Shipping, returns and contact pages: what Google Merchant Center checks

What Google requires

Google’s website requirements for Shopping ads and free listings ask for three things shoppers must be able to find on your store:

Two more requirements catch stores out: shoppers must be able to add products to the cart and complete checkout, and your website, product data and Merchant Center registration should use the same language.

Shipping costs and delivery times are set in Merchant Center (see below). Google’s misrepresentation policy also treats hiding shipping costs, return costs or where orders ship from as a serious problem, so put them on your site too.

The template leftovers that get stores flagged

Most stores that fail these checks have the pages. The pages just aren’t finished. Things we’ve seen on stores that came to our free check:

• Brackets left in Shopify policy templates, such as delivery times written as “[1-3] business days”.
• Writing guidance published as the policy: a “Refund policy” page that explains what a refund policy should contain instead of stating one.
• A returns page that contradicts the business model, for example excluding “custom products” on a store where everything is printed to order, without saying so.
• A personal mailbox as the only contact, with no address, phone or business name anywhere on the store.
• Policies that don’t match the site: a “Fast shipping” badge on every page next to a policy promising 6–8 business days.

Read each page as a first-time shopper would. If anything is a placeholder, a contradiction or a promise you can’t keep, fix it before you ask Google to review the store.

Set the same policies in Merchant Center

Google compares what you tell it with what your site says, so set both.

Returns. In Merchant Center, open Shipping and returns, then the Return policies tab, and add a return policy. You choose whether you accept returns, the return window in days, and the restocking fee: none, a fixed amount or a percentage of the price. Create one standard policy for most products, then exception policies for products with different terms, applied with a label in your product data. A single product can carry only one kind of restocking fee, fixed or percentage.

Shipping. Shipping costs go in Merchant Center’s shipping settings. Google asks for costs as close as possible to what shoppers pay on your site, and to overestimate if you can’t match them closely. The estimated delivery time is your maximum handling time plus the maximum transit time, counted in business days. If you advertise next-day or same-day delivery, Google says the speed you enter must match what your site shows.

On Shopify, Google’s guide tells you to set the return rules in your Shopify admin and add the return policy in Merchant Center as well. Treat them as two copies you keep in step.

A five-minute check

1. Open your store in a private browser window. Find the contact, returns and shipping pages from the footer, without searching.
2. On each page, look for brackets, “your store name”, example addresses or text that explains what a policy should say.
3. Compare the return window, return costs and delivery times on the site with Merchant Center’s return policies and shipping settings.
4. Add a product to the cart and go as far as the payment step. Check the shipping cost shown matches your shipping page.
5. Check the contact details work: send yourself an email, call the number.

In our analysis of 115 Merchant Center complaints, 9 were about shipping, returns or policy pages. They’re the problems you can fix in an afternoon, so it makes sense to rule them out first.