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Privacy, Service, and Refund policies can be critically important to your ecommerce store – both for your legal protection and that of your customers. But writing these policies yourself can be difficult, and hiring a lawyer to draft them is expensive.

Don’t worry – Shopify has your back. Our new policy generator in your store's dashboard makes it fast and easy to create custom policies for your store. And best of all, it’s free!

Read on for a breakdown of the 3 different policy templates we now offer, and why your store might need them:

Privacy Policy

A privacy policy or statement tells your customers how you use their personal information (email addresses, credit card information, or automatically collected browser information).


 Why Do I Need a Privacy Policy?

  • It’s the law. In the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand, there are legal directives that require websites to post privacy policies.
  • Many online consumers are worried about protecting their personal and financial information. A privacy policy gives them confidence that they can trust you with their info.
  • If your store has a payment gateway, they will likely want you to have a privacy policy before they approve you.

Terms of Service

A Terms of Service is a list of rules that tell visitors what they are and aren’t allowed to do while visiting your online store (such as hacking, spamming, or posting obscene comments). You’ll also see this policy referred to as “terms and conditions”, “terms of use” or “terms.”


 Why do I need a Terms of Service?

  • It reassures your customers that they won’t be exposed to spammers, viruses or obscene comments.
  • If there’s a disagreement between you and a visitor, it can protect you from being sued.
  • Again, certain payment gateways require all ecommerce stores to have a Terms of Service as a part of their approval process.

Returns and Refund Policy

A refund policy lets your buyers know what to do if they’re unhappy with their purchase.


 Why do I Need a Returns and Refund policy?

  • Regardless of whether your store accepts refunds or exchanges (it should!), being upfront and honest about your store’s refund policy will keep your customers happy and coming back.

How to generate the policies

Go into your Shopify admin and click on "Checkout & Payment" in the "Preferences" tab


Scroll all the way to the bottom and click on the "Generate" button for any of the policies you want to add