E-commerce is one of the best business models that I like.

I am not even joking - I was thinking of creating one on the side.

But it's not easy.

It takes A LOT of work.

But it's a money-printing machine once you have all the systems in place.

But getting to that place is a hassle.

And if it's your first time building an e-commerce business?

Then you might require every support that you can.

We had a recent case like this.

One of our clients was building an E-Commerce platform...

But they wanted us to help them with the legal and compliance side of things.

Mainly, they were concerned about 3 problems:

1) The client did not want any kind of legal headache and wanted to ensure the business was well-protected.

2) They also wanted to make sure they had all the necessary documents for their website. Something simple to understand and straight to the point.

3) The last thing - they knew consumers could cause issues. So they wanted to keep the consumer disputes at a bare minimum while being transparent.

Honestly? These were some valid points.

And it's not the first time we had a situation like this.

Now, here are the exact steps we took with them over 2 weeks.

1) Platform Model Advisory

They were running a hybrid model, where they operated as a direct seller, and as an intermediary for third-party sellers.

So our first step was to advise them on the legal considerations they need to take while designing the platform.

The main thing we focused on was to include a mechanism for seeking explicit consent from customers for purchase.

And also avoid any pre-ticked boxes.

And finally, seeking an undertaking from third-party sellers for their products, just to be transparent overall.

2) Creating Customer Policies

There are two things we considered when drafting their website policies.

Intermediary and E-Commerce Rules.

We also provided information on the order process, delivery, payments, cancellations and refunds.

Cancellations are quite common for e-commerce platforms, so we created a cancellation policy.

And added a grievance redressal mechanism for handling customer requests.

We also kept a cap on the liability of the platform, to the extent possible for business protection.

3) Creating Policies for Sellers

The last thing we did was to create a separate policy governing the relationship between the sellers and the platform.

This way we limit what the sellers can or can't do on the platform.

We also provided information on how the ranking of the sellers is decided on the platform and the information they are mandatorily required to provide before listing any product.

Keeping everything transparent.

And in case a seller decides to be extra smart, we had undertakings and indemnities in place, for any defective or spurious goods provided by them.

With the advisory and documents in place, our client had 3 things:

1) Safety in operating their e-commerce platform

2) Clarity in making sure what's permissible and what's not

3) Transparency for all parties involved, while keeping the business safe

Now the only thing left was for them to scale it.

Running a business is not an easy thing to do.

And anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to your face.

There's a lot to consider.

That's why delegation becomes important.

Now if you want to delegate the website protection for your E-commerce platform, then pick a time here:

PICK A TIME WITH AKHIL

Talk soon.

-- Akhil Mishra