Terms and Conditions for a Small Online Shop: A Plain-English UK Guide

Why your shop needs T&Cs (and what they can't do)

Terms and conditions are the contract between you and every customer: what they are buying, when the contract forms, how delivery and returns work, and where liability stops. Without written terms, disputes default to whatever a judge reconstructs from your emails.

One thing to understand first: UK consumer law is a floor, not a suggestion. Any clause that tries to give consumers less than their statutory rights is simply void - and saying "no refunds" to a consumer can itself be an unfair trading practice. Good T&Cs work with the law, not against it.

The four laws every UK online shop trades under

• Consumer Rights Act 2015: goods must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose, and as described. If not, the customer has a 30-day right to reject for a full refund, then rights to repair or replacement
• Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013: the distance-selling rules - mandatory pre-purchase information and the 14-day cooling-off period for most online orders
• E-Commerce Regulations 2002: your business name, geographic address, email address, and VAT number (if registered) must be easy to find on the site
• Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024: the new one - since April 2025 it bans fake reviews (you must take reasonable steps to keep them off your site) and "drip pricing" (mandatory fees revealed late in checkout), and lets the CMA fine breaches directly, up to 10% of global turnover

The 14-day cooling-off period, properly understood

Consumers buying online can change their mind within 14 days of receiving the goods, for any reason, and get a refund - including your basic outbound delivery cost. They then have 14 days to send items back, and you must refund within 14 days of receiving the return (or proof of postage). You can require the customer to pay return postage only if your T&Cs said so before purchase- silence means you pay.

The main exceptions, which your T&Cs should spell out if they apply to your products:

• Personalised or made-to-order items
• Perishable goods
• Sealed hygiene or health products once unsealed (cosmetics, earrings, underwear)
• Digital downloads once streaming/download has begun with the customer's acknowledged consent

Crucial detail: if you fail to tell customers about the cancellation right, the cooling-off period extends up to 12 months. The single most expensive T&C mistake a small shop can make is not mentioning it.

Cooling-off returns vs faulty goods - keep them separate

These are different rights and your T&Cs should treat them separately. Change-of-mind returns (cooling-off) can carry conditions like customer-paid postage. Faulty goods cannot: the Consumer Rights Act applies, the customer does not pay return postage, and within 30 days they choose the full refund. Shops that blur the two end up in chargebacks and small-claims letters.

What your T&Cs should actually contain

• Who you are: legal name, trading name, address, contact details
• Order process: when the contract forms - most shops say acceptance happens at dispatch, not at the order confirmation email, which protects you against pricing errors
• Pricing errors: the right to cancel an order made at an obviously wrong price before dispatch
• Prices and payment: what is included (VAT), what is not (delivery - shown before checkout, per the drip-pricing ban)
• Delivery: timescales, what happens on failed delivery, when risk passes to the customer
• Returns and cancellation: the 14-day right, your exceptions, who pays return postage, and the refund timeline - plus your goodwill policy if it is more generous
• Faulty goods: a short section reflecting Consumer Rights Act remedies
• Liability: capped sensibly - but never excluding what cannot be excluded (death or personal injury from negligence, fraud, consumers' statutory rights)
• Governing law: England and Wales (or Scotland / Northern Ireland as appropriate)

Make the terms actually bind

Terms only work if customers can see them before buying. Link them in the footer and at checkout; an unticked "I agree to the terms and conditions" checkbox at checkout is the cleanest evidence of acceptance. Pair them with a clear refund policy and shipping policy- the three documents together answer 90% of pre-sale customer questions, which is a conversion benefit as much as a legal one.

Frequently asked questions

Are terms and conditions legally required for an online shop?

Strictly, no single law says "publish T&Cs"- but the Consumer Contracts Regulations require you to give most of the same information before purchase anyway, and without terms you have no contractual protection. Every serious shop has them.

Can I refuse change-of-mind returns?

Not for most online sales to consumers - the 14-day cooling-off right is statutory. You can refuse only within the recognised exceptions (personalised, perishable, unsealed hygiene items, started digital downloads), and only if your terms flagged them.

Who pays return postage?

For change-of-mind returns, the customer - but only if your T&Cs said so before purchase. For faulty goods, always you.

Do the new fake-review rules affect small shops?

Yes. Since April 2025 the DMCC Act requires any shop displaying reviews to take reasonable steps to prevent fake ones, and bans hiding mandatory fees until late checkout. The CMA can fine breaches directly.