Terms & Conditions

For any online business which sells goods or services, a strong Terms and Conditions (T&C) agreement is just as important as choosing your site theme. However, T&C documents are often met with confusion by both businesses and consumers alike. Knowing what to include and how to approach writing them can be an intimidating prospect.

In this article, layout why T&C agreements are so important, and what you need to consider to give your business the best legal cover possible.

1. It provides legal protection

This might come as a surprise, but there is no legal requirement for eCommerce businesses to provide Terms and Conditions on their site. Because of this, many businesses make the mistake of thinking that T&C isn’t that important. But you risk leaving yourself open to legal action if you don’t have one.

Legal disputes cost a lot of time and money, and for the most part can be easily avoided if you put some pre-emptive groundwork in — i.e., your Terms and Conditions. When you set very clear rules of conduct, you can stave off a dispute before it happens. So, no matter what it is that you sell on your ecommerce site, you should make sure you are protected against any nasty surprises, such as misuse of your site or plagiarized content.

2. Your T&C can build customer trust

Being transparent with how you operate makes you much more trustworthy to consumers, compared with you having no Terms and Conditions available at all. This is important because trust is among the biggest concerns that consumers have when it comes to online purchases. Having well-crafted T&C could well be the difference between your customer choosing you over a competitor.

3. Terms of sale

This part of your T&C should set out clear terms on how products can be purchased, whether there are any restrictions e.g. the restriction of sale for age-restricted products and services, and what happens in the event that a product cannot be supplied.

HBO’s E-commerce T & C outlines this quite well. Its “Terms of Sale” section mentions that by placing orders on the site, the customers represent that they are of legal age and that the information they provide is true and accurate. The terms also mention that HBO takes steps to verify customer information prior to accepting and order and that the company has the right to accept, modify, or decline orders.

4. Payment terms

This is where you will cover any terms relating to the payment of the product/service you sell. This is one of the biggest areas of liability for your business, so you need to make sure that your customers understand the expectations surrounding online transactions.

The payment terms section of your site should include:

• The payment methods we accept Western Union/MoneyGram and Bank Transfer.
• Missed/late payment conditions
• How you will handle refunds/returns
• How you will handle payment disputes