A shipping policy checklist for research suppliers

A research supplier's shipping policy should tell a buyer, before they order, where you ship and where you do not, who you ship to, which carriers and services you use, how long processing and transit take, what it costs, and what happens if a parcel is late, lost or damaged. Just as important, it should describe what your checkout and fulfillment team actually do. A policy that says one thing while checkout allows another is worse than a short, accurate one.

Stripe's website checklist lists a shipping or delivery policy among the fulfillment policies most businesses must explain clearly, describing shipping methods, times, rates and eligible destinations. It also suggests disclosing any legal or export restrictions that apply to your business and how they may affect customers. Use the checklist below to cover each part.

Destinations

• List the countries or regions you ship to, or state plainly that you ship only within one country.
• List destinations you do not ship to, or say that destinations not listed are not served.
• Explain how you handle restricted destinations: the order is stopped at checkout, or cancelled and refunded.
• Say what happens to parcels held or returned by customs. Decide with a qualified lawyer or customs broker which import and export requirements apply before you list a destination, rather than leaving them to the buyer.
• Avoid statements about what is legal in any particular country. Decide your destination list with a qualified lawyer and describe the result, not the legal reasoning.

More on deciding and enforcing destinations is in shipping restrictions by destination.

Who you ship to

• State that you ship only to the qualified business or research buyer named on the order, if that is your rule.
• Say whether you ship to business or institutional addresses only, and what you do with residential addresses, forwarding services or post office boxes.
• Say whether the ship-to name must match the buyer or organization on the account.
• Explain what happens if a buyer asks to change the shipping address after ordering. Stripe's fraud guidance lists a shipping address changed after the order was placed as one sign a payment may be suspicious, and favors shipping to a billing address that has passed address verification.

Carriers, services and costs

• Name the carriers and service levels you use, or the types of service, such as ground or express.
• Show shipping costs or how they are calculated before the buyer pays.
• Say whether a signature is required on delivery.
• Describe packaging conditions that matter for the material, such as cold packs or insulated containers, without turning this into handling instructions for any use.

Timelines

• Separate processing time, from order to dispatch, from transit time, from dispatch to delivery.
• State your order cutoff time and time zone, and whether you dispatch on weekends or holidays.
• Say that orders held for review dispatch only after the review is complete, if that applies.
• Only state times you can support. The FTC's business guide to its Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule says sellers must have a reasonable basis for stating or implying that they can ship within a certain time, and that if no time is stated, the seller must have a reasonable basis for believing it can ship within 30 days.
• Explain what you do if you cannot ship on time. The same FTC guide describes seeking the customer's consent to a delay and offering the option to cancel with a prompt refund. Speak to a qualified lawyer about how the Rule applies to your sales.

Tracking and delivery

• Say that you provide tracking and how the buyer receives it, such as in the shipping confirmation email.
• Use services with online tracking and delivery confirmation where you can. Stripe's dispute guidance recommends this and notes that card issuers do not follow links, so tracking evidence for a dispute should be submitted as screenshots or carrier documents rather than links.
• Explain what the buyer should do if tracking shows delivered but the parcel has not arrived.

Late, lost and damaged parcels

• Give a time after which a parcel in transit is treated as lost, and what you do then: reship, refund or open a carrier claim.
• Say how quickly a buyer must report damage, and what evidence you need, such as photos of the outer package and contents.
• Cross-reference your refund and return policy so the two say the same thing.
• Explain who bears the cost of a parcel refused or returned because of a wrong address.

Matching the policy to what checkout enforces

The policy is only accurate if your checkout and fulfillment process back it up. Check each of these:

1. The destination list in your checkout settings matches the destination list in the policy.
2. Orders to an unlisted destination are stopped before payment, or cancelled and refunded. They are not quietly fulfilled.
3. Address rules in the policy, such as no forwarding services, are applied by the person packing orders, with a clear instruction on what to do when one appears.
4. Processing times in the policy match the dispatch times you actually achieve. Compare a sample of recent orders.
5. Shipping confirmation emails use the same carrier names, timelines and contact details as the policy.
6. Exceptions are recorded with a reason and the name of the person who approved them.

Where to publish it

• A dedicated shipping policy page linked from every page footer.
• Checkout, next to the shipping options and before payment.
• Order and shipping confirmation emails.
• Your terms of sale, so the documents agree.

What a shipping policy cannot do

A clear shipping policy helps buyers and reviewers understand how you operate, and it supports your position in delivery disputes. It does not decide whether your products can be shipped to a given place, and it does not decide how a processor views your business. Stripe and the card networks make their own decisions. Claddr checks each buyer's type, credentials and ship-to address against your compliance profile at checkout and stops consumer orders with a clear message, which helps keep what checkout allows in line with what your policy says. See how Claddr works.