Shipping and Returns Policy Settings Merchant Center Actually Requires
The exact Merchant Center shipping and returns configuration needed to stop 'missing shipping' and 'missing return policy' disapprovals.
Written by Mantas Jurgutis — Founder, Adsify — builds the Google & Meta automation merchants use daily
Editorially reviewed by Adsify Editorial on March 4, 2026 — Reviewed against Shopify, Google Ads and Meta official documentation.
Why this is one of the most common disapprovals
Across the Shopify install base Adsify has observed, missing shipping settings and missing returns policy configuration rank among the top causes of Merchant Center disapprovals, alongside missing GTIN/brand and price mismatches. Unlike GTIN, which lives in the product feed itself, shipping and returns are frequently configured at the account level in Merchant Center, and merchants forget this step entirely because their store checkout already calculates shipping correctly.
Where account-level shipping lives
In Merchant Center Next, go to Tools icon > Shipping and returns, or in classic Merchant Center under Growth > Manage programs > Shipping settings. You define shipping services by name, delivery country, transit time, and handling time. If you don't set this and you're also not sending shipping data at the row level in your feed via the shipping attribute, Google has nothing to display and will flag the account or reject items with a 'shipping not set up' warning.
You can supply shipping either at the account level (one configuration applied to all products, simplest for stores with flat or simple shipping) or per-product using the feed's shipping attribute, formatted as country:region:service:price, for example US:CA:Standard:4.99. Mixing both is allowed but the per-product feed value always overrides account-level settings for that item, so an incorrect feed-level shipping override can hide a correct account-level default.
Free shipping thresholds
If your store offers free shipping over a subtotal, use the minimum order value condition inside the Shipping settings service builder rather than trying to represent a threshold purely through the flat shipping attribute, since the feed attribute doesn't support conditional-by-cart-value logic on its own — Google's shipping settings UI does support minimum order amount for free shipping directly.
Returns policy configuration
Returns are configured separately under the same Tools > Shipping and returns section, in the Returns tab. Google requires a return policy defining the return window in days, which items are returnable versus final sale, restocking fees if any, and where the shopper returns the item (mail-in, in-store). Free-listing and Shopping ads eligibility both depend on this being present for the relevant target country.
For stores with a published return policy page (commonly at a URL like yourstore.com/pages/refund-policy, generated by Shopify's default Refund Policy template under Settings > Policies), Merchant Center lets you link that policy URL instead of manually rebuilding every rule in the return policy builder, provided the page clearly states the return window and conditions in text Google's automated review can parse.
Handling non-returnable categories
If certain product types are final sale — common for perishables, custom engraving, or clearance items — Merchant Center's return policy tool lets you create category-specific exceptions rather than a single blanket policy. Skipping this and applying one generic 30-day return policy to items that are actually non-returnable creates a mismatch between your feed's implied policy and your actual checkout/fulfillment terms, which can trigger account-level policy violations if shoppers file complaints.
Common Shopify-specific mistake
Shopify's own Settings > Shipping and delivery configuration governs checkout rates but has no direct link to Merchant Center's shipping settings — the two systems are separate and must be manually kept in sync. Merchants who update shipping rates in Shopify checkout often forget the corresponding Merchant Center shipping service needs the same update, leading to a live price mismatch flagged during Google's price accuracy checks.
Multi-country shipping
Because shipping and returns are configured per target country in Merchant Center, expanding into a new country via Shopify Markets (see our related piece on Markets and multi-currency feeds) requires setting up a new shipping service and return policy for that country specifically — a US shipping service does not apply to a Canadian target automatically even under the same Merchant Center account.
Verifying it's live
After configuring shipping and returns, check the Diagnostics tab in Merchant Center Next for the specific issue codes related to shipping (often labeled 'Missing shipping information') and returns ('Return policy not provided'). These typically clear within a few hours to a day after correct configuration, though full re-crawl of affected products can take longer during high submission volume periods.
Handling time versus transit time
A frequent configuration error is setting only transit time (how long the carrier takes) while ignoring handling time (how long before the item ships from your warehouse). Google's delivery estimate shown to shoppers combines both, and if your account only reflects transit time, the estimated delivery date shown in ads can undercut your real fulfillment speed, creating shopper complaints even though the feed technically passed validation.
Free-listing eligibility ties in
Google's free product listings on the Shopping tab have the same shipping and returns prerequisites as paid Shopping ads. A store that only cares about organic free listings still needs this configuration; skipping it removes both paid and free visibility, which is easy to overlook because the error messaging in Merchant Center doesn't always distinguish which surface is affected.
A repeatable setup checklist
For each target country: (1) create a shipping service under Tools > Shipping and returns with accurate handling and transit time, (2) add a free-shipping threshold rule if applicable, (3) create or link a return policy with window and exceptions, (4) verify in Diagnostics that no shipping or return issues remain for that country's feed, and (5) spot-check five live products in that country's Shopping results to confirm displayed shipping cost matches checkout.
Because these settings sit outside the product feed file itself, they're easy to treat as a one-time task. In practice they need review whenever shipping rates change, a new country launches, or a product category's return terms change — treating shipping and returns as static after initial setup is the most common reason this disapproval resurfaces months later.