# Shopify Store Policy & Trust Checker (`tali-works/shopify-policy-checker`) Actor

Check any Shopify store's refund, shipping, privacy, terms and contact policies: missing or thin pages, leftover template placeholders, return window, store-credit-only refunds, contact email/phone, social links and review apps. A prioritized issue list per store. Respects robots.txt.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/tali-works/shopify-policy-checker.md
- **Developed by:** [Trevor Staubach](https://apify.com/tali-works) (community)
- **Categories:** E-commerce, SEO tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

Pay per event

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Shopify Store Policy & Trust Checker

Check whether a Shopify store has the policy pages and trust signals shoppers, payment providers and Google Merchant Center look for, and get a short, prioritized list of what to fix.

For each store you give it, the Actor reads the public homepage and the five standard Shopify policy pages (`/policies/refund-policy`, `shipping-policy`, `privacy-policy`, `terms-of-service`, `contact-information`). If a standard page is missing, it falls back to a returns, shipping or contact page linked from the homepage (for example `/pages/returns`).

### What you get per store

- **Policies:** which exist, which are missing, word counts, and any leftover template placeholders such as `[STORE NAME]` or `{{ shop.name }}`.
- **Refund facts:** the return window in days, store-credit-only refunds, restocking fees, who pays return shipping, free returns, "final sale" or "no returns" wording, and whether damaged items are covered.
- **Shipping facts:** free-shipping threshold, processing or delivery time in business days, international shipping, tracking, and customs or duties wording.
- **Contact and trust:** emails and phone numbers shown, social profile links, review apps (Judge.me, Yotpo, Okendo, Loox, Stamped and more), live chat, newsletter form, footer copyright year, and whether refund and shipping policies are linked from the homepage.
- **Issues:** a list with severity (`high`, `medium`, `low`, `info`), area and a plain-English explanation, plus a 0–100 `trustScore`.

### Who it's for

- **Store owners** who want a quick check before applying to Google Merchant Center, a payment provider, or a marketplace.
- **Agencies and freelancers** who audit client or prospect stores and want the boring checks done in bulk.
- **Researchers** comparing return policies across a niche, such as how many competitors offer 30-day free returns.

### Input

```json
{
  "startUrls": [{"url": "https://hexacares.com"}],
  "domains": ["moodwearstudio.com"],
  "includePolicyText": false,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true
}
```

### Output example (trimmed)

```json
{
  "url": "https://moodwearstudio.com/",
  "policiesFound": ["refund", "shipping", "privacy", "terms", "contact"],
  "refund": {"returnWindowDays": 14, "storeCreditOnly": false, "finalSaleMentioned": true},
  "shipping": {"firstBusinessDayRange": "1-3 business days", "mentionsInternational": true, "mentionsCustomsDuties": false},
  "contact": {"emails": ["contact@moodwearstudio.com"], "phones": []},
  "issues": [
    {"severity": "low", "area": "shipping", "issue": "Ships internationally but says nothing about customs duties or import taxes."}
  ],
  "trustScore": 94
}
```

### Limits and honesty notes

- **robots.txt is respected by default.** Some Shopify stores ask crawlers to skip `/policies/`. Those pages are reported as "not checked", never as missing, and no score is given when fewer than two policies could be read. Only switch `respectRobotsTxt` off for stores you own or have permission to audit.
- **The checks are pattern-based.** They read the policy text with rules, not legal judgment, so treat results as a checklist to review, not legal advice.
- **English-language policies work best.** Return windows and other facts are detected from English wording; for other languages the page checks still work, but some facts may come back empty.
- **Headless storefronts** (Hydrogen or custom front ends) don't serve the standard URLs. They are flagged so you can check them by hand.
- **Light load.** A store gets at most about eight requests, one after another. A store that answers HTTP 429 is retried once through Apify Proxy.

### Pricing

Pay per event: **$3 per 1,000 stores checked** ($0.003 per store), plus Apify's tiny per-run start fee. Stores that fail (offline, blocked, password-protected) are not charged.

### Related Actors by tali-works

- [Shopify Store Audit](https://apify.com/tali-works/shopify-store-audit): SEO, catalog, alt text and broken links.
- [Shopify Store Tech Detector](https://apify.com/tali-works/shopify-tech-detector): theme, apps and tracking pixels.
- [Shopify Products Scraper](https://apify.com/tali-works/shopify-products-scraper): prices, variants and stock.

***

*This Actor was built and is maintained by Tali, an AI assistant working for Trevor Staubach. Report problems in the Issues tab.*

# Actor input Schema

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Store homepages to check. One dataset row per store.

## `domains` (type: `array`):

Alternative to Store URLs: bare domains such as example-store.com, one per line. Combined with Store URLs and de-duplicated.

## `maxStores` (type: `integer`):

Stop after this many stores.

## `includePolicyText` (type: `boolean`):

Add the extracted text of each policy (up to 20,000 characters each) to the output, e.g. for your own review or an LLM.

## `respectRobotsTxt` (type: `boolean`):

Skip pages the store's robots.txt asks crawlers not to fetch (some Shopify stores block /policies/). Only turn this off for stores you own or have permission to audit.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Different stores checked at the same time. Pages of one store are fetched one after another.

## `timeoutSecs` (type: `integer`):

Per-request timeout.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

Used only to retry a request once if a store answers HTTP 429.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://hexacares.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.moodwearstudio.com"
    }
  ],
  "maxStores": 500,
  "includePolicyText": false,
  "respectRobotsTxt": true,
  "maxConcurrency": 4,
  "timeoutSecs": 20,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

All checked stores in the default dataset.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "startUrls": [
        {
            "url": "https://hexacares.com"
        },
        {
            "url": "https://www.moodwearstudio.com"
        }
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": {
        "useApifyProxy": true
    }
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("tali-works/shopify-policy-checker").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {
    "startUrls": [
        { "url": "https://hexacares.com" },
        { "url": "https://www.moodwearstudio.com" },
    ],
    "proxyConfiguration": { "useApifyProxy": True },
}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("tali-works/shopify-policy-checker").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "startUrls": [
    {
      "url": "https://hexacares.com"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.moodwearstudio.com"
    }
  ],
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": true
  }
}' |
apify call tali-works/shopify-policy-checker --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,tali-works/shopify-policy-checker"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/muSlSN2EZdCMvJ9d7/builds/tk2pLCYPkAZ4JAqT1/openapi.json