Legal
How to write a refund policy
State the window, what condition goods must be in, who pays return postage, how long refunds take, and what is excluded. It must meet or exceed the statutory minimum in every market you sell to, and be findable before checkout.
Before you start
- Your fulfilment process
- The statutory minimums for the markets you sell to
The steps
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Step 1: Check the statutory minimum
UK and EU distance selling give 14 days to cancel from delivery. Your policy may be more generous, never less.
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Step 2: State the window plainly
"30 days from delivery", not "a reasonable period".
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Step 3: State the condition required
Unused, original packaging, tags attached — whatever you genuinely require.
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Step 4: Say who pays return postage
This is the most common dispute and the most commonly omitted clause.
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Step 5: Give a refund timescale
How many days after receiving the return, and to which payment method.
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Step 6: List exclusions honestly
Personalised items, perishables, unsealed hygiene products. Only lawful exclusions.
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Step 7: Explain faulty goods separately
Statutory rights for faulty goods are stronger than change-of-mind rights and are not limited by your window.
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Step 8: Link it before checkout
Not only in the footer. Findable before payment is both a legal expectation and a conversion factor.
Why a generous policy usually earns money
A clear refund policy visible before payment removes the main reason first-time buyers abandon a checkout. The returns it invites cost less than the orders a vague policy silently loses.
Services need one too
Even where a deposit is genuinely non-refundable, say so, and say what happens if you cannot deliver. Silence is the position that produces disputes.
The background behind this
E-commerce conversion: find the step that loses your orders covers the reasoning in about 4 minutes — free, ungated, written from client work.
Who wrote this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada, Ireland and Pakistan. These procedures are the ones I run on client work, written down rather than invented — including the ones where the honest answer is that the fix is not available on your current hosting.