Terms and conditions are not legal decoration. They are the document you point at when a customer says "you never told me that". Most disputes in online retail are not about dishonesty — they are about two people holding different assumptions. Written terms replace assumption with a rule both sides agreed to.
What they actually do for you
- Set the return window. Without a stated period, every return is a negotiation.
- Define who pays return delivery. The single most common argument in Nepali e-commerce.
- Limit your liability for delays outside your control — strikes, weather, courier failure.
- Establish when ownership passes to the buyer, which matters for damage claims.
- Protect your content — your photos and descriptions are yours.
What they must cover
Keep it readable. A page nobody understands protects nobody.
- Who you are — registered business name, address, contact.
- Pricing and taxes — whether VAT is included, and that prices can change.
- Payment methods accepted, including COD rules.
- Delivery — areas served, expected times, charges, what happens if nobody is home.
- Returns and refunds — window, condition required, who pays, how long a refund takes.
- Cancellations — until what point an order can be cancelled.
- Warranty, where relevant, and what voids it.
The separate privacy policy
If you collect names, phone numbers and addresses — you do — say what you collect, why, who you share it with (couriers, payment providers), and how someone asks you to delete it. This is increasingly expected in Nepal, and it costs nothing to be straight about.
Make consent visible
Terms that exist but are never shown are weak. Link them in the footer, and reference them at checkout so the buyer passes them before paying.
Do not copy a foreign store's page
Copied terms usually reference the wrong currency, wrong jurisdiction and consumer laws that do not apply here. Write yours around what you genuinely do — the delivery areas you actually serve and the return window you can actually honour. A short honest policy beats a long borrowed one.
The short version
Clear terms prevent most disputes before they start, and settle the rest quickly. Cover returns, delivery, payment, cancellation and liability in plain language, add a real privacy policy, and link both where buyers will pass them.
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