Distance selling can be far more cost-effective than selling face-to-face. Telesales, email marketing and mail order catalogues are all options. For most businesses, distance selling means ecommerce - selling online via your website.
Distance selling - consumer rights
If your business sells to individual consumers without meeting them face-to-face, you must comply with the Consumer Contracts Regulations.
You must give customers specific information before a sale is made to help them decide whether to buy. And if they do decide to buy, you also have to supply specific details in an order confirmation, provided in a durable form (eg written down).
Customers usually have an automatic right to cancel an order during a specified cooling-off period. For your part, you must normally fulfil your contractual obligations within 30 days unless you and your customer agree otherwise.
You must also abide by the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which covers purchases made at a distance as well as face to face. This gives customers the right to claim a full refund on faulty goods up to 30 days after the item was purchased. If goods prove faulty up to six months after purchase and they can't be repaired or replaced, consumers are also entitled to received a full refund in most cases.
Consumers are not entitled to demand a refund or replacement just because they change their mind.
The rules when selling online
If you sell from your website, or by other electronic means such as by email or text, you must also comply with the E-Commerce Regulations, whether you are selling to individual consumers or businesses. These specify the information you must provide and require you to make sure your customers can copy and/or print your terms of business.
The rules when selling over the phone
If you plan to make unsolicited marketing phone calls, check that your targets have not opted out of receiving marketing telephone calls by registering with the Telephone Preference Service or the Corporate Telephone Preference Service. Similar considerations apply to fax marketing.
If your marketing activities involve processing personal data on individuals - for example, storing their details on a marketing database - you must also comply with data protection rules.
The rules on selling digital content
If you sell digital content (eg music, games, ebooks or software), be aware that consumers can claim repair or replacement if the content they have downloaded is faulty. Consumers also have a 14-day right to change their mind and get a full refund unless they have already started to download the content.
