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Shipping & Returns: Critical Trust Signals

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Why commercial policies matter

Verity Score verifies that your shipping and return policies are accessible and verifiable by AI agents. These are fundamental trust signals in the purchase decision.

Why it matters for AI

When an AI shopping agent compares two similar products, shipping and return policies are often the deciding factor. A store that clearly displays “Free 24-48h shipping” with an accessible policy page will be recommended before a store with vague or hidden conditions.

The Common Problem

Most Shopify stores have policy pages, but they’re often poorly written, accessible only via a tiny footer link, without structured data, or sometimes blocked by robots.txt.

What AI checks

The 3 aspects verified by AI agents for policies: page accessibility (HTTP 200, not blocked), real content (timelines, costs, conditions), structured data (shippingDetails, returnPolicy in schema.org)
Figure 1 - The 3 dimensions verified by AI agents for your policies

AI agents verify three aspects of your policies:

  • Accessibility : Are your /policies/shipping-policy and /policies/refund-policy pages reachable (no 404, not blocked by robots.txt)?
  • Real content : Do the pages contain precise data (timelines, costs) or just a generic template?
  • Structured data : Are shippingDetails and hasMerchantReturnPolicy present in your schema.org?

Verity Score automatically checks these aspects and alerts you to missing or insufficient policies.

How to Fix on Shopify

  1. Write clear policies in Admin → Settings → Policies with precise data (timelines, costs)
  2. Verify accessibility : test each URL manually
  3. Add schema : shippingDetails and hasMerchantReturnPolicy in your Product JSON-LD
  4. Link from product pages : not just the footer

Ready to check your store? Run a free GEO audit →

Frequently Asked Questions

Why do shipping and return policies matter for AI product recommendations?
AI shopping agents compare products using trust signals, and clear shipping/return policies are deciding factors. A store with verifiable 'Free 2-day shipping' and a '30-day return' policy will be recommended over one with vague or missing conditions.
How do I add shipping and return info to my Shopify schema.org?
Add shippingDetails and hasMerchantReturnPolicy to your Product JSON-LD in your theme's main-product.liquid file. These fields let AI crawlers read your policies directly from structured data without visiting separate pages.
Can AI crawlers read my Shopify policy pages?
It depends. If your robots.txt blocks /policies/ paths, AI crawlers can't access them. Also, policy pages must contain real content, not just Shopify's default template text. Check that your policy URLs return a 200 status and have specific details.
What should a good shipping policy page include for AI readability?
Include specific delivery timelines (e.g., '3-5 business days'), costs (free or exact amounts), carrier names, and geographic coverage. Avoid vague language like 'ships fast'. AI agents need precise, extractable data.
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