Most Shopify return policies are written for a lawyer and a theme page. They are not written for the person who has to apply them forty times a day. If you want those decisions to run while you sleep, the policy has to be operational: a window, a set of reasons, what evidence is required, who pays for the label, and what happens above a dollar amount.
Write the rules the desk will use
- Return window in days, and whether it starts at fulfillment or delivery.
- Reasons you auto-approve versus reasons that always need a human.
- Photo requirements — and what happens if the photos never arrive.
- Who pays for the label, and when you offer exchange or store credit first.
- A cash gate. Eturns defaults to $200; anything above waits for you.
Do not invent an outcome percentage
A policy cannot promise that refunds will drop by a fixed percent. What it can do is make the same case produce the same decision. That is the job: consistency, an audit trail, and a shopper who is not waiting on your inbox.
In Eturns those rules become a versioned constitution bound to each case. Edit the policy tomorrow and in-flight cases keep the snapshot they were decided under.
Written by Shubham, Founder of Eturns. Questions or feedback? Write to contact@eturns.app.