Proposal to expand support for product return policies

[alex-jansen]

Context - This is a proposal from Google based on our experience consuming schema.org /MerchantReturnPolicy markup and working with similar data from online merchants. If it were accepted, it would make it easier for us and others to understand eCommerce return policies.

Introduction

Schema.Org currently supports a limited subset of product return policies through type /MerchantReturnPolicy. Certain return policies that are common in the industry are not supported through this type, for example product returns to a different country than the shipping country, restocking fees, and different fees based on item condition (unopened or used). We therefore propose to add a few additional types and properties for a more comprehensive coverage of common return policies in the eCommerce industry.

Proposal

We propose to expand schema.org with a few enumeration types and new properties:

• Support for more return methods, through a new enumeration /ReturnMethodEnumeration, with values such as /ReturnByMail, /ReturnInStore, and /ReturnAtKiosk.
• Support for different types of return labels through a new enumeration /ReturnLabelSourceEnumeration, with values such as /ReturnLabelDownloadAndPrint, /ReturnLabelInBox, /ReturnLabelCustomerResponsibility
• Add additional types of return fees to existing enumeration /ReturnFeesEnumeration, with common values such as /ReturnFeesCustomerResponsibility and /FreeReturn.

We will use these new enumerations and values to add a few new properties related to return methods, fees, and labels for use on existing type /MerchantReturnPolicy:

Return methods

• /returnMethod of (new) type /ReturnMethodEnumeration. This improves on the existing more limited Boolean /inStoreReturnsOffered.
• /returnPolicyCountry of (existing) type /Country to allow the specification of a country where the return has to be sent to.

Return fees

• /itemDefectReturnFee of type /ReturnFeeEnumeration to specify return fees for defect products.
  • With corresponding property /itemDefectReturnShippingFeeAmount of type /MonetaryAmount, to be provided when /itemDefectReturnFee has value /ReturnShippingFee
• /customerRemorseReturnFee of type /ReturnFeeEnumeration, to specify return fees for products returned due to customer remorse.
  • With corresponding property /customerRemorseReturnShippingFeeAmount of type /MonetaryAmount, to be provided when /customerRemorseReturnFee has value /ReturnShippingFee
• /restockingFee of type /MonetaryValue to represent a fixed restocking fee, or of type /Number to represent a percentage of the paid product price.
• /itemCondition of type /OfferItemCondition to specify the condition of the item accepted for returns, for example /NewCondition, DamagedCondition, or /UsedCondition.

Return labels

• /itemDefectReturnLabelSource of type /ReturnLabelSourceEnumeration to specify how the customer can get a return label for defect items.
• /customerRemorseReturnLabelSource of type /ReturnLabelSourceEnumeration to specify how the customer can get a return label for products returned due to customer remorse.

Other additions

In addition to the just proposed new properties and types related to return methods, fees, and labels, we have also seen that it is common in the industry to have different return policies during holiday periods. We therefore also propose to allow merchants to specify such seasonal overrides through a new property /returnPolicySeasonalOverride of new type /MerchantReturnPolicySeasonalOverride on type /MerchantReturnPolicy with the following existing properties:

• /returnPolicyCategory
• /merchantReturnDays, for use when returnPolicyCategory equals MerchantReturnFiniteReturnWindow.
  • we propose to add Date and DateTime to the range of /merchantReturnDays to allow for fixed latest return dates.
  • For the existing range of Integer we propose to change the definition to the number of days from the delivery date (instead of from the purchase date).
• /startDate
• /endDate

Finally, to increase flexibility related to return policies we also propose to add property /additionalProperty to /MerchantReturnPolicy to allow for generic or custom return-policy related fields.

[alex-jansen]

Completed as part of Version 13.

[JessycaFrederick]

I would like to request a new field under /ReturnMethodEnumeration

Why: Online stores selling alcohol in the United States cannot legally accept returns by mail, however many offer store credit for bottles the customer doesn't want or like. It's a return without having to return the product.

At present, there is no way to communicate this accurately with schema.

/RefundTypeEnumeration has the StoreCredit part, but we need a corresponding value for /ReturnMethodEnumeration that supports a return method of "keep the product."

I realize this is a strange corner case, but there are 1000s of online merchants selling alcohol in the US.

[alex-jansen]

That sounds reasonable! I will try to include that into the next Schema.org release.