What needs to go into a Terms and Conditions page for your retail website

22 June 2011

The Terms and Conditions page of your retail website needs to include certain notices about credit card use, refunds and returns which are known as ‘transaction conditions’. An example of this could be that you only accept returns up to 30 days after they have been purchased.

You need to also make clear that you reserve the right to change your ‘terms and conditions’ at any time. Another inclusion would be disclaimers, which are statements to the customers that you are not liable for certain types of losses which may occur, an example being that anything purchased that later gets damaged in transport when being returned to you via a third party.You will need a privacy policy to include credit card information and how you will be using the information that you collect from customers. You must make very clear how the information will be kept securely at all times and only used for internal reasons such as customer reference data or contact information between you and the individual customer.

You should also include a section which refers to ordering goods from your website and what the procedure covers. You should also include any copyright notices about trademarks or brands of the goods you sell whether they are your own brand or other brands that you sell on your website.

If you have a blog or comments section on your page you will need to limit your liability, by informing anyone who uses these that all postings will be monitored, any suspect postings will be removed and your disclaimer should make it perfectly clear that you do not endorse or are responsible for the accuracy or reliability of statements made by third parties on your website.

By doing this you are covering yourself to a certain extent should things go wrong and someone takes court action out against anyone they feel has written anything defamatory about them.

If you are using a third party delivery service you must state that you are not responsible for any goods once they have left your depot should they get lost or damaged before they are delivered. You must make it very clear that the responsibility falls with the shippers only and not you in any way.

If you are selling goods which attract minors to your website you must include a sections which covers you and these are very specific rules which must be adhered to at all times. The best place to find ‘Protecting Minors’ information is to go online and visit the relevant government websites which deal with these kinds of issues.

If you have any doubts as to how to put all the information into the correct terminology then the best option is to download a sample of Terms and Conditions from the Internet. These down loads are usually free and cover most of the legal points which you would need to apply to your website. You may need to adjust a few things but the format is laid out correctly and in a manner which is easy to understand.