# Return Policy for an Online Store: What to Include

> What a return policy is for an online store, what it should include, and what Google, Merchant Center and ChatGPT read from it.

URL: https://clione.ai/glossary/return-policy/
Lang: en

Two things go by similar names and are not the same. The return policy is **the page your store writes** with its conditions. And [MerchantReturnPolicy](/glossary/merchantreturnpolicy/) is that policy written in [structured data](/glossary/structured-data/) for a search engine. This entry is about the first one, and it matters twice over: your customers read it before buying, and **more and more machines read it on their behalf** to say, next to your product, whether it can be returned, within how many days and who pays.

## What it includes

**What your store decides.** The policy is yours, and these are the decisions it has to put in writing:

- **The deadline**, in days.
- **The condition** in which you accept the product.
- **How it is returned**: by mail, in store or at a pickup point.
- **Who pays for the way back**, and whether that changes when the product arrives defective.
- **What the customer gets**: the money, an exchange or store credit.
- **The exceptions**, product by product or by category.
- **The countries** where it applies.

## What search engines and agents read

**Google.** Its search can show the return policy next to your products and in knowledge panels from your markup, and it also accepts it configured in [Google Merchant Center](/glossary/google-merchant-center/) or in [Search Console](/glossary/google-search-console/); if you have it in both places, the configuration wins over the markup.[^google-return-policy] Which properties it uses is covered in the MerchantReturnPolicy entry.

**Merchant Center.** Google says return information **can help the performance of your products** and that it appears in your ads, your free listings and Gmail. In exchange it asks for four things: the URL of the policy on your site, that the page **can be read without signing in, registering or giving personal data**, that it says the same in Merchant Center and across the whole site (the footer, the returns page, the notices) and that the policy does not stop at defective products but also covers the customer who simply changes their mind.[^gmc-returns]

**ChatGPT.** The [product feed](/glossary/product-feed/) specification that OpenAI accepts has three optional fields for this, product by product: `accepts_returns` (whether returns are accepted), `return_deadline_in_days` (the number of days) and `return_policy` (the URL of the policy). The specification warns that **the policy URL does not fill in or replace the field that says whether returns are accepted**: if you only send the link, that answer stays unspecified.[^openai-feed] The entry on the [product feed for ChatGPT](/glossary/chatgpt-product-feed/) explains the rest of the file.

## In a store

**Fictitious example.** An invented clothing store publishes this policy, and this is how it translates into what each machine reads:

| What the page says                                         | What it decides                   | In the OpenAI feed                                     |
| ---------------------------------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ |
| "You have 30 calendar days from receiving your order"      | The deadline                      | `accepts_returns: true`, `return_deadline_in_days: 30` |
| "Send it back by mail with the label we sent you"          | The method                        | No field of its own: it goes on the page               |
| "You pay for return shipping, unless it arrives defective" | Who pays                          | No field of its own: it goes on the page               |
| "Garments embroidered with initials cannot be returned"    | An exception (customized product) | `accepts_returns: false` on those garments             |
| All of the above, at `/returns`                            | The source                        | `return_policy` with that URL                          |


Look at the two rows without a field. **What does not fit in a field only reaches a machine if the page says it clearly**, and it only reaches a customer if the page can be read without an account.[^openai-feed][^gmc-returns] The same 30-day deadline has to appear identically on the page, in Merchant Center and in the feed.


Believing that linking the policy is enough. In the [ChatGPT feed](/glossary/chatgpt-product-feed/), the policy URL does not fill in or replace the field that says whether returns are accepted: if you send only the link, that answer stays unspecified.[^openai-feed] And in Merchant Center the page has to be readable without signing in.[^gmc-returns]


## How to check it

1. **Read your policy from start to finish**: the deadline, the condition of the product, how it is returned, who pays for the way back, the countries and the exceptions with their reason.
2. **Open it in a private window**, signed out. If it asks for an account or personal data, Merchant Center will not accept it.[^gmc-returns]
3. **Look for the deadline everywhere**: the page, the footer, the site notices, the Merchant Center settings and the Search Console settings. It has to be the same number.[^gmc-returns]
4. **If you send a feed to ChatGPT, check the three returns fields** and not just the link.[^openai-feed]
5. **Check where Google reads your policy from.** If you have it configured in Merchant Center or in Search Console, what your markup says moves to the background.[^google-return-policy]

## Related concept: MerchantReturnPolicy

The return policy is the document, with its fine print. MerchantReturnPolicy is **its summary in closed values**, the country, the type of window, the days, the method or who pays, that a search engine can compare across stores. The order is always the same: first you decide and publish the policy, and then the markup copies exactly what it says. Which properties Google asks for, where it is declared and which source wins over which is in the [MerchantReturnPolicy](/glossary/merchantreturnpolicy/) entry.

To go further, the [catalog and entities reading path](/learn/catalog-and-entities/) orders the rest of the terms, and the [OfferShippingDetails](/glossary/offershippingdetails/) entry covers the other half of what a customer looks at before paying: shipping.