1. Products Or Services Provided
There should be no doubt in the mind of your customer as to what services you offer or what the products you supply are - a detailed definition should be included here. For instance, if you sell electronic toys but don’t include batteries, stipulate this as part of your Ts & Cs.
Where appropriate, make sure your terms and conditions include the minimum duration of any contracts that may exist for the supply of goods or services on a permanent or recurring basis.
2. Prices And Payment
You should clearly state your prices, or where to find them – such as on the applicable products. Whether the prices include applicable VAT should also be noted as part of your terms and the period for which any offer or price remains valid.
Any appropriate shipping costs should be noted here. Additionally, you should state when payment is due and what happens in the instance that payment is not received.
3. Shipping And Delivery
Shipping Policy
Where you ship products, you should include information about the expected timeframe and your responsibility. This may involve mentioning that shipping is handled by third parties and the applicable responsibility they share where this is the case. What happens in the instance that the order is not delivered should be expressed here too.
Delivery Timeframes
Related to shipping policy, you should usually disclose the delivery timeframe – how long from the order being received can your customer expect to receive their products? Where there are different timeframes for different products, such as where fabrication time is longer for bespoke items, this should be accounted for and made explicit.
You may also want to indicate what will happen in the instance that delivery is delayed for any reason, and how, if at all, this will be communicated to customers.
4. Returns, Refunds And Complaints
Returns And Refunds Policy
While hopefully, it won’t happen very often, you must include your returns policy on your website. This should be easily accessible, so many merchants choose to include this as part of their Ts & Cs and found either on their main menu or in the website's footer. The policy should clearly indicate the refund and return process for your customers.
Set out steps the customer should follow to return the product and any other requirements such as condition and proof of purchase necessary. Explicitly indicate who is responsible for covering any postage costs. You should also state the turnaround time for your customers to receive the refund and the form that this will take.
Certain items may not be eligible for return, and may only be refundable in the event of a fault, so be sure to mention those exceptions here – handmade items or items sold as part of a sale are examples of this. State if you are unable to provide substitute goods or services (as the case may be) of equivalent quality and price.