Ecommerce Return Policy Generator

The return window is the most-asked question shoppers have when they look at your policy — and the single biggest conversion lever the policy controls.

• Days. 30 days from delivery is the most common window and the one most customers expect. 60 or 90 days is a generous signal that lifts conversion at checkout.
• Counted as. Calendar days are easier for customers to track and what they assume by default. Business days are more generous for you but require math customers don’t want to do.
• Starting from. Anchor to delivery date so customers don’t lose days to slow shipping. Ship and purchase dates penalize the customer for carrier delays you can’t control.

Holiday returns are a special case. Gifts get unwrapped on December 25, well after a typical 30-day window has expired.

• Extended window (days). 60 days through mid-to-late January covers most November and December purchases that aren’t opened until December 25.
• Starts / Ends. Pick a clear range customers can verify against their order date. Most brands run early November through January 31.

Condition rules tell customers what state a returned item has to be in to count, and they’re your main lever against casual abuse.

• Items must be unused. Strict but easy to enforce, and signals that you take fraud seriously. Most customers expect this baseline.
• Tags must be attached. Mostly relevant for apparel and accessories. Cheap to check at intake and a strong fraud filter.
• Original packaging required. Matters when you intend to resell the item. Less important for soft goods like clothing.
• Hygiene caveat. A carve-out for categories like intimates, swimwear, and opened beauty where wear or use is non-recoverable.

Final-sale categories are the products you won’t take back under any circumstances. They’re worth listing explicitly so customers can’t claim surprise after the fact.

• Digital downloads. Once delivered, the file can’t be taken back.
• Personalized / custom. Not resalable, so most brands exclude them outright.
• Perishables. Quality and food-safety concerns make returns impractical.
• Intimates / swimwear. Hygiene categories where used items can’t be resold.
• Opened media / software. License keys can’t be revoked, and resale typically violates the license.
• Sale / clearance items. Common exclusion, but it cuts conversion on discounted SKUs. Store-credit-only is a softer middle ground.
• Gift cards. Functionally cash — non-refundable across the board.

What customers actually get back when they return is the heart of the policy. The options here are where most of the retained-revenue lift lives.

• Refund to original payment. Trust signal; expected as the default. Removing it tends to feel hostile and lifts disputes.
• Store credit. Keeps roughly 30–40% of refund dollars on your store, especially when paired with a bonus credit incentive.
• Exchanges only (no cash refunds). Aggressive — works only for brands with strong loyalty and clear store-credit value props.
• Partial refund threshold (%). A way to accept non-conforming returns at a lower payout (e.g. 70%) rather than denying them outright.

Shipping and restocking fees are the two levers that shape how much each return costs you. Free returns lift conversion but eat margin, so most brands settle on a hybrid pattern.

• Include restocking-fee clause. Turn off if you don’t charge a restocking fee.
• Restocking fee (%). 10–20% is common for furniture, electronics, and high-handling items. Must be disclosed before checkout to be enforceable.
• Include return-shipping clause. Almost always include — customers want to know who pays before they commit.
• Who pays?. Conditional (you pay when it’s your fault, the customer pays otherwise) is the most common pattern and lands fairest with customers.
• Provide a prepaid label. Customers love prepaid labels. You can deduct $7–10 from the refund to recoup label cost while still feeling friendlier than “go buy your own postage.”

Customers will email you about a refund every day it’s not in their account. Clear timelines, honestly stated, cut that inbound volume by more than half.

• Inspect within (days). 3 business days is typical. Going longer is fine if you’re honest up front about it.
• Refund within (days). 5 business days is typical. Be honest about banking lag — refund posting depends on the customer’s card issuer, not on you.

Exchanges are the highest-leverage move in returns: they keep the sale, retain the customer, and rebalance inventory in one step.

• Offer exchanges. Exchanges are pure retained revenue — far better than a refund.
• Offer Instant Exchange. Ships the replacement before the return arrives. Closes the gap that otherwise loses customers to a competitor’s faster fulfillment.
• Same item only (size / color). Simpler ops but caps revenue per exchange. Advanced (any-item) exchanges convert higher when your inventory data supports them.

Defective and damaged returns are different from change-of-mind returns. Treat them the same and you’ll bleed CSAT; treat them well and you’ll earn a loyalty moment out of a bad arrival.

• Separate handling for damaged items. The single biggest CSAT lever in post-purchase. Customers expect speed and zero cost when something arrived broken.
• Require photo evidence. Speeds resolution and cuts fraud — you get evidence at intake, and the customer feels heard.

Most return policies are written for the typical case: a domestic customer returning a physical product they bought for themselves. These three edge cases break that assumption.

• Include international-returns clause. Skip if you don’t ship internationally.
• Accept international returns. International returns are operationally painful: customs paperwork, return shipping cost, and currency conversion losses. Many brands start with “sale-final outside the US” and expand region-by-region.
• EU / UK 14-day cooling-off compliance. Customers in the EU and UK have a statutory 14-day cancellation right regardless of your policy. Spelling it out avoids disputes.
• Include digital-products clause. Skip if you don’t sell digital products.
• Allow refunds on defective downloads. The standard digital carve-out: non-refundable except when the file is corrupt or fails to deliver.
• Include gift-returns clause. Skip if you don’t accept gift returns.
• Gift returns as store credit only. Preserves the gift’s value and keeps the dollars on your store. The recipient gets credit; the gift-giver never sees the price.
• Refunds only to the original purchaser. A hard line that refunds to the credit card require the original cardholder. Avoids fraud and awkward refund-to-stranger situations.

Warranty coverage is the post-window safety net. It signals confidence in the product and gives your team a clear path for defects that surface months after delivery.

• Warranty period (days). 365 days signals quality without committing to forever. Track warranty claims separately from returns to keep your returns-rate metric clean.

The contact block is the last thing customers read before deciding whether to trust the policy. A clear, human-sounding close goes a long way.

• Closing contact block. Closing the policy with a clear contact point reassures customers that there’s a human at the other end. Use the store-details fields above.

The mechanics of starting a return are usually the biggest source of friction in the whole flow. Anything that costs the customer an extra step costs you completion.

• Require RMA number on returns. Helps warehouses match incoming packages to orders. Skip when your portal prints labels with the order already encoded.