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Okay, e-commerce website owners, it’s your turn to discover how to better protect your business. In the last episode, I discussed how to protect your website. I talked about the three most common policies you’ll find on most websites: website terms, a privacy policy, and a disclaimer.
If you have a website with an e-commerce component attached to it, you’ll need those policies and more (which can also depend on the type of business you have). In today’s episode, I talk a bit more about the specifics for protecting your e-commerce business website with your policies. I dive quickly into the revisions to any existing policies needed. In addition, I go into another policy for purchases and break it down into the different types of purchases to cover.
These product areas include even more policy and term considerations to help protect yourself. You’ll hear about shipping for physical products (and questions to ask yourself); refunds, returns, and cancellations for non-physical products; providing community or support for courses and memberships; and protecting your intellectual property rights.
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In this episode:
[02:16] – E-commerce website owners may want to include these updates in their website terms and privacy policy.
[02:39] – Danielle discusses what she calls “purchase policies.” These can assist with some of the most common customer service inquiries.
[03:20] – Breaking it down by product type, Danielle starts with websites selling physical products.
[04:34] – Make sure to include any special shipping policies and discuss these two big reasons for customer complaints.
[04:59] – Danielle reviews eight questions to consider as you build this part of your policy.
[06:42] – Tip: be flexible when things fall outside of your stated policies. Danielle gives a recent example of why.
[07:16] – Next up, Danielle discusses websites selling digital products like ebooks and templates.
[07:48] – What do you include in a purchase policy for digital product websites?
[08:56] – Protecting your intellectual property is extremely important for digital products.
[10:06] – Courses are similar to digital products, but sometimes they have different terms you want to emphasize.
[11:05] – Set clear terms for your course money-back guarantee. Is it conditional or good at any time for any reason?
[13:13] – If you include any community or support with your course, you’ll need to include these kinds of terms regarding participation.
[13:46] – Lastly, Danielle covers membership sites and the three major areas to consider.
[15:00] – What about when someone wants to cancel their membership? Get clear on the way you’ll handle them on your site.
[16:26] – Have rules in place to deal with potential bad behavior and conflicts among community members.
[17:21] – To wrap up, Danielle gives you action steps to take for this episode.
