A quick refresher before we begin: what are terms and conditions? Terms and Conditions (also called ToS – Terms of Service, Terms of Use or EULA – End User License Agreement) set the way in which your service may be used, in a legally binding way. They are crucial for protecting your content from a copyright perspective as well as for protecting you from potential liabilities.

Why are terms and conditions important for eCommerce stores?

If you run an eCommerce website, terms and conditions are not only advisable but also often mandatory: customers must be made aware of the business owner’s rules relating to return, withdrawal or cancellation policies.

Specific instances where they might needed are where you:

need to make legally required disclosures related to consumer rights (especially withdrawal and cancellation rights);
have different user levels (eg. registered vs non-registered);
run a service or platform which allows users to sell or trade with other users;
facilitate or otherwise process payments and/or other sensitive user data;
want to set the rules for user behavior (including comments) and state grounds for termination of accounts;
participate in affiliate programs;
provide a product or service which can potentially cause harm if misused;
would like to have some legally enforceable control over, and set rules about, how your product, service or content may be used.

What should be included in Terms and Conditions for eCommerce stores

In general, a good Terms and Conditions document for an eCommerce store should contain the following clauses:

intellectual property/trademark protection;
account registration/termination;
product description;
pricing, payment and delivery terms (including shipping, returns, exchanges and cancellations);
user rights;
liability and indemnification;
common provisions (privacy policy, intellectual property rights, governing law, etc.);
dispute resolution.

Where to put them

A proper Terms and Conditions document won’t do your business any good if no one sees it: here’s why the best idea is to add it a link to your site’s footer so that it is always visible and accessible. In addition to the website’s footer, other advantageous locations to place Terms and Conditions links are signup and checkout forms.

Example of Terms and Conditions

The document below is an example of Terms and Conditions created with iubenda Terms and Conditions Generator. Click on the button to open the document:

Terms and Conditions

How iubenda can help you generate terms and conditions for your eCommerce store

Our Terms and Conditions Generator lets you to easily generate and manage Terms and Conditions that are professional, customizable from over 100 clauses, drafted by an international legal team, available in 11 languages, and up to date with the main international legislations.

See it in action:

It comes with:

guided set-up;
hundreds of possible personalizations;
legislation monitoring;
plug-and-go integrations for popular store platforms such as Shopify and WooCommerce;
pre-defined scenarios: buildable text modules for marketplace, affiliate programs, copyright, eCommerce, mobile, and more.

The solution is optimized for everything from eCommerce (including affiliate programs), blogs, and apps, to complex scenarios like marketplace and SaaS. Getting started is easy: simply create a free account, activate the Terms and Conditions within the dashboard (requires 1 Ultra license) and start generating.

Generate Terms and Conditions for your eCommerce store

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The solution to draft, update and maintain your Terms and Conditions. Optimised for eCommerce, marketplace, SaaS, apps & more.

How to Write Terms and Conditions for an eCommerce Store