how long you take to process an order, how long delivery takes, what shipping costs and when it is free, which countries you ship to, and what happens when a parcel is late, lost or damaged.

A shipping policy answers the questions a shopper asks before paying. It should state:

• Processing time. Business days from order to dispatch, and your daily cutoff time.
• Delivery time. Transit days per service, such as standard and express.
• Cost. Flat rate, rate by weight or order value, and any free-shipping threshold.
• Destinations. The countries, and regions if it matters, you ship to.
• Problems. What you do about late, lost or damaged parcels, and who to contact.

Google needs the same facts. Merchant Center asks you to specify delivery times, shipping costs and countries, and for free listings in the United States shipping settings are required. Google says the costs you submit should be as close as possible to what is on your website, and to overestimate if you cannot match them closely.

State free shipping as a price of zero, not by leaving it out. In OpenAI’s feed, an empty shipping_price means “unknown, not free shipping.”

How to write a good return policy?

Lead with the facts, one per sentence, with numbers instead of words like soon. Publish the policy as text on its own page, link it from the footer of every page, keep it open to crawlers, and use the same numbers in your feeds, Merchant Center and markup.

Write it so the facts come first

1. Open with the three numbers. Window, return cost and refund time belong in the first lines, before any brand story.
2. Use numbers and units. “Refunds within 5 business days of receiving your return” beats “refunds are processed promptly”.
3. Cover change of mind. Google’s return policy rules say a policy must cover general cases such as buyer’s remorse, not only faulty items.
4. Say it if you take no returns. Google asks stores that do not accept returns or refunds to state that clearly on their website.
5. Date it. A “last updated” line tells every reader which version they are reading.

Publish it so machines can read it

• Plain text on a page. Google says Googlebot can only find content that is textually visible. A policy that lives only in an image, a PDF or a checkout pop-up is easy to miss.
• No login. Google’s rules say shoppers must reach the policy without logging in, signing up or entering personal information.
• In the footer. Google’s Merchant Center help suggests a dedicated link in the footer of every page.
• Open to crawlers. A robots.txt file tells crawlers which URLs they can access. Check that your policy pages are not disallowed for the search crawlers in our AI crawlers guide.
• The same facts everywhere. Google asks that return policies be consistent in Merchant Center and across your site, including footer, returns page and banners.

Use this checklist as you write. Every item is a fact a shopper or an agent may need:

Draft a new policy or check the one you have:

Can you provide an example of a return policy?

Yes. Below is a short returns policy for a made-up store, followed by matching MerchantReturnPolicy markup. Copy the structure, not the terms: your window, fees and exceptions must be your own, and the consumer law where you sell may require more.

This is an example for a made-up store, Example Goods. It is not legal advice.

Returns and refunds at Example Goods

You can return most items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund.

Items must be unused and in their original packaging.

Returns are free. Email [email protected] with your order number and we will send a prepaid label.

We refund to your original payment method within 5 business days of receiving your return.

Gift cards and personalized items are final sale and cannot be returned.

If an item arrives damaged or wrong, email us within 7 days with a photo and we will replace or refund it.

Last updated: October 16, 2026.

And here is the matching markup, declared once for the whole store as Google recommends. Google’s examples use the OnlineStore type, a kind of Organization:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "OnlineStore",
  "name": "Example Goods",
  "url": "https://www.example.com",
  "hasMerchantReturnPolicy": {
    "@type": "MerchantReturnPolicy",
    "applicableCountry": "US",
    "returnPolicyCountry": "US",
    "returnPolicyCategory": "https://schema.org/MerchantReturnFiniteReturnWindow",
    "merchantReturnDays": 30,
    "returnMethod": "https://schema.org/ReturnByMail",
    "returnFees": "https://schema.org/FreeReturn",
    "returnLabelSource": "https://schema.org/ReturnLabelDownloadAndPrint",
    "refundType": "https://schema.org/FullRefund",
    "merchantReturnLink": "https://www.example.com/returns"
  }
}

Three rules from Google’s documentation:

• Required. Either applicableCountry with returnPolicyCategory, or a merchantReturnLink. With a finite window, merchantReturnDays is required too.
• Shipping. Declare it once with ShippingService under hasShippingService. Its only required property is shippingConditions.
• Overrides. Put a MerchantReturnPolicy or shippingDetails on a product’s Offer only where that product differs. Our product structured data guide shows the Offer-level version.

Know the order Google trusts. Settings in Merchant Center or Search Console win over your markup, and product-level markup wins over store-level markup. If you set policies in both places, they must match.

Does Google Merchant Center require a return policy?

For US free listings, Google requires shipping settings and recommends a return policy. Google’s agent checkout through UCP requires one, with return cost, window and a policy link. Shopify’s ChatGPT, Google and Copilot channels require a completed return and refund policy.

What Google says:

• Where it shows. Google may show your return policy on your ads, listings and Gmail. It verifies policies before using them, and policies you upload and verify take precedence over what it collected from your site.
• Search Console. You can also set policies in Search Console. Shipping details are approved automatically, and return policies are verified by hand, which Google says can take about 10 to 13 days.
• Agent checkout. For UCP checkout, you must define return policies in Merchant Center, and items marked final sale are not eligible. Our readiness checklist covers the other requirements.

What AI shopping systems document, and where they say nothing:

• OpenAI. Its feed has fields for accepting returns, the return window and a link to the policy. It notes that a policy URL does not set or override accepts_returns, so fill both. OpenAI’s merchant page says ChatGPT crawls stores and feeds give more control, but does not say how ChatGPT reads policy pages. Our ChatGPT shopping guide covers the feed route.
• Shopify. To sell through its agentic storefronts on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode and Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot, Shopify requires your terms of service, privacy policy, and return and refund policy to be completed in Settings > Policies. Shopify says its agent files include your store policies.
• Microsoft. Microsoft’s agentic commerce page lists return policy and customer support as store settings in Microsoft Merchant Center. Its Copilot help says the details Copilot shows depend on what the merchant provides.
• Perplexity and others. We found no first-party Perplexity page on merchant return or shipping policies, so treat what it reads as unknown.

We built SourceVision to measure how ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe your products, with the range across runs, and to draft what each product page is missing from facts you confirm. Nothing is written to your store without your approval. SourceVision is in an invite-only beta.

Request an invite

What website can I use to create a refund policy?

Start with your own store platform. Shopify, WooCommerce, Wix, Squarespace and Adobe Commerce each have a documented place for policy text, and Shopify and WooCommerce offer starting text. Draft the wording with a generator if it helps, then publish it as a page linked from your footer.

Where to edit, from each platform’s own documentation:

• Shopify. Go to Settings > Policies and open the written policy you want to edit. For the return and refund policy and the shipping policy, you can turn on Use automated policy, which builds the text from your store settings, or turn it off and write your own. Shopify says its automated policy templates are not legal advice. Policies link automatically from the checkout footer, and the shipping policy also links from product pages and the cart. Add them to your store footer in Content > Menus. Your return rules, also in Settings > Policies, set your return terms. The automated return and refund policy takes its terms from them, so if you write your own policy instead, check that it matches your rules.
• WooCommerce. WooCommerce creates a Refund and Returns Policy page as an unpublished draft with sample text. Edit it, publish it and link it from your footer. A terms page assigned in WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced links at checkout. We found no WooCommerce shipping policy template, so write that page yourself.
• BigCommerce. We could not open BigCommerce’s help pages for this guide. Create a web page for each policy, link it from your header or footer, and check that it shows as text.
• Wix. In Checkout settings, select the policies to show and enter the text, and they appear as links in the checkout footer. For links on every page, Wix tells you to create a page for each policy and link it in the footer. The same guide says to hide those pages from search engines. If you want Google and AI assistants to read your policy, leave it visible.
• Squarespace. Add your return policy, terms and privacy policy in Settings > Selling > Checkout, under Checkout page. Checkout links open them in a pop-up, so also add footer links to Not Linked pages that hold the full text, including your shipping policy.
• Magento or Adobe Commerce. Keep policy text on a content page, which Adobe’s Pages documentation covers. Online returns (RMA) are set in Stores > Settings > Configuration > Sales > Sales > RMA Settings, and Adobe says RMA is available only in Adobe Commerce, not Magento Open Source.
• Custom site. One HTML page per policy, linked from a site-wide footer, with the markup above in your page template.

Done when: your return and shipping policies are plain text on their own pages, linked from every footer, open to crawlers and readable without a login, they state the window, costs, refund timing, exceptions, delivery times and countries in numbers, and the same numbers appear in Merchant Center, your feeds and your markup.

Recheck all of it whenever a policy changes, and add the policy pages to the monthly review in step 8 of the AI search guide.