Developer Impact: Requiring return policy

We first announced in June 2008 that we will be requiring sellers to specify a return policy along with the terms in their listings. This will now be required as of late October. It’s OK to not accept returns, just be sure to specify it.

Return Policy Set with Attributes

Return policy now set via attributes. You probably do not support this feature yet. If you do, you can continue setting it via attributes until Feb 2009 or you can switch to the new node.

If you stay with the old attributes for now, there is one new piece of info to set: who pays for return shipping. That new field will be available in attributes when the new node is released (mid-Sep).
However, your AddItem will not fail if you don't include it. It will just be set to the default "buyer pays for shipping." This gives you more time to update your code.

If "buyer pays for shipping" is acceptable to your sellers, you can probably skip implementing that new attribute when it comes out, and just move straight to the new node.

New Return Policy Schema Node

The new node will be available mid-September. You will probably want to skip straight to implementing the new node, instead of implementing the attribute-style return policy first.

Here's an example of how the Return Policy node will look in AddItem:

<ReturnPolicy>
 <ReturnsAcceptedOption>ReturnsAccepted</ReturnsAcceptedOption>
 <RefundOption>Exchange</RefundOption>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_30</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <Description>Detailed explanation of seller's policy here</Description>
 <ShippingCostPaidByOption>Buyer</ShippingCostPaidByOption>
</ReturnPolicy>

GeteBayDetails will return all the supported site-wide return policy options for a given site. For example, for the US site, the data will look like this:

<ReturnPolicyDetails>
 <Refund>
 <RefundOption>MoneyBack</RefundOption>
 <Description>Money Back</Description>
 </Refund>
 <Refund>
 <RefundOption>Exchange</RefundOption>
 <Description>Exchange</Description>
 </Refund>
 <Refund>
 <RefundOption>MerchandiseCredit</RefundOption>
 <Description>Merchandise Credit</Description>
 </Refund>
 <ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_3</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <Description>3 Days</Description>
 </ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_7</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <Description>7 Days</Description>
 </ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_14</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <Description>14 Days</Description>
 </ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_30</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <Description>30 Days</Description>
 </ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_60</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <Description>60 Days</Description>
 </ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsAccepted>
 <ReturnsAcceptedOption>ReturnsAccepted</ReturnsAcceptedOption>
 <Description>Returns Accepted</Description>
 </ReturnsAccepted>
 <ReturnsAccepted>
 <ReturnsAcceptedOption>ReturnsNotAccepted</ReturnsAcceptedOption>
 <Description>Returns Not Accepted</Description>
 </ReturnsAccepted>
 <Description>true</Description>
 <ShippingCostPaidBy>
 <ShippingCostPaidByOption>Buyer</ShippingCostPaidByOption>
 <Description>Buyer</Description>
 </ShippingCostPaidBy>
 <ShippingCostPaidBy>
 <ShippingCostPaidByOption>Seller</ShippingCostPaidByOption>
 <Description>Seller</Description>
 </ShippingCostPaidBy>
 </ReturnPolicyDetails>
 

GetItem responses will return the same values plus the user-friendly display strings (which look the same, if the value happens to have only one word):

<ReturnPolicy>
 <RefundOption>Exchange</RefundOption>
 <Refund>Exchange</Refund>
 <ReturnsWithinOption>Days_30</ReturnsWithinOption>
 <ReturnsWithin>30 Days</ReturnsWithin>
 <ReturnsAcceptedOption>ReturnsAccepted</ReturnsAcceptedOption>
 <ReturnsAccepted>Returns Accepted</ReturnsAccepted>
 <Description>Detailed explanation of seller's policy here</Description>
 <ShippingCostPaidByOption>Buyer</ShippingCostPaidByOption>
 <ShippingCostPaidBy>Buyer</ShippingCostPaidBy>
</ReturnPolicy>

All listing tool developers

Review how many of your sellers are compliant and educate those who are not compliant. Most of your users are probably NOT already compliant.

Enforcement is October. Listings without a specified return policy will fail.

See the API docs on "Offering a Clear Return Policy." Note that this currently discusses offering a return policy using attributes. The new return policy node will be documented when it is released. Also see FAQ: Critical Item Information