What are the minimum requirements of an e-commerce website?

Card brands generally require merchants on all platforms (web pages, apps, invoices or contracts) to have policies that clearly disclose certain business information and cardholder rights to potential customers. The specific policy requirements may vary depending on the location where you operate, the card brands you accept, and your business model.

Offshore Company Corp requirements

To help ensure that our merchants maintain the required policies, Offshore Company Corp performs periodic reviews of our merchants’ websites. You can avoid being flagged by our risk team by ensuring that the following information is clearly disclosed to your customers.

• Contact information
• Pricing information
• Refund or cancellation policies
• Privacy policy
• Delivery time frames (if you are shipping physical goods)
• Terms and conditions of service

Contact information

Any of the following are considered sufficient contact information.

• A listed email address
• A listed phone number
• A physical mailing address
• Social media accounts

Read more: How to apply for a merchant account?

Pricing information

Pricing should be made clear to customers on your site before they complete a payment with you.

Custom pricing

If your pricing is only available in a custom contract or once an invoice has been drafted, you'll need to ensure that customers agree to pricing and can easily locate your contact information, privacy policy and a refund/cancellation policy in the contract or invoice.

Members-only pricing

If your pricing and policies are only visible to members on your site, you'll need to make it clear that pricing is available upon login. We also recommend that you make your contact information, refund/cancellation policy, and privacy policy readily available on your site for both members and
non-members.

Donation pricing

A donation page with preset donation amounts, as well as custom donation options, is acceptable for non-profit organisations.

Mobile payments

If you only accept payments via a mobile app or mobile website, you’ll need to either meet all e-commerce website requirements within your mobile platform, or provide links to the requirements on your full site.

Read more: Merchant Account Fees

Refund and cancellation policies

No matter what your refund policy is – even if it is that you don't offer refunds – it must be present on your website. As a minimum, your refund/cancellation policy should detail:

• whether or not you provide refunds
• what conditions must be met to be eligible for a refund
• whether there are any fees associated with refunds or cancellations.

Privacy policy

Your privacy policy can be simple, but it must include the following.

• What information you collect from your customers
• What you do with that information

Terms and conditions of service

This type of agreement typically includes sections that address the following.

• Disambiguation/definition of key terms and phrases
• User rights and responsibilities
• Proper or expected usage; potential misuse
• Accountability for online actions, behaviour and conduct
• The use of personal data
• Payment details such as membership or subscription fees
• Opt-out policy describing the procedure for account termination (if available)
• Disclaimer/limitation of liability clarifying the site's legal liability for damages incurred by users
• Whether users will be notified upon modification of terms