A shipping policy is an operational promise, so document the customer-facing words and the settings that make those words true. Record who owns fulfillment, who may approve a policy change, how shipment timing is supported, and what happens when an order cannot ship as promised. Treat legal requirements as jurisdiction-specific and route them to qualified review rather than copying a generic template.
Capture the promise and its scope
Record the exact policy URL, version, effective date, markets, products, order channels, fulfillment locations, carriers, service levels, handling-time definitions, cutoff times, business-day calendar, holidays, destination restrictions, duties and taxes, address-change rules, tracking behavior, lost or damaged package path, and cancellation or refund relationship. State whether timing is an estimate, a guaranteed carrier service, or a merchant commitment.
For every statement, identify the operational source. A two-day handling promise should map to inventory availability, warehouse calendar, staffing, order cutoff, and carrier pickup. A geographic restriction should map to checkout rules. If the storefront and fulfillment platform use different names or time zones, document the translation.
Record the compliance basis without giving generic legal advice
For covered U.S. mail, internet, or telephone merchandise orders, the FTC's business guide says a seller needs a reasonable basis for its shipment representation. If no shipment time is stated, the guide describes a 30-day default; when the seller learns it cannot ship on time, it explains notice, consent, cancellation, and refund duties (FTC business guide). The current eCFR text defines covered internet-order sales and the rule's refund concepts (16 CFR Part 435).
Document which entity completed the legal review, which jurisdictions and sales channels were considered, the review date, and the authoritative references used. Do not state that one federal rule is the entire legal standard for every product, destination, marketplace, or contract. Flag subscriptions, services, made-to-order goods, international sales, marketplace rules, and regulated products for separate review.
Map policy text to system settings
Create a table with each customer promise, the controlling system, current setting, owner, test, and rollback. Cover inventory availability, preorder and backorder behavior, handling times, rate tables, free-shipping thresholds, carrier services, package dimensions and weights, excluded regions, tax and duty presentation, delivery estimates, label creation, pickup scans, tracking messages, and cancellation windows.
Record integrations and accounts by approved identifier, not by password. Name the storefront owner, warehouse owner, carrier-account owner, customer-support owner, finance owner for refunds, legal reviewer, and incident lead. Include vendor support routes, renewal or billing owner, export method, and a tested manual fallback.
Define the delay and exception workflow
Write the steps for an inventory shortfall, missed cutoff, carrier suspension, bad address, hazardous or restricted item, weather disruption, lost package, and international customs hold. For each, specify who detects it, when the customer is notified, who decides whether a revised date is supportable, how consent or cancellation is recorded, and how refunds are issued and reconciled.
The FTC guide says a first delay notice needs a revised shipment date or a statement that a date cannot be provided, a cancellation and refund option, and a way for the customer to cancel at the seller's expense; later delay notices have additional conditions (FTC business guide). Use approved templates tied to the current policy and legal review, not improvised support wording.
Test before and after changes
Use authorized test orders that cover representative products, locations, carts, thresholds, and service levels. Verify the product page, cart, checkout, order confirmation, fulfillment system, label, tracking event, customer notification, cancellation, and refund records. Test restricted destinations and unavailable inventory as carefully as a normal shipment. No real shipment or charge should be created unless the test plan explicitly authorizes it.
Log each policy or settings change with requester, approver, business reason, before-and-after text, before-and-after configuration, effective time, affected open orders, customer communication, test evidence, and rollback. A scheduled review should compare the policy with actual fulfillment performance, carrier changes, support issues, and current law and marketplace rules.
The finished record should make every promise traceable to a system control and accountable owner. If operations cannot support a sentence consistently, fix the process or revise the promise through the approved review path before presenting it to customers.
Sources
- Business Guide to the FTC's Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule — Federal Trade Commission
- 16 CFR Part 435 — Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise — Electronic Code of Federal Regulations