How to get your returns policy right
It is rarely the thing that gets a project approved, and often the thing that decides how it goes. The short answer to your returns policy is that it is mostly a sequence of small decisions, not one big one.
Trust does most of the selling online, and trust is built from unglamorous details. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.
Why it matters
A clear policy increases conversion more than it costs in returns. This is the sort of thing that compounds, quietly, in both directions. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.
The steps
- Establish what you have today before changing anything
- Hiding it does not reduce returns, only trust
- Link it from the product page, not just the footer
- Write down the decision so the next person does not re-litigate it
Link it from the product page, not just the footer. In practice this is a scheduling problem more than a technical one. If it only works because one person remembers to do something, it does not work yet.
A reasonable first step
How to tell if yours is fine
Small percentage changes matter here because they apply to every order, every month. Three things worth confirming about your returns policy before you move on:
- Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
- A clear policy increases conversion more than it costs in returns — and you know whether that is true here
- There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped
If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.