The FTC 30-day shipping rule for online stores

The FTC's "30-day rule" says you may only promise a shipping time you have a reasonable basis for, and if you promise none, you must reasonably expect to ship within 30 days of a properly completed order. If you then can't ship on time, you must tell the customer before the deadline and let them choose between waiting and cancelling for a full, prompt refund.

Its formal name is the Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise Rule, and the text is 16 CFR Part 435. This article walks through it in the order a small store meets it. If you only need the wording of a delay email, start with the shipping delay email templates; this page is the rule behind them.

Who the rule covers

The FTC's guide says the rule "applies to most goods a customer orders from the seller by mail, telephone, fax, or on the Internet", and that it doesn't matter how the goods are advertised, how the customer pays, or who made contact first. A normal order on your online store is an Internet order.

It does not cover:

• services, such as the guide's example of mail-order photo-finishing;
• magazine subscriptions and similar serial deliveries, except the first shipment;
• seeds and growing plants;
• cash-on-delivery (C.O.D.) orders;
• sales covered by the FTC's Negative Option Rule, such as book and music clubs.

The guide also says sales on approval are not covered, because the customer doesn't pay until they have received and approved the goods.

Using a fulfilment house or a drop-shipper doesn't move the duty. The guide's answer to "who is liable" is one line: "The seller is."

The shipping time you may promise

You need a "reasonable basis" for any shipping time you state or imply, in an ad, on a product page, or in what support tells a customer. The rule defines it as information that "would under the circumstances satisfy a reasonable and prudent businessperson, acting in good faith". The guide lists what it looks at: anticipated demand, stock or supply, whether your fulfilment can handle the demand, and records.

Three points from the guide catch small stores out:

You say	What the guide says it means
Nothing about shipping time	You must reasonably expect to ship within 30 days.
"Ships in 48 hours"	You must ship, or send the delay notice, within 48 hours of the order.
"Ships in 48 hours most of the time"	You are held to 48 hours every time.
"In-stock items ship immediately"	Unless you tell the customer at ordering that the item is out of stock, you must ship, notify or cancel immediately.

A later statement replaces an earlier one. If support tells a customer "it'll go out in 72 hours", the FTC's guide says your compliance is judged against those 72 hours, not the 30 days.

If the customer applies to you for credit to pay for the order and you stated no time, you get 50 days instead of 30.

When the clock starts and stops

The clock starts when you receive a "properly completed order": the right payment, full or partial, together with all the information you need to fill it. When you deposit the money or when a cheque clears doesn't matter.

If a payment other than cash is dishonoured, or the customer is refused credit, the clock stops. It restarts at day one when the payment is honoured, the customer pays cash, or you learn they qualify for credit.

The clock ends at shipment, which the rule defines as "the act by which the merchandise is physically placed in the possession of the carrier." The 30 days are about handing the parcel over, not about the customer receiving it.

What to do when you can't ship on time

First decide whether you will ever be able to ship. If not, cancel and refund promptly. If you will, you must ask the customer to agree to the delay, and do it "reasonably quickly", so they have time to make a meaningful choice. Any means will do: email, phone, post. The notice can never go later than the time you promised, or 30 days if you promised none.

You can always skip the question and cancel instead, as long as you tell the customer and refund within the same time limit.

The first delay notice

The first notice, which the FTC calls the "delay option notice", must include:

• a definite revised shipment date, or a statement that you can't give one;
• that the customer can cancel and get a full and prompt refund if they don't want to wait;
• a way to cancel at your expense, such as a reply email or a page on your site;
• if you give no date: the reason for the delay, and that a customer who agrees to wait can still cancel at any time until you ship.

What silence means depends on the new date:

The notice gives	If the customer doesn't reply
A new date 30 days or less after the original	Treated as consent; the notice must say so.
A new date more than 30 days after the original	The order is cancelled automatically unless you ship, or the customer agrees to wait, within the original time plus 30 days. The notice must say so.
No date	The same as above, and the notice must also give the reason for the delay.

The guide's own sample wording for both cases is the basis of Templates 1 and 2 in the shipping delay email templates.

The second (renewed) delay notice

If you then miss the new date, you must send a renewed notice before that date passes. The difference that matters: the customer's silence can no longer count as consent. Unless they tell you they will wait, the order is cancelled and refunded if you haven't shipped by the date in the last notice.

The rule doesn't give wording for this one. A version that covers each required point:

Hi {{first_name}},

I'm sorry: your order {{order_number}} won't ship by {{previous_revised_date}}, the date in my last email. {{new_date_or_no_date_and_reason}}

Because this is a second delay, I need to hear from you to keep the order. If you'd like to wait, reply "keep" before {{previous_revised_date}}. If we haven't shipped by then and haven't heard from you, we'll cancel the order and refund you in full.

If you'd rather cancel now, reply "cancel" and I'll refund you straight away. If you choose to wait, you can still cancel at any time until it ships.

{{your_name}}

Before you send it, check in the order that it hasn't shipped, and the date your last notice gave. If the customer has already agreed to an indefinite delay after a proper first notice, the guide says no further notices are required.

Email counts; an order-status page alone doesn't

The guide answers both questions. A delay notice can go to the customer's email address: "Yes." A notice posted only on the customer's order-status page fails if the customer doesn't visit it in time, though the guide calls it "an excellent way to back up notification by another means."

When you must cancel and refund

You must cancel and refund, without being asked, when:

• the customer cancels before you ship;
• the customer didn't reply to a first notice of 30 days or less, and you haven't shipped by the new date or got their consent to a further delay;
• the customer didn't reply to a notice of more than 30 days, or of no date, and you haven't shipped within 30 days of the original shipment date;
• the customer agreed to a definite delay, and you missed that date without getting consent to more;
• you didn't ship or send the required notices on time;
• you decide you will never be able to ship.

How fast. Within seven working days after the order is cancelled for cash, cheque, money order, credit from a third-party creditor, or any other method except credit you extended yourself. If you did extend the credit, within one billing cycle.

How much. If you ship nothing, everything the customer paid, including shipping, handling and insurance. If you ship part of the order, the difference between what they paid and what the shipped items would have cost under your ordering terms. A flat shipping fee can be kept on a partial shipment; a fee that rises with the number or value of items must be reduced to match.

In what form. Money. The guide is explicit: "you cannot substitute credit toward future purchases, credit vouchers, or scrip."

Substitutes. Sending a similar item instead is not an option unless the customer expressly agrees first. The guide treats differences in design, style, colour, fabric or promoted use as material. Out-of-stock and backorder emails cover how to ask.

Records, penalties and state law

The rule doesn't require records, but if the FTC brings an action and you can't show the systems you use to comply, the rule creates a rebuttable presumption that you didn't. The guide suggests keeping, for each order: the date received, the content and date of any delay notice, the date of any cancellation, what shipped and when, and the date of any refund. In a shared inbox, the delay emails themselves are part of that record.

The FTC can sue for injunctions, civil penalties and consumer redress. The guide, edited in January 2025 for inflation-adjusted amounts, gives civil penalties of up to $53,088 per violation. It also notes that state agencies can act under state consumer protection laws, and the rule doesn't override state rules that give buyers equal or greater rights.

How Corresso fits

The rule is mostly about dates, and dates are what an AI drafting tool is most likely to invent. Corresso drafts a reply to every incoming email from the documents your store approved, such as your shipping page, and each fact in a draft cites its document. Rules in code hold any draft that contains an order number, tracking number or date the AI wrote itself. With Shopify connected, the customer's orders appear beside the email and one click fills the order details into the blanks. A person reads every draft and presses Send, and cancellations and refunds stay in your Shopify admin. See Corresso for Shopify stores.

This is a summary, not legal advice. Sources read on 20 October 2026.