I’ve been involved in a few discussions lately about charging delivery so I thought I’d look into the legalities of it all according to Trading Standards.
Turns out there’s a lot more to it than I thought!
Things you must do
Make any delivery charges clear to the customer
Make it clear how delivery for returns happens, and also what happens if goods are damaged in transit (this is if you ‘sell at a distance’ - via an online shop for example)
If most/all customer have to pay a delivery charge, then this charge must be included in the price of the item … not as a separate charge! However if you only charge one delivery fee regardless of number of items ordered, then you may advertise that as a separate charge.
Delivery information must be easily accessible and easy to calculate without the customer having to do anything – such as put items in a basket or set up an account. This is easily done by having a ‘delivery costs & info’ section on your website. You can ask for a country of delivery though to help you to work out how much it will cost.
If a customer does have to make any action towards making a purchase in order to obtain this information, then it is classed as misleading under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs)
You must take care if you charge extra delivery for posting to remote areas of the UK and be transparent in any additional costs involved.
This information is summarised from a very useful site which I found via the HMRC ... you can read it in full here and it includes links to various specific areas of advice on having an online business.
If you have questions on this or anything else financey, please get in touch here: SAY HELLO!
(the image comes from a seller on etsy: you can find the item here)