A shipping policy is read twice: by a shopper before paying, to learn when the order will arrive and what it costs, and by a customer a week later, when the parcel has not turned up. It has to answer both in plain words, with the numbers your checkout shows and your warehouse hits. It is the twin of the return policy template, and the two should agree on every date.
Short answer: A good shipping policy states when an order leaves (processing time in working days, with the cut-off), what each option costs and how long it takes from dispatch, what the estimate is counted from and whether weekends count, what can change after ordering and until when, what happens when a parcel is late, lost or damaged, who pays duties abroad, and how tracking works. One number per line, in the customer's words, and the same numbers at checkout.
Why your shipping policy affects conversion
The question behind most abandoned carts is not "how much" but "when". A shopper who cannot find a delivery date, a cut-off or a cost before the payment page either guesses or leaves. After the sale, every line the policy leaves out becomes a ticket: "has my order been dispatched", "can I change the address", "it says delivered but I have nothing".
The parts every shipping policy needs
- Where you ship, and the address types you do not.
- Processing time in working days, with the cut-off and the days you do not dispatch.
- Methods and costs: each option, its price, the free-shipping threshold, the transit time from dispatch.
- Delivery estimates: what they are counted from and whether weekends count.
- Order and address changes: what can change, where, and until when.
- Late, lost and damaged parcels: when each applies and what you do.
- International orders: who pays duties and tax.
- Tracking, notifications and contact.
Processing time, delivery estimates and cut-offs
These lines generate most "where is my order" tickets, because retailers blur them. Processing time is the gap between the order and the carrier's first scan; the estimate is transit time counted from that scan. A customer who reads "2 to 3 day delivery" and orders on Friday evening expects Monday; "dispatched within 1 working day, order by 2pm, then 2 to 3 working days" sets Wednesday.
| Policy element | Vague version | Specific version |
|---|---|---|
| Processing | "Orders are processed quickly" | "Dispatched within 1 working day; order by 2pm UK time" |
| Estimate | "Delivery in 3 to 5 days" | "3 to 5 working days from dispatch; Saturday is not a delivery day" |
| Cost | "Shipping calculated at checkout" | "Standard £3.95, free over £50; Express £6.95" |
What a delivery promise is separates a static range from a date computed per order; delivery date promises at checkout sets out what a dated promise needs before it can be printed.
Shipping policy template: copy, fill in, publish
Replace each bracketed field, delete the options you do not offer, and publish it on its own page linked from the footer, the product page and the checkout. It is plain words, not legal advice: consumer law in each market overrides it (see the country section below).
Shipping at [Store name]
Where we ship
We deliver to [the UK, the EU and the US], but not to [PO boxes or parcel forwarders].
Processing time
Orders are dispatched within [1 working day]. Order by [2pm, UK time] on a working day and it leaves the same day. We do not dispatch on [weekends or public holidays].
Shipping methods and costs
Standard: [3 to 5 working days] from dispatch, [£3.95], free over [£50].
Express: [1 to 2 working days] from dispatch, [£6.95]. Order by [2pm] for next-working-day delivery.
Delivery estimates
The estimate at checkout and in your confirmation email counts working days from dispatch, not from the day you ordered. [Saturday is not a delivery day on Standard.]
Changing or cancelling an order
You can change the address or cancel until [the order is dispatched], from [your account page]. After dispatch we cannot guarantee a change.
Tracking and notifications
You receive a tracking link at dispatch and a message at [dispatch, out for delivery and delivery].
Delayed and lost parcels
Not arrived [2 working days] after the end of the estimate? Check the tracking page, then contact us and we open an enquiry with the carrier. A parcel is treated as lost [10 working days] after dispatch; we then [send a replacement] or [refund you in full, including delivery].
Damaged parcels
Email [address] within [48 hours] with your order number and photos of the parcel and the item. We send a replacement or a full refund.
International orders, duties and taxes
[Prices for [the EU] include duties and tax; nothing to pay on delivery.] [For [other countries], the carrier charges duties and tax before delivery.] A refused parcel is refunded less [the delivery charge and return costs].
Contact
[email], [phone], [opening hours]. Your statutory rights are not affected by this policy.
Shipping policy examples by store type
Three short worked versions, in our own wording, show where the template bends.
Apparel and fashion. "Order by 2pm Monday to Friday and we dispatch the same day. Standard takes 2 to 4 working days from dispatch, £3.95, free over £50; Express is next working day for £6.95. Not arrived 3 working days after the estimate? Contact us and we resend or refund."
Food, drink and perishables. "Chilled orders are dispatched Monday to Wednesday only, so nothing sits in a depot over the weekend; orders from Thursday to Sunday leave on Monday. Delivery is next working day by tracked courier, £5.95. Name a safe place at checkout; we cannot replace a chilled parcel left outside for a day."
High-value electronics. "Every order ships insured and signed-for, free, in 1 to 2 working days from dispatch. We cannot change the address after dispatch, and the carrier will not leave the parcel with a neighbour. If the box is damaged, refuse the delivery or photograph it before opening. A parcel shown as delivered that you have not received must be reported within 7 days so we can open the carrier claim."
The delivery rules by country
Three markets, three defaults, from primary sources read on 9 November 2026. The template's delay and lost-parcel lines sit on top of these, never beneath them.
European Union. The Your Europe page on shipping and delivery says "the trader should deliver it to you within 30 days" unless "you specifically agreed on a different delivery time" (europa.eu). If not, the customer should "remind the trader giving them an additional, reasonable time limit to deliver", and after that is "entitled to terminate your contract and be reimbursed as soon as possible." Transit risk is the seller's: "The trader is responsible for any damage to your goods from the time they are dispatched until you receive them."
United Kingdom. The Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 28, makes delivery a term of every sales contract: unless a time is agreed, the trader must deliver "without undue delay" and "in any event, not more than 30 days after the day on which the contract is entered into" (legislation.gov.uk). If that is missed, the consumer "may specify a period that is appropriate in the circumstances", then "may treat the contract as at an end", after which "the trader must without undue delay reimburse all payments made under the contract". GOV.UK's guidance for online sellers puts it in one line: "deliver the goods within 30 days, unless you've agreed otherwise with the customer" (gov.uk).
United States. The federal rule is about shipping, not delivery. The FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule requires sellers "to have a reasonable basis to expect that the sellers can ship within the advertised time frame, or, if no time frame is specified, within 30 days", and when they cannot, to "obtain the buyer's consent to a delay in shipping or refund payment for the unshipped merchandise" (ftc.gov). The FTC's business guide adds the deadline: "no notification to the customer can take longer than the time you originally promised or, if no time was promised, 30 days" (ftc.gov business guide). A US processing-time line is a legal representation: print only a time you can keep.
International shipping adds one line: who pays duties and tax. The two models, price final at checkout or carrier collecting on delivery, are explained in DDP vs DDU for cross-border shipping; say which you use in the policy and at checkout.
What customers search for in a shipping policy
From our own search data on retailer delivery pages, four query families dominate: how long ("how long does delivery take"), the cut-off ("next day delivery cut off time"), the days ("do they deliver on Saturday"), and the status ("has my order been dispatched"). A fifth appears the moment you sell abroad: "customs charges". Each maps to a line in the template; answered on the page, in the same words, they stop arriving as tickets.
A shipping policy checklist
- States processing time in working days, with the cut-off and time zone.
- Prices every method and counts estimates from dispatch.
- Defines late and lost in days and says whether you resend or refund.
- Says who pays duties and tax per destination.
- Matches the estimate shown at checkout, word for word.
For merchants: making the policy true at checkout
The weak point is usually the estimate: the policy says one thing, the checkout another, the carrier a third. Pango is an AI-native, agentic operating system for e-commerce logistics. Its checkout delivery module controls the logistics half of checkout, the shipping methods, pickup-point maps, prices and ETAs a shopper sees, with carrier-failure fallback and A/B testing of delivery options, so the estimate the policy promises is the one the checkout prints. Its tracking module puts a branded tracking page on the merchant's domain, sends proactive notifications at placed, in production, shipped, cross-border handover, delayed and delivered, and treats a status as an operational trigger, so a delay fires an apology or a CS alert before the ticket. The category is in ecommerce shipping software, the returns half in returns management software. Pricing: see pango.ai/pricing.
The bottom line
A good shipping policy is a set of numbers a customer can plan around: a cut-off, a processing time, a transit time counted from dispatch, a cost, a definition of late and lost, and a duties line for abroad. Writing it is the easy part; keeping it true is where stores fall down, because the policy, the checkout and the carrier each say something different. Use the template, set the per-market lines on top of the 30-day rules, and make the checkout show the same promise. To see it run from one system, book a demo.
