How to write Terms and Conditions for Shopify

Terms and Conditions is one of the most important legal documents that Shopify stores must add to their website. It ensures that users have rules on how to use your services, protects you from liability, and gives you a legal standing.

While crafting Terms and Conditions may seem difficult, it’s much simpler when you know what to include and how. In this guide, we’ll explain how to write Terms and Conditions specifically for Shopify stores that want to protect their business.

What are the Terms and Conditions?

Terms and Conditions, also known as Terms of Service or Terms of Use, are a legally binding contract between a business and the user of its services.

The purpose of a Terms and Conditions document is to explain the obligations and rules users must consent to before they use a service (e.g., a website or app).

Why are Terms and Conditions important for Shopify stores?

Terms and Conditions are important for both businesses and users because they protect both parties from misconduct. Here are the main reasons it’s important for Shopify stores:

• Abuse prevention – having a legal document of terms and conditions can help you stay secure from abuse, reserving the right to terminate accounts.
• Protection from copyright – you can add an Intellectual Property clause into the contract to protect your Shopify site, logo, and content from copyright.
• Allows account termination – with a Terms and Conditions document, you reserve the right to terminate accounts when needed.
• Limits liability – if your site goes down for some time or users find errors in your content, the Terms and Conditions help you limit liability.
• Sets governing law – Terms and Conditions lets you set the legal jurisdiction for your business.

Meanwhile, for users, the Terms and Conditions provide transparency about data usage, refund policies, and other areas. While recent research is limited, the UK government website found that between 20% and 24% of users don’t read Terms and Conditions at all.

Another study published by Elsevier found that when users read the Terms and Conditions of mobile apps, they changed their decisions on using the service.

How to write a Terms and Conditions for Shopify step by step

Writing Terms and Conditions for your Shopify store requires understanding what laws apply to you and what clauses you should include.

1. Understand the governing law and legal compliance

Depending on where your business is registered, the governing law of that jurisdiction will apply. For example, if you’re based in California, the governing law will be the California state law.

Depending on what you’re selling, there are also different laws that you may have to comply with and reflect those requirements in your Terms and Conditions.

We often notice that Shopify store owners look for laws that apply to their own country, but note that they depend on the user location, not the business location.

Here are a few of the laws and who they apply to based on jurisdiction or product types:

Multiple laws can apply to your business. For example, if you’re selling cosmetics in the EU, you have to comply with both the EU Cosmetics Regulation and the GDPR.

If you’re unsure whether a specific law applies to you, consult a compliance specialist or a lawyer.

2. Choose how to write Terms and Conditions

There are multiple ways you can write Terms and Conditions for your Shopify business – using a generator or writing from scratch.

Shopify Terms and Conditions generator:

Shopify has a Terms and Conditions generator that’s easy to use and makes writing the contract faster. If you’re already a registered Shopify user, you can simply insert the template in your account settings, under the “Policies” section.

When we tried generating a template for our test store, it took no longer than 2 seconds:

The template includes the main sections a Shopify store would have to cover, but always review if it applies to your business. For example, we found that it doesn’t have a dispute resolution, affiliate link, or user contributions clauses. If that’s something that you need to include, you’d need to write it manually.

Keep in mind that Shopify puts a general template for every store, so they even add a disclaimer that it’s not legal advice.

Writing from scratch:

If you write a Terms and Conditions document yourself, you’ll have a unique contract that is customized to your exact business practices. It’s best for businesses that have unique needs, such as selling internationally or having complex subscription models.

We’ve written Terms and Conditions for Shopify stores, so we know that it’s time-consuming, especially if you don’t have prior experience with writing them.

Avoid copying your competitor’s Terms and Conditions, but you can definitely use them as an example. Their jurisdiction or legal needs may be different, but you can use it as a template to know the main sections to insert.

3. Choose the clauses to include

Your Terms and Conditions should reflect how your business operates, so you’ll need to include specific clauses.

There are some clauses that every store should include, such as introduction, prohibited activities, governing law, intellectual property, pricing terms, returns, and shipping policy.

But some clauses depend on what kind of business you run. You can review the “What should Terms and Conditions include for Shopify stores” section to know what you could include and how exactly you can write each section.

4. Add the Terms and Conditions to Shopify

You can add a Terms and Conditions page on Shopify by creating a policy in your Shopify Admin settings. Here’s how:

1. In Shopify Admin, go to Settings > Policies.
2. Click on Terms of Service and add your Terms and Conditions text, or press Insert template to generate an automatic policy.
3. Press Save.

What should Terms and Conditions include for Shopify stores

The exact sections that need to be included in Terms and Conditions depend on your business operations. You can review the main sections to include and their examples below.

1. Introduction

Start your Terms and Conditions with a brief introduction. Mention what the agreement governs, who provides the content, what services it encompasses, and the geographic scope.

Make sure that the introduction clearly states that by using your Shopify site or services, users agree to these terms.

Here’s an example of Apple’s introduction of Terms and Conditions:

2. Effective date and update date

Inserting an effective date into your Terms and Conditions lets everyone know when the agreement becomes binding. If you suddenly update the document, the date also allows users and the court to know which version is the old one.

Usually, the effective date is added at the top of the page. Here’s how Starbucks has added it:

You can also include the update date. It’s useful when the date you upload the update and the day it takes effect are different.

3. Changes to the agreement

With time, you may have to make changes to the agreement. Whether it’s something as simple as including additional services or making other changes, you have to reserve the right to apply these changes.

Here’s an example of how you could write it:

“We reserve the right to update these Terms at any time. If you continue to use our services after the changes become effective, it means you accept these Terms.”

You can also find an example below of how YouTube explains changes to its policy:

They provide reasons why they may change this agreement, and communicate that they’ll give you prior notice (and exceptions). If users disagree, they should remove uploaded content and stop using the service.

4. Prohibited activities

To ensure that users don’t abuse your Shopify site, you should include terms that explain what is deemed prohibited.

Some general prohibited activities that can apply to most Shopify stores:

• Using the website for any unlawful purpose
• Attempts to get unauthorized access to any part of the website
• Copying or distributing content without your permission
• Doing anything that could interfere with the website’s functionality
• Sharing offensive, abusive, or threatening content on the website
• Deleting copyright or trademark notices

The exact prohibited activities to include depend on your business. Let’s take a look at how the Patagonia clothing brand writes this section:

Patagonia uses bullet points to separate prohibited behaviors, which makes it easy for users to scan through.

5. Clause on user contributions

If you’re running a Shopify business where users can create their own content, like print-on-demand, then you can include a user contributions clause.

It tells users what rights they have regarding the content that they create on your site or platform.

For example, you can see how the Canva online graphic design tool writes a clause on user content:

Canva clearly states that you have full ownership of your content, so they can’t sell it or claim it as theirs. However, they still reserve the right to copy and handle your work for operating their service behind the scenes.

6. Intellectual Property disclosing

Using an intellectual property disclosure provides users with information on what is copyrighted and trademarked on your website and services.

It protects your brand and content, so no one else can copy, reproduce, or redistribute it.

Here’s an example of how Shopify writes its own intellectual property disclosure:

7. Dispute resolutions clause

In case of disputes, you need to outline how your business and users handle disagreements. It helps save money and time on expensive courts by first trying to resolve matters informally.

Here’s a quick example of a clause you could adapt to your Shopify store:

“In case of a dispute related to these Terms and Conditions, please attempt to resolve it by reaching out to us through our Contact Us section and explaining the dispute. If we fail to resolve the dispute informally, it shall be handled formally in accordance with the rules of…”

You can also review how the NordVPN Virtual Private Network provider wrote the dispute resolution clause in their agreement:

8. Governing law clause

Providing a governing law clause in your Terms and Conditions helps define which country’s or region’s laws apply to the agreement and disputes related to it.

You should ensure that the governing law is aligned with what is mentioned in your dispute resolution clause.

Here’s an example of how a governing law clause could look:

“These Terms shall be governed in accordance with the laws of [Region/State/Country], without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any legal action related to these Terms has to be brought in the courts located in [Location].”

9. Price and payment terms

Adding a payment terms clause provides information to users about pricing, billing cycles, payment methods, and unexpected payment failures. For Shopify stores that sell products, this section is necessary.

The main terms you should include:

• Pricing – communicate where users can confirm the pricing of products and reserve the right to change them.
• Currency – if you sell products to an international audience, then communicate what currency the transactions will be processed in.
• Additional costs – mention whether the presented prices include taxes, shipping, and other costs.
• Foreign currency – if users buy products using a different currency, then you can disclose that exchange rates may apply.
• Import duties – disclose who is responsible for local import duties.
• Accepted payment methods – you can list all the accepted payment methods on your store, such as Mastercard, PayPal, Visa, or Google Pay.
• Payment collection – specify when payments are collected.

10. Returns and refund information

Your Terms and Conditions should outline how you handle returns and refunds. You don’t have to expand in this section; you can simply link to a separate Returns policy page.

But if you want to provide the main information in Terms and Conditions, then you can mention whether you offer full or partial refunds, in what cases, and under what conditions the product should be returned.

Don’t forget to consider the laws that may apply to your business, like the EU Consumer Rights Directive. If you’re selling online to people in the EU, you must provide a 14-day right to return a product (exceptions apply, like perishable goods or digital content).

You can see an example of the H&M clothing brand return section below.

11. Shipping policy

Just like with the Return policy, you should also include a Shipping policy in your Terms and Conditions. You can explain the general information about shipping and delivery, or you can simply add a link to your Shipping policy.

12. Privacy clause

Including a privacy clause will help users quickly find out how your Shopify business collects and processes user data.

You must write a separate privacy policy for your Shopify store and include information about your data processing practices based on applicable privacy laws.

For example, businesses in the EU have to comply with the GDPR and note down exactly what data is processed and the legal basis behind it. The GDPR Article 12 requires businesses that process EU or EEA resident data to provide transparent and concise information about data handling practices.

However, in Terms and Conditions, you can simply provide a link to the privacy policy for more information about these practices.

13. Corrections clause

Your website may contain inaccurate or misleading content, so it’s helpful to limit some of the liabilities in your Terms and Conditions.

Here’s how you could write a section like this for your Shopify store:

“We reserve the right to correct any inaccuracies or errors on our website without prior notice. It includes information about our product pricing, descriptions, or availability.”

14. Affiliate links

If your website contains affiliate links, you must disclose to users that they may find links to third-party websites. You must state that you may receive a commission or compensation if a user clicks on the link and makes a purchase.

Multiple laws require including the affiliate link clause in your Terms and Conditions, such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in the EU.

15. Account registration clause

If users can create an account on your store, you should include an account registration clause. It should mention that users must keep their usernames and passwords confidential and immediately notify you if their accounts are stolen.

16. Account termination and deletion information

If your Shopify store allows creating an account, you should include an account termination clause. It should explain how users can delete their accounts, but also disclose when you reserve the right to terminate their accounts.

Here’s a simple section of how Amazon explains account termination, simply stating that they can terminate the account without prior notice if the user doesn’t follow their terms:

17. Third-party clause

You may link to third-party websites in your store, but you should not be liable for the content published on their sites. That’s why you should include a clause like this in your Terms and Conditions:

“Our website may contain links to third-party websites or services. We cannot control and are not responsible for the content or practices of any third-party websites or services. We advise you to read the terms and conditions of the website and services you visit or use.”

18. Limitation of liability

Writing a Limitation of Liability clause explains to what extent users can hold your business legally responsible for something that goes wrong. While we’ve seen some Shopify stores skip it entirely, it protects your business from financial trouble.

For example, you can cover areas like:

• Errors or inaccuracies on your website
• Malware and spyware
• Third-party caused damage
• Website downtime

The Shopify platform has written this section very well:

It states that neither Shopify nor its suppliers can be held liable for damages such as loss of profits or data when using their service.

19. Contact information

Because Terms and Conditions are a contract that both parties should follow, you should provide users with ways to contact you in case they have questions or issues.

You can include your address, email address, or phone number at the very bottom of your Terms and Conditions.

Where to place the Terms and Conditions on your Shopify website?

Terms and Conditions are a legally binding agreement between your business and the user of your services, so they should always be easily accessible.

When auditing Shopify stores for compliance, we’ve found that including a link to Terms and Conditions in your website footer is one of the more common practices.

However, you should also include Terms and Conditions in other key areas, such as:

• At the bottom of a cookie banner
• Somewhere visible on the checkout page
• When creating an account
• Footer of your emails

How to add Terms and Conditions to the website footer?

You can place your Terms and Conditions page on your website footer through menu items. Follow these steps to add it:

1. Go to Content > Menus in Shopify Admin.
2. Click on the Footer menu.
3. Press the Add menu item. Type “Terms and Conditions” or a similar clear policy name as the label.
4. Click the “Link” section, go to Policies, and press “Terms of service.”
5. Press Save. 

Final thoughts

Writing Terms and Conditions can seem overwhelming, but if you know what laws apply to your business and understand what clauses to include, it becomes easier.

You can write Terms and Conditions from scratch or use a Shopify-provided template in the Settings > Policies section of your account. Whichever method you choose, you’ll have to adapt it to your business so that it reflects your practices.

Once you publish your Terms and Conditions, make sure to regularly review them as your business grows, adds new services, or expands into new markets. And if you’re ever in doubt, we highly recommend consulting a legal professional.

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Frequently asked questions

What’s the difference between Terms and Conditions and a privacy policy?

Terms and Conditions is a document that governs how users are allowed to use the website or services of a business. A privacy policy is a document that provides a clear explanation of how your business collects and processes the personal data of users.

How to write good Terms and Conditions on Shopify?

A good Terms and Conditions document on Shopify should be written in plain and simple language and made specifically for your store and services. Make sure you cover the important sections, such as intellectual property and limitations of liability, and make it simple to find on your site.

How long should the Terms and Conditions be?

There are no length recommendations when writing Terms and Conditions. It should be as long as needed to explain the obligations, rules, and responsibilities of using your website or services.

About the author

Kristina Jaruseviciute

Kristina is a Content Lead at TinyCookie, where she specializes in providing educational content for readers interested in web cookies and compliance. She covers an extensive scope of subjects, from cookie types, definitions, and tutorials to compliance tips for website owners.