A shipping policy answers the questions customers ask before they buy and the emails they send after: when will my order ship, how long will it take, what does it cost, do you ship to my country, who pays customs, and what happens if it never arrives. A clear policy cuts support emails, reduces "item not received" disputes, and gives Google Merchant Center the shipping details it checks against your site.
This shipping policy generator turns a short form into a complete policy with rate tables, in HTML and plain text. It runs in your browser and remembers your answers on your device only, so you can come back and update it when your rates change.
How to create your shipping policy
- Enter your store details: name, customer service email, website, where orders ship from, your home country (for the domestic section) and the last updated date.
- Set your processing time. This is the time from order to handing the parcel to the carrier, for example 1 to 2 business days. Choose which days you ship (Monday to Friday, Monday to Saturday, or every day) and your same-day cut-off time, such as "1:00 PM Central Time". If you sell made-to-order or preorder items, add their extra time.
- Tick your carriers. USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL Express, Canada Post, Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, Australia Post and Aramex are listed. Type any others, comma separated.
- Add domestic shipping methods. For each method enter a name, the delivery time after shipping, the cost (0 means free) and an optional free-shipping threshold. The defaults are Standard at $5.95, free over $75, and Express at $14.95.
- Add local pickup if customers can collect orders, with the address and hours.
- Set international zones. Each zone has a name, the countries in it, a delivery time and a cost. Choose who pays duties and import taxes and what happens if a parcel is refused. Untick We ship internationally if you only ship at home.
- Handle problems and special cases: how many days customers have to report damage and missing parcels, whether you replace, refund or file a claim, PO box and military address rules, how long customers can change their address, and whether signature is required above an order value.
- Copy or download the policy as HTML or plain text, then check the Merchant Center summary under it.
What goes in the policy
| Section | What it tells the customer |
|---|---|
| Processing time | How long before the order ships, which days you ship, and the cut-off for same-day processing |
| Delay promise | That you will email a new date if you cannot ship on time, and they can cancel for a refund |
| Carriers | Who will deliver the parcel |
| Domestic rates table | Each method, its delivery time and cost, with free shipping thresholds |
| International zones | Which countries you ship to, how long it takes and what it costs |
| Customs and duties | Whether duties are collected at checkout or paid on delivery, and refused parcels |
| Tracking and address | When tracking arrives, how to fix an address, PO box and military address rules |
| Lost, stolen or damaged | Deadlines for reporting, what you will do, and "delivered but missing" steps |
A worked example
A home textiles store in Austin ships Monday to Friday with USPS and UPS. Orders are processed in 1 to 2 business days, with a 1:00 PM Central Time cut-off. Standard shipping takes 3 to 5 business days for $5.95 and is free over $75; Express takes 1 to 2 business days for $14.95. A customer who orders at 3:00 PM on a Friday misses the cut-off, so the order counts from Monday, ships by Wednesday at the latest, and with Standard arrives 3 to 5 business days after it ships. The policy states exactly that logic, so the customer can work it out without emailing.
Internationally the store ships to Canada for $14.95 (6 to 10 business days), to the UK and EU for $19.95 (7 to 14) and to the rest of the world for $24.95 (10 to 20). Duties are paid by the customer on delivery, and refused parcels are refunded minus shipping both ways.
Setting a free shipping threshold
A free shipping threshold works best a little above your average order value, so it nudges people to add one more item. If your average order is $58, a threshold of $75 is a common choice; at $50 you would give away shipping on orders that were going to happen anyway. Check that the threshold still leaves a profit after the shipping cost you absorb, and state whether it is measured before or after discounts. The policy says "after discounts and before taxes", which matches how most checkouts calculate it.
US rules: the FTC Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule
If you sell to customers in the United States, the FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule applies to online orders. In short, as of October 2026:
- You must have a reasonable basis to expect you can ship within the time you state. If you state no time, you must ship within 30 days.
- If you cannot ship on time, you must tell the customer and give them the choice of agreeing to the delay or canceling and getting a prompt refund for the unshipped items.
- Refunds for canceled orders must be made within 7 working days for card and cash payments, or within one billing cycle for store credit accounts.
- For a first delay with a new date of 30 days or less, you may treat no reply as agreement, but only if your notice says so. For longer or open-ended delays, and for any second delay, you need the customer's active consent or you must cancel and refund.
That is why every policy from this generator states a processing time and promises an email with a new date and the option to cancel. Only promise times you meet on a normal week, not your best week. See the FTC's business guide to the rule for details.
In the UK and EU, if no delivery time is agreed, consumer law expects delivery without undue delay and within 30 days, and customers can cancel if you miss an agreed delivery date that was essential to them. Stating clear times helps there too.
Customs, duties and the end of US de minimis
Duties are the part of international shipping customers resent most, because a surprise bill on the doorstep feels like a hidden fee. Choose one of three options:
- Paid on delivery (DDU or DAP): the customer pays duties, taxes and the carrier's handling fee when the parcel arrives. Cheapest for you, but say so plainly.
- Collected at checkout (DDP): you charge duties and taxes at checkout and the carrier bills you. Better for the customer and fewer refused parcels. Shopify and many shipping apps can calculate this.
- Mixed: collected at checkout for some countries and paid on delivery elsewhere.
If you ship from outside the US to US customers and they pay duties on delivery, the policy adds a line about de minimis. The US stopped duty-free entry for low-value parcels from all countries on August 29, 2025, and a February 2026 executive order kept that suspension in place, so US customers can now get duty and fee bills on small orders that used to arrive free.
PO boxes and military addresses
In the US, only USPS delivers to PO boxes and to APO, FPO and DPO military addresses. UPS and FedEx need a street address. If you use UPS or FedEx for most orders, choose the USPS-only option, and make sure your checkout offers a USPS method for those addresses, or say that you ship to street addresses only. Outside the US, the "We ship to PO boxes" option explains that some express services cannot deliver to them.
Lost, stolen and damaged parcels
Most "where is my order" disputes are about three cases, and the policy covers each one:
- Damaged in transit: the customer emails photos of the item and packaging within your deadline (7 days by default), and you replace, refund or file a claim.
- Not arrived: after a set number of days past the expected delivery date (14 by default), or when tracking stops for 7 days, you contact the carrier and replace or refund once the parcel is confirmed lost.
- Marked delivered but missing: the customer checks with neighbors and waits 48 hours, because carriers sometimes scan parcels as delivered early, then you open a carrier claim.
If you sell shipping protection at checkout, tick the option and the policy explains that protected orders are covered without waiting for a carrier claim. Make sure your protection app's own terms say the same.
Where to paste your shipping policy
- Shopify: go to Settings > Policies, open Shipping policy, and paste the plain text or the HTML (in the editor's HTML view). Shopify links your policies in the checkout footer. Shopify also has an automated shipping policy that fills in your store name, email and the countries you ship to; it is shorter than this one, and turning it on replaces your own text.
- WooCommerce: WooCommerce has no built-in shipping policy setting. Create a page under Pages > Add New, add a Custom HTML block, paste the HTML and publish. Add the page to your footer menu and link it from product pages or the cart.
- Other platforms: publish it as a page called Shipping Policy and link it in the footer.
Google Merchant Center needs your shipping details to match
Google does not ask for a page with a particular name, but its Misrepresentation policy lists "not disclosing all applicable shipping costs, including those for returns" and "claiming a delivery time in conspicuous text while hiding a longer order processing" as examples of what gets accounts suspended. Merchant Center's help also says the shipping rates you enter must not be lower than the rates customers see at checkout.
Under the policy preview, the generator lists your handling time, shipping days, cut-off time and each method's transit time, cost and free threshold. Enter the same values under Settings > Shipping and returns in Merchant Center, so your feed, your checkout and your published policy all say the same thing. The AM Jarvis GMC Scanner and Fixer checks a connected store for missing policy pages, missing contact information and product data problems, and pushes fixes in batches. For the bigger picture, read how to fix a Merchant Center misrepresentation suspension.
Tip: Publish your refund policy at the same time. Google checks return windows, return shipping costs and restocking fees too. The refund policy generator covers those, and the terms and conditions generator links both policies into your terms.
Limits
This is a template built from your answers, not legal advice, and it is written in English only. It does not calculate rates or connect to carriers, so the numbers are whatever you type: check them against your real shipping settings before you publish. Delivery times are carrier estimates, and the policy says so. Update the policy, and the last updated date, whenever a carrier, rate or processing time changes.