Returns and agentic purchases

Returns matter twice in agentic commerce: as a filter before the purchase, and as an operational consequence after it. The first is the one stores underestimate.

Before: an unpublished policy is an exclusion

A shopper asking for something returnable has stated a filter. A store whose returns terms are set in a graphic answers "does not say", which is treated as risk rather than as a neutral.

Three facts answer it: the window, who pays return postage, and any exclusions. All three are usually known and frequently unpublished in readable form. See how to publish policies as text, not images.

After: the buyer did not choose the item themselves

Somebody receiving an item selected by an agent on published facts has had no chance to form the impression a browsing shopper forms. Where your data was thin, the gap is discovered on arrival.

The failure modes are specific and unglamorous: sizing that runs differently from the stated measurement, a material that is not what a photograph implied, dimensions absent so the item does not fit.

Specification is the lever, not policy

The instinct is to tighten the policy. That reduces the returns you accept and also removes you from comparisons where returns generosity was the filter, so you lose twice.

Better specification reduces the returns that occur rather than the ones you honour. Dimensions with units, materials named, fit guidance stated, compatibility listed. See how to write product copy an agent can parse.

The mismatch worth auditing

Look at your existing return reasons. Anything appearing repeatedly that a published fact would have prevented is both a returns cost and a comparison you are probably losing for the same reason.