Reviewed October 30, 2026

Setting Up Shopify Legal Pages: Refund, Privacy, Terms, Shipping

The four legal pages every new Shopify store needs, where each one lives in settings, what Shopify generates for you, and what you must write yourself. A setup walkthrough.

Where the pages live

In your Shopify admin, go to Settings, then Policies. That is the home for the written policies: refund policy, privacy policy, terms of service, and shipping policy, with contact information and any legal notice your setup requires in the same area. Saving a policy there makes Shopify publish it at the standard policy address for your store and link it in the places the checkout and footer expect, depending on your theme.

Do not create these as regular pages in Online Store, Pages, if you want them treated as policies. A normal page works as a web page but does not get wired into checkout and the policy system the same way, and you can end up with two versions: the page you wrote and the empty policy the checkout links to. One source, in Settings, Policies, is the setup that stays consistent when you change themes.

What the templates do and do not do

Shopify offers template text for several policies, and the templates are starting points with bracketed details you must replace: your business name, your contact details, your return window in days, your contact method for returns. Publishing a template with the placeholders still in it is a common first week error, and it is visible to any customer who reads the page. Read the saved version on the live store, not the draft in settings, before you call this step done.

The templates also cannot know your actual operation. Your refund policy must match what your team will really do: who pays return shipping, how long refunds take after the item arrives, what condition items must be in, which products are excluded, final sale items, perishables, digital goods. A generous template promise your operation cannot keep becomes the text a frustrated customer quotes back to you, correctly. Write the policy you run, then run the policy you wrote.

The details that differ by store

Privacy policy needs the truth about your store specifically: which apps and services receive customer data, because each analytics, advertising, email, and review app you install changes that list. This is the page new stores copy from another business most often and the page where copying is most dangerous, because it describes data flows the copying store may not even have, and omits the ones it does. Walk your installed apps, list what each collects, and build the page from that inventory. It doubles as your own record of where customer data goes.

Shipping policy is the one Shopify will not write for you in any meaningful way. It needs your processing time before dispatch, stated separately from carrier transit time, your shipping zones and methods, and what happens with delays and split shipments. Most delivery complaints are really processing time complaints in disguise, a customer counting from the order date while your two day handling time sits undisclosed. State both numbers plainly and the complaint pattern shrinks.

Checking the finished setup

After saving, click through the live store as a customer: footer links, the checkout policy links, and a test order's confirmation references. Confirm every link lands on the finished text, confirm the contact email in the policies is a mailbox someone reads, and set a reminder to revisit the pages whenever you change a returns process, add a data collecting app, or start selling into a new region with different consumer rules.

Treat these pages as operational documents with an owner, not launch decoration. They are the reference your support replies should match, word for word on return windows and timelines, because inconsistency between the policy page and a support email is what turns a routine return into a dispute. Setup takes an hour when the store is new. Retrofitting it under pressure, after the first chargeback cites your own policy, takes longer and teaches the same lesson at a higher price.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I add legal policies in Shopify?

In Settings, then Policies in your admin. Saving refund, privacy, terms, and shipping policies there publishes them at your store's standard policy addresses and wires them into checkout and footer links as your theme expects.

Can I just use Shopify's policy templates as they are?

No. Templates contain bracketed placeholders for your business name, contact details, and return window that must be replaced, and they cannot describe your actual operation. Read the live published version after editing, and make the refund policy match what your team really does.

Why does my privacy policy need to list my apps?

Because each analytics, advertising, email, and review app you install receives customer data, and the policy should describe your store's real data flows. Build it from your installed app inventory rather than copying another store's page.

What belongs in a shipping policy?

Processing time before dispatch, stated separately from carrier transit time, plus shipping zones and methods, and how delays and split shipments are handled. Undisclosed processing time is the hidden cause behind many delivery complaints.