Clear return routes for customers

A clear return route tells customers, before they buy, how to start a return, where the parcel goes and what happens once it arrives. Google asks for the return method on your website and in Merchant Center, and a route that begins with “contact us and wait” is not one. Write it as steps anyone could follow at the kitchen table.

Major4 min read

By Edvinas Ivanauskas How the guides are reviewed

Why this matters

Google's guidelines ask every returns policy to explain “What the user is required to do”. The return policy setup page asks your website to state “the return method”, and Merchant Center's return flow asks the same as a setting: in store, at a drop-off location, or by mail, and for mail, whether the label is “Download/print”, “In the box” or “Customer responsibility”. Write the route as numbered steps and you have answered all of it at once.

The route is part of how your business presents itself, too. Google's fix page for missing contact information, written for stores with Misrepresentation or Website needs improvement issues, asks for “procedures for returns, including buyer's remorse” alongside business details that agree across your site and Merchant Center. If returns go to a fulfilment partner or another country, the page should say whose address it is and why, so the route does not look like a second, unexplained business.

A returns portal behind an order lookup is fine for booking a return. The route itself, written out, has to be readable by anyone: the setup page asks for a return policy “accessible to all users visiting your online store, without having to log in, sign up, or enter any personal information.” The portal does the booking; the page does the explaining.

The free scan flags a returns policy with no return address on it and reports a returns link that leads to a dead page as a failure, two ways a route breaks without anyone noticing. The address itself has its own guide, giving customers a usable return address, and the wider policy is in how to write a clear returns policy. Every returns check is on the misrepresentation checker.

Typical evidence

The return address needs to work in the real world

Give shoppers a usable return address or a clear return process. A box number or a phantom address is not a substitute for a workable route to return an order.

Return to

PO Box 999

Mailing address only — return route unclear

Return to

Acme Returns, Unit 5 Industrial Way, Bristol BS1 4EF

Specific return route published

The public signals this check looks for:

The policy says “contact us to arrange a return” and nothing about what happens next or ho…
The policy says “contact us to arrange a return” and nothing about what happens next or how long it takes.
Returns start in a portal that asks for a login, and the returns page itself sits behind i…
Returns start in a portal that asks for a login, and the returns page itself sits behind it.
Returns go to a fulfilment company whose name appears nowhere else on the site
Returns go to a fulfilment company whose name appears nowhere else on the site.
The policy says “send it back” but not whether to use a label, a drop-off point or a shop
The policy says “send it back” but not whether to use a label, a drop-off point or a shop.
The route changed when you switched couriers, and the returns page still describes the old…
The route changed when you switched couriers, and the returns page still describes the old one.
Merchant Center lists in-store returns for a business with no shop
Merchant Center lists in-store returns for a business with no shop.

What it looks like once it is right

“1. Email returns@acme.example with your order number, or use the form on this page. 2. We reply within one working day with a prepaid label. 3. Drop the parcel at any Post Office. 4. Northway Logistics in Leeds receives returns for us; refunds follow within 5 working days of arrival.”

Common mistakes

Common mistake

“Returns: please contact us.” The shopper emails, waits three days, and receives a link to a portal that asks them to create an account before they can see the policy.

Fix checklist

Write the route as numbered steps on the returns page: how to start, what to include, how to send it, and what happens when it arrives.
Name a start point that works without an account: a returns email address, a form, or a portal that accepts an order number and email.
Say which methods you accept (by mail, at a drop-off point, in store) and, for mail, whether you send a label or the shopper arranges postage.
If a fulfilment partner handles returns, name it on the returns page as the company that receives returns for you, with its address.
Keep the returns page itself open to everyone: test it in a private window, signed out, on a phone.
In Merchant Center, set the return method and label option under Shipping and returns, Return policies, to the route the page describes.
After any courier, warehouse or app change, walk the route yourself with a test order and update the returns page the same day.

Two questions to answer

Is the return route clear to the buyer, and does the published wording match the process you actually provide?

Return address · two-question test

States where the customer should send the parcel

Where the parcel actually goes is disclosed — even if it’s overseas

Questions merchants ask

What does Google mean by the return method?

How the item gets back to you. Merchant Center's return policy settings list in store, at a drop-off location and by mail, and for mail they ask whether the label is downloaded and printed, sent in the box, or the customer's responsibility. Your returns page should say the same in plain words.

Can shoppers start a return through a portal or app?

Yes, as long as the policy that explains the route is open to everyone. The return policy setup page asks for a policy anyone can open without logging in, signing up or entering personal information. Keep the steps on a public page and let the portal handle the booking.

Do I have to name the company that receives my returns?

Google's return pages do not say so, but it helps. A returns address under another company's name looks like a second business unless the page explains it. One line, “returns are received for us by Northway Logistics”, settles it.

Remediation

Risk signal

A return route nobody can follow turns every return into a support ticket, and every support ticket into a chance to lose a customer. Four numbered steps fix it. Walk them yourself after every change, and let the free scan watch the returns page in between.

PriorityAddress and document this finding as part of the store’s remediation work.

EvidenceRecord the current state before each change, apply the fix, then capture the corrected state so every change is evidenced.

Similar cases

Sources

Last reviewed 23 Sep 2026.

That is one issue. The library documents 134.

The free scan lists what it finds on your store. The paid report adds the affected pages, captured evidence and step-by-step fixes. Start free, with no account needed.