Terms of service and buyer questions
Complete store policies are part of Shopify's published AI optimisation guidance, and terms of service is the one merchants most often leave drafted.
In short
- The product stays in Shopify Catalog, but assistants have less to match against when a shopper describes what they want.
- Found in 5% of the catalogs we scanned.
- This one needs a human decision, so Endcap finds and groups it but does not write it for you.
Why this weakens matching
Complete store policies are part of Shopify's own AI optimization guidance.
Complete store policies are part of Shopify's AI optimization guidance.
How common it is
This appeared in 5% of the stores we scanned, affecting 0.0% of all products scanned. These are brands with staff and agencies, so it is not a small-merchant problem.
The one most often left in draft
Of the three policies, terms of service is the one merchants most reliably leave unfinished, usually because it is the one that feels most like paperwork and least like commerce. Shopify generates a serviceable template, the merchant intends to have it reviewed, and it stays in draft for a year.
It is now part of the eligibility list for selling on ChatGPT, which changes the calculus. Publishing the template is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for having a lawyer look at it if your situation warrants that. It is the difference between being eligible for a sales channel and not, and leaving it drafted while waiting for a review that keeps being postponed is the more expensive of the two options.
How to check it yourself
- Open Settings, then Policies, and publish your terms of service.
The fix
Publish terms of service in your store settings.
How Endcap handles this
Endcap finds and groups every product with this problem and links each finding to the Shopify document behind it, but it does not write this one for you. Across the catalogs we scanned this affected 0.0% of products, which is the kind of number that is tedious by hand and quick in bulk.
The fix touches a field we deliberately do not automate. Endcap only ever writes vendor, product type and description, because those are the three where a wrong value is visible and reversible. Prices, identifiers, publication state and status are decisions with consequences a tool should not be making on your behalf.
Common questions
Why is this the one merchants forget?
Because it feels the most like paperwork and the least like commerce. Shopify generates a template, the merchant intends to have it reviewed, and it stays in draft for a year.
Should I publish the template before a lawyer sees it?
Publishing the template is not legal advice and not a substitute for review if your situation warrants it. It is also the difference between being eligible for a sales channel and not, and leaving it drafted while waiting for a review that keeps being postponed is the more expensive option.
Source: Shopify documentation
Check your own store
Enter your Shopify URL and see whether the public products we can inspect show these problems. No install required for the first scan.