Ecommerce terms and conditions: what UK online shops need to know

First: general information, not legal advice

We design and build online shops, so we know where terms, policies and legal information need to appear in a store and how they affect the buying journey. We are not solicitors. This guide explains what ecommerce terms are, what UK law expects in general terms and what to ask a legal adviser. It does not replace advice on your own business.

Consumer law changes, and the details depend on what you sell, to whom and where. Wherever we mention legislation, we link to the official text on legislation.gov.uk or guidance on GOV.UK so you can read the source yourself.

Do you need terms and conditions for an online shop?

There is no general rule that a shop must publish a document called terms and conditions. But the law does require you to give consumers a substantial amount of information before they order, such as who you are, the total price, delivery arrangements and how to cancel, and to confirm it afterwards. Clear terms of sale are the most practical way to do that consistently, and they protect you where the law leaves room, for instance on order acceptance, pricing errors or how returns are handled.

Without terms, you rely entirely on the default legal position, which says nothing about your delivery promises, stock availability or the moment a contract is formed.

Terms of sale, website terms of use and the other documents

People searching for terms and conditions for a website often mean different things. An online shop usually needs several separate documents, each with its own job.

What ecommerce terms usually cover

The exact content depends on your products and customers, but most UK terms of sale address these points:

1. Who you are: trading name, legal entity, registered address, company number if you are a limited company, contact details and VAT number if registered.
2. How a contract is formed: whether the order confirmation or the dispatch email is the acceptance, and what happens if an item is out of stock.
3. Prices and payment: prices including VAT for consumers, accepted payment methods and how obvious pricing errors are handled.
4. Delivery: areas served, timescales, costs and what happens if delivery fails.
5. Cancellation and returns: the statutory cancellation period, how to cancel, who pays return postage, refund timing and any exceptions.
6. Faulty goods: how customers report problems and what remedies apply.
7. Liability: sensible limits, worded so they do not attempt to remove rights the law protects.
8. Complaints: how to complain and how you respond.
9. Personal data: a reference to your privacy notice rather than repeating it.
10. Governing law: which law applies, keeping in mind that England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate legal systems.

Consumer rights your terms cannot remove

Terms give you room, but not unlimited room. When you sell to consumers, the law protects them against terms that are too one-sided.

Cancellation under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013

Under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, consumers buying goods online can generally cancel within 14 days of receiving them, without giving a reason. If you fail to tell them about this right, the cancellation period can be extended considerably. There are exceptions, for example goods made to the customer's specifications, perishable goods and sealed items that cannot be returned for health or hygiene reasons once unsealed. The regulations include a model cancellation form in Schedule 2.

Quality and remedies under the Consumer Rights Act 2015

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires goods to be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described. Consumers have a short-term right to reject faulty goods, then rights to repair or replacement and, failing that, a price reduction or final rejection. Your terms cannot exclude these rights. The Act also generally leaves goods at your risk until the customer physically has them, so a clause shifting delivery risk to consumers will not work.

Fairness and transparency

Part 2 of the Act makes unfair terms in consumer contracts non-binding on the consumer, and expects terms to be transparent and prominent. Where a term is ambiguous, the interpretation most favourable to the consumer generally applies. The Competition and Markets Authority's guidance on unfair contract terms gives practical examples. Plain English is a legal advantage, not only a stylistic one.

Showing your terms properly at checkout

Well-written terms can lose their force if they are not presented properly. The Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002 require that terms be made available in a way the customer can store and reproduce, and the distance-selling rules expect confirmation in a durable form. In practice, a well-built shop:

• links to the terms clearly before the customer places the order, close to the payment button;
• makes it plain that pressing the button means an obligation to pay;
• includes the terms, or a link to the version in force, in the order confirmation email;
• keeps a permanent link in the footer and dates each version, so you know which terms applied to which order;
• keeps delivery times, costs and return periods identical across product pages, checkout, emails and terms.

These are details we build into every store as standard; our page on ecommerce website design explains our approach, and Shopify web design covers how this works on that platform.

Selling to businesses, or to both

If you sell only to businesses, consumer rights such as the 14-day cancellation period generally do not apply, and you have more freedom to agree terms on payment, delivery and liability. That freedom has limits: exclusion and limitation clauses in business contracts are tested for reasonableness under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977.

If you sell to both consumers and trade customers, keep the two sets of terms separate and make it clear which applies, for example through trade accounts that accept business terms at sign-up. Our page on B2B ecommerce covers how trade portals handle this in practice.

Templates, copying and selling abroad

It is tempting to borrow another shop's terms. Resist it. They describe someone else's processes, may be out of date and the text may be protected by copyright. A reputable template from a trade body or legal publisher is a reasonable starting point, provided you adapt it to how you actually operate and have it reviewed.

If you sell to consumers in the EU or elsewhere, the consumer protections of the customer's country can apply alongside or instead of the law you choose in your terms. Translations must say the same thing as the English version. Ask a solicitor familiar with cross-border selling before you open international delivery.

Drafting your terms in six steps

1. Map your processes: how orders are accepted, paid, packed, delivered, returned and refunded.
2. Decide who you sell to: consumers, businesses or both, and in which countries.
3. Start from a reliable source: a reputable template or a solicitor's draft.
4. Align with the shop: delivery times, costs and return periods must match what the site says everywhere.
5. Have them reviewed by a legal adviser who knows UK consumer law.
6. Publish properly with a version date, and review whenever your processes or the law change.

Starting from scratch? Our guide on how to start an online shop places terms within the wider launch plan, and our guide to ecommerce website costs shows where legal set-up fits in a build budget.