When undertaking an ecommerce project with your Ecommerce Website Design company you need to take some time to write the static content that will appear on it. This is standard information that should be on every ecommerce website. Below is a guide of the kind of information you should include:
Terms and Conditions
This is one of the essential pages on your website, stating the terms and conditions of the website and sale, most customers tick these as they go through checkout so it’s a good idea to make sure all your bases are covered. You should try to cover the following things:
General
This sets out the terms you will use in the terms and conditions and who they refer to and what the terms and conditions apply to. It will also state that the terms and conditions will not affect your customers statutory rights
Prices
This section will detail the currency the product will be sold in and detail that there may be need to alter the pricing on the website and occasionally prices may be incorrect.
Payment Options
A list of the Payment types accepted on the website and the payment provider used should be detailed here
Order Process
This section will detail the process the customer will go through to place an order and should stress the importance of a customer’s rectifying any errors before placing an order and what happens if the bank declines their card.
Order Confirmation
This part will tell the customer that they will receive confirmation of the order by email, that they should check it for errors.
Cancellation of Orders
This section should detail how a customer can cancel their order and their rights.
VAT & Duty
This section should detail that you charge VAT on items and how this works, but as this rate can change frequently you may choose not to actually display the current rate, to avoid having to update your terms frequently.
Content
In this section you may wish to state ownership of the content on the website and state any reproduction should be for personal use only.
Force Majeure
This section should state you are not responsible for delays that are outside your control.
Returns and Delivery Policy
Although these policies can be included in terms and conditions it is sometimes useful for customers to see a separate page clearly stating the delivery and returns.
In your returns policy, you should detail whether customers are eligible to return items under the distance selling regulations and the length of time they have to return an item and the method they should use and a returns address. You should also explain the process for the return of faulty goods.
For the delivery policy you should detail delivery times, costs and any surcharges that may be applied. It should also state who is responsible for the cost of products that get lost in the post. It is useful to the customer to also the list the countries you deliver to and the costs for delivery, so customers can check prior to placing an order
Privacy Policy
The privacy policy should detail how you intend to use customer’s data after it is provided; it is standard to say that it will only be used for legitimate business practices and will not be passed onto third parties. You should also state that you comply with the Data protection act and comply with it. You should therefore give customers the chance to see the details that you hold on them by written request. You may also wish to mention the cookies you store in addition to data on your website.
Security
This is not an essential page but can be very useful to reassure customers that they are dealing with a legitimate company. This page should detail how your payment provider deals securely with payment card information, mentioning the type of encryption used and how credit card details are stored. You can get the information needed from your payment provider and customers will feel more confident knowing their payment details are being handled securely.
Contact Us
This page usually has a contact form or email address put on by your development company, it is usually where a customer comes for information, so it is also useful to display your address and phone number here. You can also display your company details that should be on your website like your VAT number and your Companies House number.
About Us
You should have written some content for your homepage about your company, the about us page is an extension of this content and allows you to go into more detail about the history of your company and provide some background information. This page is also good for reassuring customers you are a legitimate business.
It is a good idea to think about this information and put it together before your web project has started as it will help you formulate how you want to get your business and website to run. Your web designer will usually put these pages on for you as they tend to change fairly infrequently and will need them when they are building the pages. You wouldn’t want to hold up your site launching for the sake of some text so it’s worth getting it written early and sent to your web design company as soon as possible. We also advise that your terms and conditions are checked by a legal professional in case there are any disputes with a customer.