Online store terms and conditions: what each section must cover

Seller identity: who the customer is contracting with

The first section of any terms of sale answers a simple question: who is the customer contracting with? The storefront is an interface, but the party bound by the contract is the business behind it. The terms must therefore state the seller's full legal name, its legal form, its address and its official contact channels, so the customer knows exactly where to send a claim or a question. Without this, the customer is dealing with an anonymous trade name, and your position weakens if they later argue they never knew who they contracted with. Identifying the seller also protects you, because it separates the business from its owners and staff when responsibility is assessed.

• The seller's legal name, its legal form, and the trade name the customer sees.
• The address and place of business, and any official registration references the business holds.
• Official contact channels: email, phone, and the published response hours.
• The store's scope: the categories it sells and the regions it ships to.
• A statement of whether the store sells in its own name or acts as an intermediary for other sellers.

Price display and value added tax

The purpose of the pricing section is to let the customer see the amount they will actually pay before they commit, not an amount that swells at checkout. The rule applied by the Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority is that prices published to the public in the local market are displayed inclusive of value added tax, and the currency must be stated explicitly in Saudi riyals. Anything added on top of the product price, such as shipping, installation or a cash on delivery charge, must appear separately and clearly before the final step of the order. The same section deals with what happens when there is an obvious error in a displayed price, how promotions and discount codes apply and when they expire, and when the tax invoice is issued and how the customer receives it. A well written pricing section prevents more payment disputes than any other part of the document.

• The price shown to the consumer is inclusive of value added tax and stated in Saudi riyals.
• A clear separation of shipping costs and any additional amounts before the order is completed.
• How an obvious pricing error is handled, both before and after the order is fulfilled.
• The conditions of promotions and discount codes, their validity period, and usage limits.
• The tax invoice: when it is issued and how it reaches the customer.

Order acceptance and payment: when the contract is formed

The most commonly missed point in store terms is the moment the contract is formed. The logical sequence is that displaying a product is an invitation to treat, that the customer placing an order is an offer, and that the contract is formed only when you expressly accept it. This sequence is not drafting decoration. It is what lets you decline an order that is out of stock, carries a pricing error, or looks fraudulent, without being treated as having breached an existing contract. The same section covers the accepted payment methods, the fact that the payment service provider is an independent party with its own terms, the fact that an authorisation hold on a card does not by itself mean the order is accepted, and what happens if payment fails or its confirmation is delayed by the bank.

• Defining the moment the contract is formed and tying it to an express confirmation from the store.
• The cases in which the store may decline or cancel an order, and how the customer is notified.
• The accepted payment methods and the role of the payment provider as an independent party.
• The difference between an authorisation hold and an actual charge, and how a failed payment is handled.
• Quantity limits per customer and the controls on orders suspected of not being genuine.

Delivery and shipping

The delivery section turns a marketing promise into a defined obligation. Its job is to state where the published delivery window starts, because a window running from order confirmation is not the same as one running from dispatch or from the carrier's pickup. It also makes clear that the accuracy of the address and contact details is the customer's responsibility, and it fixes the moment risk of loss and damage passes to the customer, which is usually on receipt. It further covers partial delivery when one order contains several products, failed delivery attempts and the return of the shipment that follows, and shipping outside the Kingdom together with any customs procedures and amounts the customer bears. State delivery windows as published estimates unless you can genuinely guarantee them, and do not promise the customer something your carrier has not committed to.

• The starting point of the published delivery window and how it is counted.
• The customer's responsibility for the accuracy of the address and contact details.
• The moment risk of loss and damage passes from the store to the customer.
• Partial delivery, failed delivery attempts, and return of the shipment.
• Shipping outside the Kingdom and the customs procedures and amounts the customer bears.

Cancellation, returns and exchange

The E-Commerce Law and its implementing regulation require the exchange and returns policy to be disclosed before the order is completed, meaning before the customer pays rather than after. The job of this section in the terms is to point to that policy and make it an integral part of the contract, and to distinguish three situations that many stores blur together: cancelling an order before dispatch, withdrawing from the purchase after receipt, and returning a product that is defective or does not match its description. Each situation has its own conditions and its own financial outcome. The section also sets the acceptable condition of a returned product in terms of packaging and accessories, the excluded categories and the reason for excluding them, who bears the cost of return shipping in each case, and the fact that a refund goes back to the original payment method unless both parties agree otherwise. Any exclusion you do not disclose clearly in advance is hard to rely on later against the customer.

• Distinguishing cancellation before dispatch, withdrawal after receipt, and return of a defective product.
• The condition of the product, its original packaging and accessories as a condition for accepting a return.
• The categories excluded from return and the reason for exclusion, disclosed before the order is completed.
• Who bears the cost of return shipping in each of these situations.
• The route of the refund back to the original payment method and how the customer is notified.

Customer data and its link to the privacy policy

Customer data enters your store from the moment an account is created, and it continues through the order, the payment, the shipping and after sales service. Store terms are not a privacy policy and do not replace one, because the Personal Data Protection Law issued by Royal Decree M/19 and its amendments is built on a separate notice explaining what data is collected, why it is collected, the basis for processing it, and the rights of the data subject. The job of this section inside the terms is to point to the published privacy policy, to separate the data needed to fulfil the order from the data used for marketing which needs its own consent that can be withdrawn at any time, and to make clear that payment and shipping providers see only the minimum they need to do their job. The privacy policy itself is a standalone document with its own template, D-03.

• An express reference from the terms to the privacy policy published on the store.
• Separating the data needed to fulfil the order from the data used for marketing.
• Consent to marketing messages and the ability to withdraw it at any time.
• Payment and shipping providers seeing only the minimum data they need.
• Explaining how the customer submits requests relating to their personal data.

Complaints, dispute resolution and governing law

The last section of the terms is usually read at the worst possible moment, when the customer is angry. It should therefore open an internal complaint route before any escalation, naming a specific contact channel and the person responsible for it, what the customer needs to provide in terms of order number and supporting documents, and your commitment to respond. The section then sets the governing law, which is the laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the body competent to hear a dispute, and makes clear that the Arabic version prevails if it differs from any translation. It is important to understand that a clause in your terms does not cancel a right the law gives the consumer, so a clause that strips the customer of a statutory right is unlikely to be upheld. The safer approach is for this section to map a clear route to a resolution rather than close the door on the customer.

These seven sections are the structure on which the terms of any Saudi online store are built, and this guide explains only the purpose of each one. The complete, publication ready wording in Arabic and English lives in the Online Store Terms template D-02, certified by a licensed Saudi lawyer and kept current as the law changes. A lawyer's review of your own store remains the final step before you publish.

Frequently asked questions