Writing a size exchange policy shoppers trust

Your exchange policy matters most at one moment: just before a shopper picks a size, unsure. If the policy is clear, they pick the size that looks right and order it. If it's vague, they hedge. They order two sizes, or they leave the page.

So the policy has one job: make the cost of a wrong size small and known in advance. That comes down to five answers, written with numbers, in the same words everywhere a shopper might read them.

The five questions every exchange policy answers

1. How long do I have? A number of days, and the day the count starts. "30 days from delivery" can be checked. "30 days" leaves the shopper wondering whether the week in transit counts.
2. What state must the item be in? Say what trying on allows: unworn outside, unwashed, tags on. A shopper has to try a size to know it's wrong, so say plainly that they can.
3. Who pays the shipping, each way? Two parcels move in an exchange: the wrong size back, the new size out. Say who pays for each one, and how much if it's the shopper.
4. What if the size I need is sold out? A full refund, store credit, or a wait for the restock. Pick one, or let the shopper pick, and write it down.
5. How do I start? One link or one email address, and what to have ready (the order number).

Two more answers are worth a line if they apply to you: whether a second exchange is allowed, and which items can't be exchanged at all. Name those items (earrings, swimwear without its hygiene liner, final sale), or say how they are marked on the product page.

Words that cost trust

What a shopper can't act on is vagueness. A strict policy written plainly is easier to accept than a generous one that hedges, because the shopper knows where they stand. The left column is what shoppers can't act on; the right column says the same thing so they can. The numbers are examples: use yours.

The word "free" deserves care. Write it only if the exchange costs the shopper nothing, both ways. A "free exchange" that turns out to need a paid return label is a promise broken at the worst moment, with the shopper already disappointed by the first size.

A policy you can copy

Replace the parts in brackets with your own terms. Keep the order: it follows the questions a shopper asks, in the order they ask them.

Size exchanges. Ordered the wrong size? Exchange it for another size of the same item within [30] days of delivery.

Trying it on. Try it on at home. To exchange it, the item must be unworn outside, unwashed, with the tags on.

Shipping. [We pay to send your new size. You pay to send the first one back.]

Sold out. If the size you need is sold out, we [refund the item in full] [give you store credit for its price].

How to start. Go to [your returns page] with your order number. We send your new size [as soon as the first one is on its way back] [when we receive the first one].

Not exchangeable. [Items marked "Final sale" on the product page. Earrings.]

Six short paragraphs, no legal phrasing, and every answer a number or a yes or no. If you need more than that, the extra belongs in your full terms, not in the part shoppers read before they buy.

Put the same numbers everywhere

A shopper can meet your policy in four places: the product page, the size guide, your policy page and the order confirmation. If one says 14 days and another 30, they trust neither.

1. Write the full policy once, on your policy page. In Shopify, the return and refund policy lives under Settings, then Policies.
2. Put one line next to the size choice, in the size guide: "Wrong size? Exchange it within 30 days of delivery." Link it to the full policy.
3. Check the other places that repeat it: the order confirmation, a returns app, your FAQ page.
4. Change every place the same day when a term changes.

The exchange you didn't need

An exchange keeps the sale, which a refund doesn't. It is still a size return with a second shipment: two parcels for you, a week of waiting for the shopper. The cheapest exchange is the one the size guide made unnecessary.

A clear policy and a good size guide work as a pair. The guide makes the first pick more likely to be right; the policy makes a wrong pick less of a risk, so there is less reason to order two sizes to be safe. That habit has its own fixes, in why shoppers order two sizes.

One habit on your side makes every exchange useful: record it in Shopify as a return of the first size, with its reason (too small or too big). A new size sent by hand, with no return recorded, leaves no trace of which size missed, and that trace is what tells you which row of the chart to fix. What makes a reason worth having is in return reasons that tell you what to fix.

How Ruban Size handles it

The size guide is where the exchange line belongs, because it is where the shopper hesitates. In Ruban Size:

• One line, in every chart. Write the exchange line once as a shared section (a text block with a link to your policy page) and add it to every chart. Edit the section, and every chart that uses it is updated. It is translated in the app with the rest of the chart, and the guide's buttons and messages speak 22 languages. See size charts.
• The sold-out answer, before the order. When the shopper's size is sold out, Find my size says so ("Your size: M. Sold out right now.") and offers the closest size in stock, instead of letting them find out after checkout. More on Find my size.
• Fewer exchanges to start with. Find my size gives one size from the shopper's own measurements, with how sure it is, on every plan, the free one included. When a cut runs small, the chart's fit scale and a fit note ("if you are between two sizes, take the larger one") tell shoppers before they choose.
• The sizes that keep coming back. On the Fit plan, returns by size reads the return reasons of the last 60 days in your browser, and flags a size from 3 size returns when at least 70% point the same way. An exchange recorded as a return counts like any other. One click sets the chart's fit scale. See analytics and returns.

Questions

What should a size exchange policy include?

The exchange window in days and the day it starts, the condition the item must be in, who pays the shipping each way, what happens if the new size is sold out, and how to start. Add the items that can't be exchanged, by name.

How long should an exchange window be for clothes?

Long enough to receive the parcel, try it on and send it back, counted from delivery rather than from the order date. Whatever number you choose, write it in days and use the same number on every page.

Should size exchanges be free?

That is a business choice: free exchanges cost you shipping, paid ones cost some hesitation at the size selector. Either way, state who pays and how much, so the shopper reads it before ordering rather than after.

What happens if the size a customer needs is sold out?

Your policy should say: a full refund, store credit, or a wait for the restock. Ruban Size's Find my size tells shoppers before they order when their size is sold out, and points them to the closest size in stock.