Shopify return and refund policy template, with examples

Your return policy is read before the order, not after it. Baymard Institute’s checkout abandonment research finds that 13 percent of shoppers abandoned a cart because the return policy was unsatisfactory, which puts the policy page ahead of most things stores spend design time on.

It also decides how much of your week returns take. A policy that answers every question a customer might email you stops the email being written. Below is a template you can paste into Shopify, three worked examples, and the places the policy has to appear.

What a return policy has to answer

Six questions. If a customer reads your policy and still cannot answer one of them, that answer arrives in your inbox.

The window. How many days, counted from delivery rather than purchase, because the customer does not know when you shipped. Thirty days is one of Shopify’s own return-window presets and where most stores land.

The condition. Unworn, unwashed, tags attached, original packaging. State what fails inspection and what happens to an item that fails. That is the argument you are having in advance rather than by email.

Who pays return shipping. Free, a flat fee deducted from the refund, or the customer arranging their own. Give the number, not “a fee may apply”.

The outcomes on offer. Refund, exchange, store credit, and whether credit carries a bonus. A customer who does not know an exchange exists will ask for a refund, so vagueness here costs revenue.

The exclusions. Final sale, custom-made goods, opened hygiene products, gift cards. Shopify’s return rules enforce final sale at product or collection level, so an ineligible request never reaches you.

How to start one. One sentence with one link or one address. Most policies forget this line, which is why returns arrive as free-text emails.

The template

Copy this, replace everything in brackets, and delete what does not apply. It is a starting point rather than legal advice, and if you sell into several markets have a lawyer read the final version.

Returns and refunds

If you are not happy with your order, you can return most items within [30] days of delivery.

What we accept. Items must be unused, in the condition you received them, with tags attached and in the original packaging. Items showing wear, washing, or damage that was not there when we shipped them may be refused or returned to you.

What we do not accept. [Final sale and clearance items], [custom or personalised items], [opened hygiene or beauty products], and gift cards. Items marked final sale on the product page are not eligible.

How to start a return. Go to [returns page URL] and enter your order number and the email address on your order. You can also email [email address] with your order number, the items, and the reason.

Return shipping. [Exchanges and store credit are free to return. For a refund to your original payment method, a return shipping fee of [amount] is deducted.] You receive a return label or a QR code once we approve your request.

What you get back. Choose an exchange for another size or product, store credit worth [X] percent more than the item value, or a refund to your original payment method. [Refunds are issued within [5] business days of us receiving and inspecting your return. Your bank may take a few days more to show it.]

Faulty or wrong items. If an item arrives damaged, faulty, or is not what you ordered, contact [email address] within [14] days. We cover return shipping and replace or refund it in full.

[EU and UK customers.] [You have a statutory right to withdraw within 14 days of receiving your order and to receive your money back, regardless of the options above.]

Questions: [email address].

Two notes on that template. Exchange and credit are named before the refund on purpose, because the order they appear in changes which one people take. And the fee structure prices the outcome you want: free to exchange, chargeable to refund.

Example: apparel brand with free exchanges

A large share of apparel returns are not dissatisfaction, they are sizing. Somebody wants the same item one size up, and if you make that easy you keep the sale.

The policy shifts in three places. The window goes to 30 or 60 days from delivery. Return shipping is free on exchanges and carries a deducted fee on refunds, which is the whole lever. And the condition clause gets specific about worn versus tried on, because “unworn” is not a standard a customer can self-assess: tags attached, no makeup marks, no smell of perfume or smoke.

Add one line most apparel policies leave out: you will ship the exchange as soon as the carrier scans the return, not when it lands with you. That costs a few days of inventory risk and removes the main reason customers ask for a refund instead of an exchange, which is not wanting to wait three weeks for the right size.

Example: final-sale heavy store

If you run deep discounts, flash sales or clearance drops, your policy has to be blunt without reading as hostile.

Define final sale once, precisely: items discounted more than [X] percent, everything in the [clearance] collection, and anything the product page marks final sale. Then enforce it in Shopify’s return rules at collection level, so ineligible requests are refused before they become a conversation.

Placement matters more than wording. Final sale has to appear on the product page, in the cart, and on the order confirmation, not only in the policy. A customer who discovers the exclusion after buying disputes the charge, and a chargeback costs more than the return would have.

One softening clause is worth keeping: faulty items are always returnable, final sale or not. Statutory rights on faulty goods apply whatever your policy says, and stating it removes the reputational risk of a policy that reads as absolute.

Example: store credit with a bonus

This is the version that changes the economics. Instead of offering a refund and hoping, you offer credit worth more than the item and let the customer decide.

The clause is short. A return settled as store credit is worth the item value plus [10] percent, issued when the return is approved rather than when the parcel arrives, and usable on anything in the store. The bonus is paid out of margin on the next order, and credit rarely lands exactly on a basket total, so most redemptions come with a top-up.

The guardrail matters as much as the offer. Where the law gives your customer a right to their money back, the refund stays available and stays visible. In the EU that is the 14-day right of withdrawal under the Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU), which applies to distance selling regardless of what your policy says. Credit with a bonus is an offer the customer accepts, never a condition you attach to the return. Writing it as the only route is unlawful in those markets and, in practice, the fastest way to turn a return into a chargeback.

Issue the credit on approval rather than after inspection. Credit that arrives later is a promise. Credit that arrives now is money the customer already has.

Where to put it on Shopify

In the admin, go to Settings and then Policies. An Insert template button generates a generic starting point, worth using as a skeleton and then replacing, since the default text answers almost none of the six questions above. Once saved, Shopify links the policy automatically from the footer of your checkout pages, per the Help Center page on adding store policies.

That is the minimum. Three more placements do the actual work:

• The product page. One line near the add-to-cart button: the window, whether returns are free, and a link. This is where the 13 percent Baymard measured make their decision.
• The order confirmation email. How to start a return, so the customer searches their inbox instead of your site.
• The returns page itself. The rules restated at the point of the request, so nobody starts a return your rules will refuse.

Keeping the policy and the portal in sync

Three things drift most often. The window, when someone extends it for the holidays and forgets to change it back. The fee, when shipping rates move. And the outcomes, when a store starts offering store credit in practice but the policy page still lists refunds only.

The fix is one place where the rules live, with everything else reading from it. Shopify’s return rules are that place for eligibility, and a returns portal should enforce the same window, exclusions and fees rather than keep a second copy. When the customer meets the rule at the moment of the request, the policy page stops being the only thing between a confused customer and your inbox. The trade-offs between a portal and doing this by hand are in returns portal vs handling returns by email, the whole picture is in the complete guide to Shopify returns management, and labels are covered in Shopify return labels.

Returo, our app, is one way to run that: the portal offers an exchange or a gift card with a bonus percentage you set first, and keeps the cash refund available underneath. It is in early access.