Shopify Store Policies: Refund, Privacy, Terms, Shipping and Cookie Consent Explained

Every Shopify store needs a small set of legal pages: a refund (return) policy, a privacy policy, terms of service, a shipping policy and clear contact information. Shopify gives you a place to manage them (Settings > Policies), template text for some of them, and automatic links in the footer of checkout. What it doesn't give you is legal advice. The templates are a starting point, and you are responsible for following what you publish.

Privacy has grown into its own area. Shopify now ships a built-in cookie banner, a data sharing opt-out page and a JavaScript Customer Privacy API that apps and pixels use to respect visitor consent. New stores get automated privacy settings by default, but many older stores have never reviewed them.

This guide explains each policy, what Shopify's tools do and don't cover, how policies appear at checkout, and how consent works on a Shopify storefront as of October 2026. It's part of our Shopify hub. It is general information, not legal advice. For your specific obligations, talk to a lawyer who knows the places you sell to.

Where policies live in Shopify

From your admin, go to Settings > Policies. According to Shopify's store policies documentation, you can add:

• Return policy (often called a refund policy)
• Privacy policy
• Terms of service
• Shipping policy
• Legal notice (an imprint-style page some countries expect)
• Subscription policy (relevant if you sell subscriptions or other purchase options)

Each policy gets its own page on your store, with predictable URLs you can link from menus, emails and product pages:

Templates and generators: useful, but not legal advice

Shopify can generate template text for your policies, with two caveats from its own documentation. First, templates are generated only in English and for checkouts set to English. If your checkout runs in another language, Shopify says you need to create your own policies and suggests contacting a local law expert. Second: "Although Shopify can generate templates, you're responsible for following your published policies."

Shopify also runs free web-based generators, including a privacy policy generator, a refund policy generator and a terms and conditions generator. Shopify notes generators are also available in French, Italian and Spanish.

The practical risk with templates is not that they are badly written. It's that they describe a business that isn't yours. A template that promises 30-day returns, when your team only accepts 14, creates a promise you then break. Treat templates as a checklist of topics, then rewrite every line to match how you actually operate.

The policies one by one

Refund and return policy

Shopify's consumer protection guidance says merchants must make "current, accurate, public-facing, and easy-to-access information about your refund policy" available. It suggests the policy cover:

• The time frame for returns
• The return shipping address
• Who pays return costs
• How timing varies by location
• Who to contact about refunds

Add the details customers actually ask about: which items are final sale, whether you refund to the original payment method or store credit, the condition items must be in, and how long the refund takes once you receive the return. Also note that, per Shopify's pricing documentation, credit card transaction fees aren't returned to you when you issue a refund, which is worth knowing when you set restocking rules.

Privacy policy

Your privacy policy explains what personal data you collect, why, who you share it with (payment processors, shipping carriers, apps, ad platforms) and how customers can exercise their rights. Every app and tracking pixel you add can change that list, so the privacy policy is the one most likely to go stale. New stores have automated privacy settings on by default. Existing stores can turn on automated updates for the privacy policy and cookie banner, and Shopify records those updates in the store activity log.

Terms of service

Terms set the rules for using your store and buying from you: pricing errors, order acceptance, limitation of liability, governing law and dispute handling. These are the most jurisdiction-specific of the set, and the place where a lawyer's review pays off most.

Shipping policy

State processing times, carriers, delivery estimates by region, costs or free-shipping thresholds, international duties and taxes, and what happens with lost or damaged parcels. If you sell internationally, make sure the policy matches how duties are collected in each market. Our Shopify Markets guide explains those options.

Contact information

This one is a requirement of selling on Shopify. Under the Shopify Terms of Service, according to Shopify's consumer protection page, you must provide your business name, an email address and a phone number customers can use to contact you, and the physical address of your business. The contact information needs to be public-facing and easy to access. A contact page linked from the footer, plus the same details in your policies, covers it.

Subscription and legal notice pages

If you sell subscriptions, Shopify's checkout shows a purchase option agreement: by proceeding, the customer confirms they understand they're buying a subscription. The disclosure refers to your cancellation policy, and while you can adjust some wording in your theme content, the disclosure itself can't be removed. Write a subscription policy that explains renewal timing, how to skip or cancel, and any minimum commitments. A legal notice page holds company details that some countries expect to see on the site; Shopify publishes country-specific setup guidance for several markets.

How policies appear at checkout

Once added, policies are automatically linked in the footer of your checkout pages. Shopify also surfaces return policy links when customers review their order, and shipping policy links can appear on product and cart pages. You don't need to edit checkout code to get the footer links, which is just as well, because checkout.liquid is gone and checkout is now customized through extensions. Our checkout extensibility guide covers what you can change.

Inside the online store, link every policy from the footer menu, and link the shipping and return policies from product pages and the cart. Customers look for them right before they buy.

Cookie consent and the Customer Privacy API

Shopify's privacy settings live in Settings > Customer privacy, where you manage the privacy policy, the cookie banner and a data sharing opt-out page. The settings work by region, so you can show a cookie banner in one set of countries and a "do not sell or share" page in another.

The built-in cookie banner

A cookie banner asks visitors to consent to cookies and similar technologies. Shopify's banner governs Shopify-specific tools, including its cookies and Shopify Pixels. For new stores, automated privacy settings configure the banner for visitors in the UK and EEA if you have active markets in those regions.

Data sharing opt-out page

The data sharing opt-out page lets visitors opt out of the sale or sharing of their personal data with Shopify and other third parties, and of processing that may count as targeted advertising. Turn it on for the regions whose laws give visitors a right to opt out of data sales or sharing.

What developers and app owners need to know

The Customer Privacy API is a browser JavaScript API that applies consent decisions to Shopify-managed surfaces such as pixels, Shopify Audiences and checkout. It can also be used to build a custom consent banner. Key points from the documentation:

• In regions set to require consent, non-essential purposes aren't allowed until the visitor consents.
• Consent should be recorded only when the visitor interacts (accepts or declines), never automatically on their behalf.
• The Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal is collected and honored automatically in regions configured for data sale opt-out.
• If you use a third-party cookie banner app instead of Shopify's, ask the developer where its banner shows and confirm it passes consent to this API.

The common failure is a tracking tag added straight into the theme that ignores consent entirely. If your analytics or ad pixels load outside Shopify's pixel system, check how they respect consent. Our GA4 conversion tracking guide covers tracking setups that work with consent.

A practical policy checklist

Review the set whenever you add a sales region, launch subscriptions, install a new marketing app or change your returns process. Our article on ecommerce legal considerations before scaling covers the wider legal picture.

Conclusion

Shopify makes the mechanics easy: one settings page for policies, automatic checkout links, a built-in cookie banner and an API that keeps apps and pixels in line with consent. The content is your responsibility. Use the templates as an outline, rewrite them to match how your business really runs, publish clear contact details, and have counsel review your terms and privacy policy for the markets you sell in. If you're redesigning your store and want policy pages, footer navigation and consent settings built in from the start, that's part of how eSEOspace approaches Shopify website design.

Frequently asked questions