Terms of Service

Sailo is software you run your shop on. It is not a shop, a marketplace, a bank or a payment processor. Buyers buy from you, not from us.

• —Your shop is yours. What you sell, who you sell it to, and what you promise them is your decision and your responsibility.
• —Money does not pass through us. Card payments are created on your own Stripe account. Chat, bank-transfer and cash orders never touch a payment system of ours at all.
• —Our fee is 1–3% of the goods on card sales. Nothing on chat, bank-transfer or cash orders, and never on delivery or tax.
• —You carry the chargebacks. You are the merchant of record on card sales, so a disputed payment is debited from your account, not ours.
• —Not every business fits. Clause 6 says what we accept, clause 7 what we accept on conditions, and clause 8 what we decline — and clause 8 holds whether you take cards or cash.
• —Fraud ends the account. Immediately, and without notice where we reasonably believe it is happening.

This summary is here to be read. It is not a substitute for the clauses below, and where the two differ, the clauses govern.

Sailo gives you a page at sailo.store/your-handle, a catalogue behind it, and the tools to take orders through chat apps, bank transfer, cash on delivery, or a card checkout run on your own Stripe account.

We are the software, not the counterparty. We do not stock, ship, inspect, insure or guarantee anything sold through a shop, we are not party to the contract between a seller and a buyer, and we do not act as agent for either of them. We are not a bank, a money transmitter, an escrow service or a payment institution, and we do not hold client money.

You need to be old enough to enter a contract where you live, and at least 16. The service is not offered to anyone barred from it under the sanctions or export laws that apply to us.

One account, one shop, real details. You are responsible for everything done under your login, so keep the password to yourself and tell us at support@sailo.store the moment you think someone else has it.

• —Give accurate registration details and keep them current. We may suspend an account whose details we cannot verify.
• —Do not share, sell or transfer your account. Handles are lent, not owned: we may reclaim one that impersonates someone, infringes a mark, or sits unused on a free plan for twelve months.
• —Do not use the service to build a competing product, scrape it, probe it, or work around its limits.

The shop is yours, and so is the responsibility for it. By listing anything you confirm that:

• —You have the right to sell it, and selling it is lawful where you are and where your buyers are.
• —Your descriptions, prices, photos and stock levels are accurate, and your delivery and returns terms are stated plainly to the buyer before they order.
• —You will fulfil orders you accept, or refund them promptly if you cannot.
• —You will handle your buyers’ personal data lawfully. For that data you are the controller and Sailo is your processor; the Privacy Policy sets out what that means.
• —You will register for, collect and remit whatever tax applies to your sales. Sailo does not calculate, collect or remit sales tax, VAT or GST on your behalf, and the tax fields in the product are a calculator you configure, not advice.
• —You own or are licensed to use everything you upload, and it does not infringe anyone’s rights.
• —You hold every licence, permit and authorisation your trade needs — before you list, not after a complaint — and you keep them current for as long as you sell. Food, alcohol, cosmetics, supplements, electronics and regulated services all carry them, and none of them is our licence to hold — clause 7 says which of these we will ask you to evidence.
• —Any message you send through Sailo to your buyers complies with the anti-spam law that applies to them — CAN-SPAM in the United States, CASL in Canada, the ePrivacy rules in the EU and UK. You send to people who agreed to hear from you, you identify yourself, and you honour an unsubscribe. Our email reputation is shared across every seller here, so this one is not a formality.
• —You do not create fake, duplicated, automated or impersonating accounts, shops or referral links, and you do not manufacture referral activity that did not happen. Promoting your own shop is the point; inventing traffic to earn commission on it is fraud, and clause 9 applies.
• —Where the law gives your buyers rights — a distance-selling withdrawal period, a statutory guarantee, a right to a written receipt — you will honour them. Nothing you write in your own shop terms can take those away, and nothing in these terms purports to.

Card payments run on Stripe Connect. When you switch them on, a Stripe Express connected account is created in your name and you enter into Stripe’s own Connected Account Agreement directly with Stripe. That agreement governs the payment itself. These terms govern your use of Sailo. Where the two speak to the same thing, Stripe’s agreement governs the money.

Charges are created on your connected account, not on ours. You are the merchant of record for every card sale: the funds settle into your own Stripe balance, Sailo never holds them, and we can neither pay them out to you nor withhold them from you.

Because you are the merchant of record, the chargeback is yours. If a buyer disputes a card payment, Stripe debits your connected account for the disputed amount and for its dispute fee — whether or not you contest it, and whether or not you have already shipped.

• —Our fee. Sailo takes 1–3% of the goods on each card sale, collected as a Stripe application fee at the moment of the charge. It is calculated on the price of the goods after any discount, and never on delivery or tax: money you hand to a courier, or collect for a government, was never yours and is not something we charge on. Chat, bank-transfer and cash orders carry no fee at all.
• —Stripe’s fees are separate. Stripe sets its own processing fees, deducts them from your account, and they are not received by Sailo. We neither set them nor control them, and we do not quote them here because they depend on your country and the card used. Stripe states them to you.
• —Refunds. When you refund a card order, our fee on it is refunded with it, in proportion to the amount returned. You are never left paying our share of a sale that was undone.
• —If your account cannot cover a dispute. A chargeback, refund or reversal can leave your Stripe balance negative. Recovering that is between you and Stripe under your agreement with them — Stripe may take it from later sales or debit your bank account, depending on your country and settings. To the extent Sailo is charged for any shortfall on your account, you owe us that amount, and we may set it off against anything we hold for you, invoice you for it, or both.
• —Excessive disputes. The card networks monitor dispute rates, and a shop above their thresholds puts its own and our access at risk. We may stop card payments on a shop whose disputes reach that level, and will tell you when we do.
• —Changes. We may change our fee on 30 days’ notice by email. A change applies to sales made after it takes effect and never to sales already completed. If you do not accept it, stop taking card payments or close the account before it starts.

Almost every small business fits here. Sailo was built for people selling things they make, things they buy in, their own time, or a file — and if you recognise your trade in this list, there is nothing further you need from us before you start.

Things you make

jewellery, ceramics, candles, clothing, art and prints, furniture, leather goods, plants, soap and skincare, anything that leaves your hands finished

Things you buy and resell

boutiques, thrift and vintage, sneakers, books, parts and spares, wholesale to trade buyers, second-hand goods you own outright

Food and drink

bakeries, home kitchens, coffee roasters, spice and sauce makers, catering, meal boxes, cakes to order, market stalls

Digital files

presets and LUTs, templates, e-books, fonts, sample packs, stock photography, notion boards, printables, recorded courses

Services and appointments

hairdressing, barbering, nails, tattooing, photography, repairs, cleaning, tutoring, translation, design, trades, consulting

Classes, workshops and events

a seat at a pottery class, a supper club, a workshop, a market pitch, a retreat place, a ticketed talk

Made to order and commissions

custom furniture, wedding cakes, portraits, tailoring, personalised gifts, print on demand, anything you start after the order arrives

Rentals and hire

equipment hire, party and event kit, tools, costumes, bikes, studio time — where you hold the item and the buyer collects or returns it

The list is not exhaustive and is not meant to be. Something similar to these, sold honestly, is accepted whether or not it has a line of its own.

Accepting a shop is not us saying your business is lawful, licensed or insured where you are. That stays yours to establish under clause 4, and we do not check it for you.

These are real businesses and they are welcome here, but each one carries a licence, an age restriction, or a gap between when the buyer pays and when they receive — and the gap is where chargebacks come from. The condition attached to each is part of these terms: trading outside it is a breach, not a technicality.

Food prepared for sale

You are registered with whichever authority licenses food where you cook, you meet its hygiene and allergen-labelling rules, and a home kitchen is registered as one.

Alcohol

You hold the licence your country requires to sell it, you verify age at delivery or collection rather than with a checkbox, and you accept that card payments on alcohol are subject to Stripe’s rules and may be declined by them even when we accept the shop. Not available at all in some countries — see the country list at the end of this policy.

Cosmetics, skincare and supplements

The product meets the labelling, ingredient and registration rules where your buyers are, and you make no claim to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent anything. A moisturiser is a cosmetic; a moisturiser that cures eczema is an unlicensed medicine.

Health, wellness and body services

You hold the registration or licence your practice needs — massage, physiotherapy, tattooing, piercing, aesthetics, nutrition advice — and you describe it as what it is rather than as medical treatment.

Sexual wellness products

Ordinary retail goods only, listed and photographed as retail goods, with an age gate. Explicit content and services are a different thing and are declined outright below, and several countries prohibit these goods entirely — see the country list at the end of this policy.

Pre-orders and long lead times

You state the dispatch date on the listing before the buyer pays, and you keep to it or refund. Taking payment more than 30 days before delivery is the single most common cause of a chargeback on this platform, and the chargeback is yours.

Tickets and dated events

You are the organiser or are authorised by them. Resale of tickets you did not issue is declined. If the event does not happen, you refund it — a credit for a future date is not a refund unless the buyer chooses it.

Memberships and anything that repeats

You state the price, the interval and how to stop it before the first payment is taken, and you make cancelling as easy as starting. Silent auto-renewal is declined as a deceptive practice, not merely discouraged.

Drop-shipping and long supplier chains

You are answerable for delivery times, customs charges and returns even though someone else ships. A shop that answers complaints with the supplier’s shipping policy is a shop we will close.

High-value single items

Above roughly 1,000 USD an order we may ask for identification, proof that you hold the goods, or proof of provenance before card payments continue. Resold luxury goods need documentation that they are authentic, and precious metals, stones and bullion are reviewed before card payments are enabled at all.

Charitable and community fundraising

You are the registered organisation or hold its written authority, you say plainly where the money goes, and you meet whatever registration your country requires of fundraisers. Raffles and prize draws are not fundraising for this purpose — they are gambling, and they are declined.

Travel bookings and reservations

You are booking accommodation, tours, transfers or experiences you or a named supplier will actually deliver, and we review the shop before card payments are enabled — the money is taken now and the service delivered much later, which is the shape a bank asks the most questions about. Airlines, cruises, charter flights and timeshares are declined outright below, whatever the shop is called.

Selling into a country you are not in

You may sell across borders, but the shop must trade from the country your Stripe account was opened in, and you must meet the consumer, labelling and tax law where your buyers are. Opening an account in one country to take payments for a business run from another is cross-border acquiring, and it is declined below.

We may ask you for a licence, a registration number, proof that you hold the stock, or identification — before you start or at any point afterwards. Card payments may stay off until we have it, and a shop that cannot produce it may be limited to chat, bank transfer and cash orders or closed.

Some of this is our choice. Most of it is the condition on which the whole platform keeps card acceptance: the card networks bind Stripe, Stripe binds every seller who switches card payments on, and a platform that says yes to a trade its processor will refuse is only postponing the answer until after you have built a catalogue. So this list is shaped like Stripe’s own restricted businesses list, which applies to you in addition to this one. Where they differ, the stricter applies.

These three clauses are also published on their own at Restricted Businesses, together with the extra rules that apply to sellers in particular countries. Those country rules are part of this clause.

This clause holds on every channel. Most orders on Sailo arrive by chat, bank transfer or cash and never touch a payment system — that does not make any of the following acceptable here.

No list of this kind is complete, and this one is not. We may add to it when a new category of harm turns up or a payment provider requires it, and we may decline or close a shop that is plainly the same thing under another name. Where we add a category that affects a shop already trading, we give the notice in clause 18.

If you are not sure which side of the line your business falls on, ask before you build it. Email support@sailo.store with what you sell, who to, and how it reaches them, and you will get a straight answer. That is considerably cheaper for both of us than a catalogue built against a shop we then have to close.

When we decline a shop, we say why unless the law stops us, your data stays exportable for the period in the Privacy Policy, and we refund the unused part of any paid plan. The exception is the child-safety item in “Adult content and services”, which is reported rather than answered.

Card acceptance is a shared privilege. One shop laundering payments or running stolen cards puts every other seller on the platform at risk, so this clause is deliberately blunt.

Where we reasonably believe an account is being used for fraud, for money laundering, to process payments for an undisclosed business, or in a way that threatens our own or our sellers’ access to the card networks, we may — immediately and without prior notice — suspend the shop, stop its card payments, withhold or reverse our own fee, reject or close the connected account with Stripe, and terminate the agreement.

We act on reasonable belief rather than proof. Waiting for certainty while a scheme runs is not a risk we are willing to carry on behalf of every other seller here.

Where the law allows us to say why, we will. Where a suspension turns out to be wrong, we will restore the account. Nothing in this clause gives us a right to your money: any funds in your Stripe balance remain governed by your agreement with Stripe, and are not ours to take. We may report suspected criminal conduct to the police, to Stripe, and to anyone else the law requires.

Free is free and stays free. Paid plans are billed in advance, monthly or yearly, through Stripe, and renew automatically until cancelled.

• —Cancel any time from your billing settings. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period you have already paid for; we do not cut a plan short on the day you cancel.
• —Prices may change on 30 days’ notice by email, effective at your next renewal. Carrying on past that date is acceptance; cancelling before it is the alternative.
• —A failed renewal does not take your shop down on the first attempt. Stripe retries for several days, and paid features stay on while it does. If it never succeeds the account returns to the free plan.
• —Downgrading never deletes anything you have made. Products over the free limit stop being visible until you are under it again; they are not erased.
• —Query a charge within 60 days of it appearing. After that we may not be able to reconstruct what happened well enough to put it right, and Stripe’s own records age out too.
• —Refunds of subscription payments are governed by the Refund Policy, which forms part of these terms.

Your contract is with the seller. They take your money, they owe you the goods, and their refund and delivery terms apply — not ours.

Sailo is not the merchant, does not hold your payment, and cannot refund it. If a seller will not resolve something, the Refund Policy explains the routes that are actually open to you, including your card issuer’s dispute process. Tell us at support@sailo.store anyway: we cannot return your money, but we can act on the shop, and a pattern of complaints is how we find the shops that should not be here.

You keep everything you upload. You grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to host, store, resize, cache and display it — the operations required to run your shop and nothing else. It ends when you delete the content or close the account, except for copies in backups until they age out.

We keep the software, the brand and the design. Nothing here gives you a right to use the Sailo name or mark beyond the badge we place on free shops, which you may not remove, alter or obscure while you are on a free plan.

If you believe something on a shop infringes your rights, write to hello@sailo.store with the URL, what it infringes, and enough for us to act. We remove infringing material and terminate repeat infringers.

We aim to keep Sailo running and we work at it, but the service is provided as it is. We do not promise it will be uninterrupted, error-free, or that it will keep working with every third party it currently works with.

We may change, add or remove features. Where a change materially reduces what a paid plan does, we will give notice and you may cancel and have the unused part of the period back. Planned maintenance is announced where we can; emergency maintenance sometimes cannot be.

Nothing in these terms limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited. If you are a consumer, your statutory rights are unaffected by anything below.

Subject to that: to the fullest extent the law allows, Khaleel Musleh is not liable for lost profits, lost sales, lost data, loss of goodwill, or any indirect or consequential loss; and our total liability to you for all claims in any twelve-month period is limited to the greater of the fees you paid us in that period, or 100 USD.

We are not liable for what a seller does or fails to do, for what a buyer does, for the acts of Stripe or any other provider named in the Privacy Policy, or for a chargeback, refund or reversal on a sale we were never party to.

If you sell on Sailo, you agree to indemnify Khaleel Musleh against claims, losses, fines and reasonable legal costs arising from what you sold, what you said about it, how you handled your buyers’ data, tax you did not remit, or any breach of these terms. We will tell you promptly about any claim, let you take the defence where you are entitled to, and not settle it without asking you.

You may close your account at any time from your settings, for any reason or none.

We may end it on 30 days’ notice for any reason, and immediately where you breach these terms, where clause 9 applies, where the law requires it, or where a payment provider we depend on refuses to keep serving your account.

When an account ends, the shop goes offline and your data is deleted on the schedule in the Privacy Policy. Export what you want first — the CSV export in your settings takes everything, and it is free on every plan for exactly this reason. Clauses that are meant to outlive the agreement — fees owed, liability, indemnity, governing law — survive it.

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, United States, and the courts of San Mateo County, California have exclusive jurisdiction — except that if you are a consumer resident elsewhere, you keep the protection of the mandatory laws of your own country and may bring proceedings there.

Before filing anything, email hello@sailo.store and give us 30 days. Most of what reaches a lawyer would have been settled by a reply.

• —Changes. We may update these terms. Material changes are emailed to account holders at least 30 days before they take effect, and the date at the top always says which version you are reading. Continuing to use Sailo after that date is acceptance.
• —Whole agreement. These terms, the Privacy Policy and the Refund Policy are the entire agreement between us and replace anything said before.
• —Severability. If a clause is unenforceable, it is cut back to what is enforceable and the rest stands.
• —No waiver. Not enforcing something once does not give it up.
• —Assignment. You may not transfer this agreement. We may, on notice, to a successor of the business.
• —Language. These terms are written in English. A translation is a convenience; the English version governs.
• —Force majeure. Neither side is liable for a failure caused by something genuinely outside its control.

Khaleel Musleh, a sole proprietor, trading as Sailo.