Google has updated its guidelines for merchant listings.
Now, merchants need to specify which country their return policies apply to when using structured data.
According to the updated document, returnPolicyCountry is now a required field in the MerchantReturnPolicy schema.
Ecommerce sites should ensure their return policy markup is implemented correctly to maintain visibility.
What Has Changed
Previously, while the MerchantReturnPolicy type included properties like returnPolicyCategory, merchantReturnDays, and returnFees, Google has now explicitly highlighted returnPolicyCountry as a required field in its examples.
In the updated documentation, the example shows how to properly format return policy information for products:
"hasMerchantReturnPolicy": {
"@type": "MerchantReturnPolicy",
"applicableCountry": "CH",
"returnPolicyCountry": "CH",
"returnPolicyCategory": "https://schema.org/MerchantReturnFiniteReturnWindow",
"merchantReturnDays": 60,
"returnMethod": "https://schema.org/ReturnByMail",
"returnFees": "https://schema.org/FreeReturn"
}Implementation Recommendations
Merchants using structured data for product pages should review their existing markup to ensure it includes the returnPolicyCountry field within any MerchantReturnPolicy implementation.
This field should use the two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code formatting to specify where the return policy applies.
The documentation also outlines additional recommended properties for comprehensive return policy information, including:
- merchantReturnDays: The number of days a product can be returned
- returnFees: Whether returns are free or require payment
- returnMethod: How products can be returned (mail, in-store, etc.)
- returnShippingFeesAmount: The cost of shipping for returns
Merchants can validate their structured data implementation using Google’s Rich Results Test tool and monitor performance through Search Console reporting.
For the complete details, see the Google Search Central documentation.
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