Google adds new return policy structured data support for merchant listing

Google has documented new return policy information in the product structured data help section specific for merchant listings. This addition came on the same day that Google began showing shipping and return information in its search results.

What is new. A new returns section has been added to the structured data type definitions within Google’s product structured data document. This is for merchant listings, not yet product snippets, and these new properties types apply to merchant listing experiences.

You can use the following new properties to make your merchant listing eligible to show return policy information, including return fees and the window of time to return a product, Google explained.

Technical details. The required properties include:

• applicableCountry: The country code that the return policy applies to, using the two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code formatting. You can specify up to 25 countries.
• returnPolicyCategory: The type of return policy.

The recommended properties include:

• merchantReturnDays: The number of days from the delivery date that a product can be returned. This property is only required if you set the returnPolicyCategory to MerchantReturnFiniteReturnWindow.
• returnFees: The type of return fees. This property is only required if it’s there’s no cost to return the product. If you use this property, you must set the value to (other return fee types aren’t supported; if there are fees, use the returnShippingFeesAmount property instead).
• returnMethod: The type of return method offered. This is only recommended if you set the returnPolicyCategory to either MerchantReturnFiniteReturnWindow or MerchantReturnUnlimitedWindow.
• returnShippingFeesAmount: The cost of shipping for product returns. This property is only required if there’s a shipping cost to return a product. If the cost is zero, use the returnFees property instead.

Why we care. If you sell products, adding the shipping and return details to your snippet (plus the product price, reviews and other rich results) can help you gain attention and visibility of your snippets within Google Search and may impact your click-through rate from Google Search.

If you have outstanding shipping and return policies, you may want to highlight that through Google Merchant Center and structured data so that can be visible within Google Search.