Sandra Wrobel-Konior — April 15, 2017 
Running an online business and selling products or services online comes with some inevitable paperwork. The compliance process may take a few weeks, but when you prepare for it wisely, you can shorten it and avoid unnecessary mistakes.
Online business owners need to ensure that their websites comply with banks’ or payment processors’ regulations. It’s better to make all the changes needed before the entire process start to make it go quickly and smoothly.
In this article, we will discuss a few must-haves you should include on your page.
Transparent Terms and Conditions
The terms and conditions agreement is not only for customers but also highly important for protecting your business by making sure customers know their rights and responsibilities.
It helps you avoid customer uncertainty and misunderstandings, so it should be written with absolute clarity about what should be done in any given situation. Consumers should be informed about all the issues that come with shipping and delivery, the return policy, and the privacy policy as well as information about pricing, payment, taxes, and so on.
Here is what you should include in your terms and conditions.
Customer Rights and Responsibilities
- A privacy policy with clear information about the use of personal or sensitive data. Specify what information you collect from your customers and what you do with it.Define what information is saved or transferred to third party applications. Also, if you gather data from a mailing list, provide instructions on how to opt-out of the list and how customers can correct or remove their data.Remember that customers will share their credit card details and sensitive information, so you have to do your best to keep that information secure
- Payment and pricing details with all taxes or extra fees included and the list of payment methods accepted on your website. You can also add information about how late or missed payments will be handled or what will be done in the case of payment disputes.
- A refund policy. The point is to make it as clear as possible for users so they know what to do with items bought on your website. In the EU, merchants have to replace, repair, or issue a refund if the products or services are not as described or don’t work properly.
- An opt-out policy to make it clear that customers can resign from your services. They can cancel or return the ordered product or service within 14 days for any reason and without any consequences.
Delivery and Shipping
In the case of shipping physical goods, include a clear statement of the delivery time frame.
Dispute Resolution Details and the Website’s Legal Liability
It’s better to include this information in your terms and conditions agreement to make it easy to resolve situations where a customer is not satisfied and asks for compensation.
Remember that your terms and conditions should follow consumer laws and cover things like the right to receive a refund. Of course, consumer laws apply even when you don’t put them in the terms and conditions on your website, but you can, for instance, limit your liability.
Imprint on Your Website
Putting contact information on your site is mandatory, so you need to include full contact details, such as:
- the company name,
- physical address,
- email address or phone number.
You can also include the information about available for after-sales services or VAT details.
Clear Product Descriptions
The content on your website needs to be updated and consistent. You have to especially be sure that each product or service you sell comes with a clear and understandable description that is not misleading.
Checkout Process on Your Page
If you want to sell online, you need to put a payment gateway in place. When your page is undergoing the compliance process, the bank rep will check how the payment flows from the customer perspective.
What if you’re just at the start and don’t have a payment solution on your page yet? You can add payments in test mode to make it possible to check the process.
Note that the checkout page should always be encrypted via an HTTPS connection. The payment page should include clear information about pricing with all taxes or extra fees included, as well as all payment details.
You should also display logos of card brands to keep users informed about what payment methods are accepted on your website.
Make the Compliance Process Less Painful
To sum up, before you start the compliance process, make sure your website includes:
- A terms and conditions agreement with a clear refund policy, privacy policy, and shipment details.
- An imprint including the company name, physical business address, and telephone number or email address.
- Credit card logos on the payment page.
- Updated content on a finished and fully functional website.
- Clear and transparent pricing.
- A payment gateway implemented on the website (if you are just starting, it can be a payment solution in test mode).
In general, your website needs to be in up and running condition. You can also think about including a FAQ page that summarizes all the information needed, but it’s not required.
The whole process could be time-consuming, but when you take the proper steps, it will definitely be less painful.
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