Meera sells handloom sarees through a simple online store she built last year, shipping out of a small godown in Bhiwandi to customers across Maharashtra, Gujarat and Delhi. Business was steady until a customer in Surat received a saree in a different colour than the one shown on the product page, refused to pay the courier's return shipping, and then left a one star review calling the store "a scam." Meera wanted to defend herself, but when she checked her own website for a returns policy, there was not one. No page explained what counted as a valid return, who paid for return shipping, or how long a refund would take. She had no ground to stand on, not because she was in the wrong, but because she had never written down what the rules were in the first place.
This is one of the most common gaps on small Indian ecommerce sites. Owners spend weeks on product photography and a few hundred rupees a month on a hosting plan, then skip the one page that protects them when something goes wrong: a proper terms and conditions page.
It is not just good practice, it is a legal requirement
Under the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020, notified under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, any business selling goods or services online in India is expected to disclose clear information to buyers before a sale, including the total price, delivery timelines, return and refund conditions, and grievance redressal contact details. A missing or vague terms and conditions page is not just a trust problem, it can leave a seller exposed if a buyer complains to a consumer forum or files a grievance through the National Consumer Helpline.
None of this means you need a lawyer on retainer before you can sell online. For most small sellers, a clear, honestly written terms and conditions page covering the sections below, generated once and updated whenever your policies change, is enough. Our terms and conditions generator builds a starting draft based on your business details, which you can then adjust to match how you actually operate.
What your terms and conditions page should actually cover
Pricing, taxes and payment
State whether listed prices include GST or are shown separately, which payment methods you accept, and when payment is considered complete, at the time of order or only once it clears. If you accept partial advances for custom or made to order items, like a lot of boutique and jewellery sellers do, say so explicitly, including what happens to the advance if the order is cancelled. If you are still deciding which payment methods to offer, our guide on choosing a payment gateway in India is worth reading alongside this.
Shipping and delivery timelines
Buyers in India have grown used to fast, trackable delivery from large platforms, so even an honest, realistic timeline like "5 to 8 business days, longer for remote pin codes" reduces complaints more than silence does. Mention who bears the risk if a courier damages or loses a package in transit, and whether you offer any tracking information. If you sell both cash on delivery and prepaid, our piece on handling cash on delivery versus prepaid orders covers the operational side that your terms page should reflect.
Returns, refunds and cancellations
This is the section that saves the most arguments. Spell out the return window in days, which categories are non returnable (innerwear, perishables, customised items, and opened cosmetics are common exclusions for Indian sellers), who pays return shipping, and how long a refund takes to process once a returned item is received. If you have not already written a dedicated policy for this, our detailed guide on creating a return and refund policy walks through each of these decisions, and the finished policy can simply be linked from your terms and conditions page rather than duplicated.
Product descriptions and liability
Add a clause making clear that product images are representative and that minor variations, especially in handmade, dyed, or printed items, are not defects. Pair this with a limitation of liability clause stating that your total liability for any claim will not exceed the amount the buyer actually paid for that order. Without this, a seller can technically face claims disproportionate to the value of what was sold.
User conduct and account rules
If your store allows account creation, reviews, or comments, add a short clause reserving your right to remove abusive content or suspend accounts used for fraud, like repeated false "item not received" claims or chargeback abuse. This also quietly protects your star rating from being manipulated by competitors or bad actors.
Intellectual property
A line stating that your product photos, descriptions, and site content belong to your business protects you against competitors who lift images directly from your listings, which is common enough in categories like jewellery, apparel and home decor that it is worth stating outright rather than assuming it is obvious.
Grievance officer and contact details
Indian ecommerce rules expect a named grievance contact, an email address or phone number where a buyer can raise a complaint, along with a reasonable timeframe for you to respond, commonly within 48 hours for acknowledgment and around a month for resolution. For a one or two person business this can simply be your own business email and number, but it needs to be visible on the page, not buried in a contact form nobody checks.
Governing law and jurisdiction
A short closing clause naming the courts of your city as having jurisdiction over any dispute saves you from a buyer in a different state technically filing a claim somewhere inconvenient for you to respond to.
Where this page actually belongs
A terms and conditions page only protects you if a buyer can actually find it, ideally linked in your website footer, visible before checkout, and referenced in your order confirmation email. This is one of several reasons a proper website still matters more than running sales purely through Instagram DMs or a WhatsApp catalog, since a social media profile alone usually does not give buyers a dedicated place to read these terms before they pay. Our comparison on website versus relying on social media alone goes into this gap in more depth.
Pair your terms and conditions page with a privacy policy covering how you collect and use customer data, which Indian data protection rules increasingly expect alongside your other disclosures. Our guide on writing a privacy policy for your website covers that side, and the two pages together usually take less than an hour to put in place properly.
None of this is about anticipating every possible dispute a customer might raise. It is about making sure that the next time a buyer in Surat, or anywhere else, receives something slightly different from what they expected, there is a page on your own website that both of you can point to, instead of an argument that only your reputation ends up paying for.