Online shop readiness check: ten yes-or-no questions on returns, parcels, asking for feedback, VAT and listings

This check is for the owner of a small UK online shop selling on Shopify, Etsy, eBay or WooCommerce. The ten questions cover returns wording, late and lost parcels, review requests, chargebacks, the VAT threshold, postage, reordering and listings offered to Northern Ireland or the EU, each taken from a rule set out in our guides. It is general information, not legal or tax advice.

There are ten questions and they take about five minutes. Answer from memory. "Not sure" counts as a gap, because a rule nobody in the office can recall is a rule nobody is checking.

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Online shop readiness check: ten yes-or-no questions on returns, parcels, asking for feedback, VAT and listings

1. Does your returns policy say in words that the customer pays the return postage on a change-of-mind return?ChooseYesNoNot sure
2. Does your site show the 14-day cancellation information before the customer orders?ChooseYesNoNot sure
3. When a parcel is late, do your replies tell the customer to wait for the courier or take it up with them?ChooseYesNoNot sure
4. Have you offered a discount, refund or gift in return for a review without the review saying so?ChooseYesNoNot sure
5. When you counter a chargeback, do you send the tracking as a link for the card issuer to open?ChooseYesNoNot sure
6. Each month, do you add up the sales reports from every channel for the last 12 months and compare the total with £90,000?ChooseYesNoNot sure
7. Do you keep proof of what each product cost you, and claim for a lost Royal Mail Tracked parcel within 30 calendar days of the claim opening?ChooseYesNoNot sure
8. Are you still putting 1st or 2nd Class stamps on small parcels when you could buy Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 online?ChooseYesNoNot sure
9. Does every product you reorder have a reorder point worked out from daily sales, the supplier's lead time and safety days?ChooseYesNoNot sure
10. If you deliver to Northern Ireland or the EU, does each listing show the manufacturer's name, postal address and email address, and a responsible person established there?ChooseYesNoNot sure

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What each question checks

1. Does your returns policy say in words that the customer pays the return postage on a change-of-mind return? The answer that is in order is "yes". A policy that is silent on return postage makes the shop pay it under regulation 35(5). The customer bears the cost only if the shop said so before the order was placed. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 35(5). The working is in Returns policy template for a UK online shop.

2. Does your site show the 14-day cancellation information before the customer orders? The answer that is in order is "yes". If the cancellation information is never given, the 14-day right to cancel is extended by 12 months under regulation 31, so a customer could send goods back more than a year after delivery. Source: Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 31. The working is in Returns rights checker.

3. When a parcel is late, do your replies tell the customer to wait for the courier or take it up with them? The answer that is in order is "no". Goods stay at the trader's risk until they come into the consumer's physical possession. A missing parcel is the shop's to put right, so each reply should promise a replacement or refund by a stated date. Source: Consumer Rights Act 2015, section 29. The working is in "Where is my order?" reply template.

4. Have you offered a discount, refund or gift in return for a review without the review saying so? The answer that is in order is "no". Since 6 April 2025 it has been a banned practice to commission a review that hides its incentive, and commissioning includes incentivising by any means. The CMA can fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover. Source: Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, Schedule 20 paragraph 13. The working is in How to ask for a customer review without breaking the fake reviews ban.

5. When you counter a chargeback, do you send the tracking as a link for the card issuer to open? The answer that is in order is "no". The issuer does not open links, so a tracking URL in the evidence is worth nothing; send a screenshot or document. On Stripe in the UK a dispute costs £20, plus £20 to counter, with 7 to 21 days to respond. Source: Stripe UK pricing and disputes documentation, read 1 October 2026. The working is in Chargebacks for a small online shop.

6. Each month, do you add up the sales reports from every channel for the last 12 months and compare the total with £90,000? The answer that is in order is "yes". The VAT test is £90,000 of taxable turnover in any rolling 12 months across every channel, counted on sales, not payouts. In our example the sales totalled £91,300 while the payouts showed only £84,900. Source: GOV.UK, Register for VAT; HMRC VAT Notice 700/1. The working is in VAT threshold for online sellers.

7. Do you keep proof of what each product cost you, and claim for a lost Royal Mail Tracked parcel within 30 calendar days of the claim opening? The answer that is in order is "yes". Royal Mail pays a lost Tracked parcel at what the item cost the shop, not its sale price, up to £150 on a business account or £75 on Tracked postage bought online. The claim opens 7 working days after the due date and must be made within 30 calendar days of that. Source: Royal Mail Business Account Claims Centre, read 1 October 2026. The working is in Lost parcel claims for a small online shop.

8. Are you still putting 1st or 2nd Class stamps on small parcels when you could buy Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 online? The answer that is in order is "no". From 5 October 2026, on eBay UK's summary of the tariff, a 1st Class small parcel up to 1 kg is £5.70 by stamp and Tracked 24 online is £4.80; 2nd Class is £4.40 against Tracked 48 at £3.75. Source: eBay UK summary of the Royal Mail tariff, read 1 October 2026. The working is in Royal Mail prices from 5 October 2026.

9. Does every product you reorder have a reorder point worked out from daily sales, the supplier's lead time and safety days? The answer that is in order is "yes". Reorder point is daily sales times lead time plus safety days. At 3.5 a day, a 21-day lead time and a week of safety stock it is 98 units; a shop holding 60 has already missed it. Source: Standard reorder point formula; our worked example. The working is in Reorder point calculator for a small online shop.

10. If you deliver to Northern Ireland or the EU, does each listing show the manufacturer's name, postal address and email address, and a responsible person established there? The answer that is in order is "yes". Since 13 December 2024 the EU product safety regulation has required a responsible economic operator established in the EU or Northern Ireland, and Article 19 puts the manufacturer's and that person's contact details on the online listing itself. Source: Regulation (EU) 2023/988, Articles 16 and 19. The working is in GPSR checklist for a UK online shop selling to Northern Ireland or the EU.

How to use the result

The list under your score is a to-do list. Each line names the rule, where it comes from and the page that shows how to deal with it. Put a name and a date against each one. A gap that has an owner and a date is being handled; a gap that everyone knows about and nobody owns is how firms end up explaining themselves later.

Do the check again each quarter, and again whenever a rule in this sector changes. Give it to a second person in the office without showing them your answers. Where the two of you disagree, the procedure is not written down clearly enough, and that is worth knowing whichever of you is right.

A good score is not a certificate. The questions cover the points our guides cover, which are the ones that come up most often in a small firm; they are not every duty a firm has. This page is general information, not legal advice.

Overlyft sets up AI assistants for online shops: they prepare drafts for a person to approve. They do not make a firm compliant, and none of the ten answers depends on them.