When you run an online business, it may be essential for your website to display legal information on your terms of services, privacy policy, shipping terms, etc. This article will guide you how to add this information to your store and explain about each page and why it is important for an online store or site to have them.
Add Legal Pages to Store
Store allows creating the following legal pages:
- Legal Info
- Terms
- Revocation Policy
- Privacy Policy
- Shipping Cost/Payment Info
To add legal pages:
- Go to the store control panel, and click Settings.
- Click General, and then click Legal Pages.
- Next to the Legal Pages you want to display, click Enable.
- Click Edit.
- The legal pages are shown by clicking the terms & conditions link at check out.
The pages links will be automatically attached and shown in your Starter Site and Facebook shop, at the bottom of each store page.
How to obtain links to legal pages?
If you run Store on a site, you will be able to place these links to any spot on your site:
- Enter your Starter Site, check the bottom of a page for the legal pages links,
- Click on a link and check your browser address bar. Copy the part of the link starting from
#!/. Each page will have its own ending. For example, a Store with “example.com” as the URL and "shop" as the name of the page with the main Store widget, the URLs will be:- Terms and conditions:
www.example.com/shop/pages/terms - Return policy:
www.example.com/shop/pages/returns - Privacy policy:
www.example.com/shop/pages/privacy-policy
- Terms and conditions:
- Open your site and enter your Store store page; get the URL from your address bar and append the copied part to it. This merged URL is now the URL to your privacy page.
- Place this URL on your site. Exact instructions depend on what platform or content management system your site is using.
Which legal pages do I need for my site? What content do I need to have?
Which legal pages you need and what content they display depend on your business type, what you sell, what regulations are imposed by your government, and so on. You should look through your site and store content and evaluate what type of legal information you need. You may want to hire a lawyer for a consultation, to make sure you will meet all regulations.
Suggested Content for Legal Pages
Terms and Conditions
Or simply TOS. It is a document that explains the rules for using your site/store, what is allowed and what is disallowed. You may want to include the following items:
- copyright for the material offered on the website and store pages, trademark,
- ownership of the site,
- requirements to use the store, e.g., whether the registration is required
Return Policy
This is a document specifying your terms for refunds and product returns.
Privacy Policy
You need to let your customers know what information your store collects and how it will be used. Customers want to know if their contact information will be anyhow exposed to 3rd parties, sold, or use for newsletters. By providing a clear explanation on this matter, you will be sure to increase liability among your clients.
The Privacy Policy clarifies what information is collected through your website and store. This may include:
- use of cookies
- how you process personal information like email, address, name, etc.
- whether you distribute this information to any 3rd party and if so what for
Shipping Cost/Payment Info
Shipping cost page will explain your delivery policy and may include the following information:
- what items are allowed for shipment
- to what regions you deliver your goods
- terms of delivery
- estimated shipping
- how to handle returns
Payment info should cover all possible questions about payment methods in your store. The store allows you to offer several payment options to your customers. If you have specific requirements or instructions on how to pay, it is good to explain it to your clients.
Additionally, you can append payment instructions to each payment method you have in your store. The instructions will be shown at checkout once the customer selects a payment method. The instructions are set up in the store control panel → System Settings → Payment.
There are a number of online tools generating various templates for privacy policies, terms of user, etc. You can use these services to get the content for your legal pages that would be streamlined and up to date. For example, https://termsfeed.com, http://www.iubenda.com.
How to enable customers to agree to the store terms before checkout.
Usually, customers are prompted to accept the terms and conditions prior to making a purchase. So you can enable “Terms and Conditions” checkbox. It will show checkbox I agree with Terms and Conditions above the Checkout button. The Terms and Conditions will be a link opening a popup window displaying the page text.
The window will also contain links to the other legal pages that you have enabled in your store control panel.
To change how your Terms and Conditions display:
In the left panel, click Sell Online, and then click Manage Store.
Click Settings and select General.
Click LegalPages tab.
Click Edit next to Terms and Conditions.
From the Show dropdown menu, select either in popup window or on separate URL.
Click Save.