Terms · version 2.0

Terms of Service

Last updated: July 26, 2026

These terms govern your use of A E T L I E R — the website at aetlier.shop and everything we offer through it. They apply whether you are browsing, buying, or selling as a designer. Please read them before you use the platform.

Sections 1 to 12 apply to everyone. Sections 13 to 19 apply additionally if you sell on A E T L I E R.

1. Who we are

A E T L I E R (Pty) Ltd, a company registered in South Africa ("A E T L I E R", "we", "us"). General enquiries: hello@aetlier.shop.

2. Accepting these terms

By creating an account, placing an order, or otherwise using the platform, you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, please don't use A E T L I E R. You must be at least 18 and able to enter into a binding contract. If you are using the platform on behalf of a business, you confirm you are authorised to bind it.

3. What A E T L I E R is

A E T L I E R is a curated marketplace. Independent designers list their own pieces; we provide the storefront, the checkout, the payment rails, and the curation that decides who may sell here.

When you buy a piece, your contract of sale is with the designer who made it, not with A E T L I E R. The designer is responsible for the piece itself — its description, its quality, its manufacture, and getting it to you. We are responsible for the platform, for handling payment, and for holding designers to our Quality Standards. Where South African law places obligations on us as an intermediary, we meet them; nothing in this section limits your rights against us under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

We curate. Being listed is not an endorsement of every claim a designer makes, and we may decline, remove, or re-order listings at our discretion.

4. Your account

• Give accurate information and keep it current. Accounts are personal — don't share your credentials.
• You are responsible for activity under your account. Tell us promptly at hello@aetlier.shop if you suspect unauthorised access.
• You may check out as a guest. You'll still receive order confirmation and delivery updates by email, but order history and reviews require an account.
• You may close your account at any time. Some records — orders, invoices, tax documents — are retained as described in our Privacy Policy.

5. Pricing and payment

• Prices are in South African Rand and include VAT where applicable. Delivery is charged separately and shown before you pay.
• Payments are processed by Yoco. We never see or store your full card details.
• Placing an order is an offer to buy. The contract forms when we confirm the order and payment succeeds. Until then we may decline an order — most often because a piece sold out, or a price or description was materially wrong.
• If we decline or cancel an order after payment, you get a full refund of everything charged.
• Obvious pricing errors do not bind us. Where a price is clearly wrong, we'll contact you and either honour the correct price with your agreement or cancel and refund in full.

6. Orders, delivery, and risk

Pieces are dispatched by the designer who made them, so an order containing several designers' work may arrive in several parcels on different days. Delivery estimates are estimates, not guarantees — made-to-order pieces take longer, and we say so on the product page.

Risk in a piece passes to you on delivery to the address you gave us. Please give an address where someone can receive the parcel; we can't take responsibility for a parcel signed for at an address you supplied incorrectly.

7. Returns, refunds, and cancellation

Our Returns Policy forms part of these terms and sets out the 14-day return window, the condition requirements, what can't be returned, and how refunds are processed. Your rights under the CPA and the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act — including the cooling-off period for online purchases and the six-month remedy for defective goods — apply in addition and are not limited by anything here.

8. Reviews and things you post

Reviews may only be left by a signed-in buyer for a piece or designer they actually bought from, one review per purchase. Reviews are moderated and may be reported. We may remove content that is false, abusive, off-topic, or posted to manipulate ratings, and we may suspend accounts that do it repeatedly. We do not edit reviews to improve a rating, and we do not remove a review simply because a designer dislikes it.

You keep ownership of what you post. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, reproduce, and adapt it for operating and promoting the platform. Don't post anything you don't have the rights to, and don't include other people's personal information.

9. Messaging

Buyers and designers can message each other about pieces and orders. Use it for that. Don't use it to harass anyone, to send unsolicited marketing, or to arrange a sale off-platform in order to avoid fees — doing so may cost you access. Messages may be reviewed where we need to investigate a report, a dispute, or suspected fraud, as described in our Privacy Policy.

10. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Break the law, or use the platform to help someone else do so.
• Impersonate anyone, or misrepresent your identity or affiliation.
• Scrape, crawl, or bulk-download the platform, or use it to train machine-learning models, without our written permission.
• Probe, disrupt, or circumvent the platform's security or rate limits, or interfere with anyone else's use of it.
• Post malware, or upload content that infringes someone else's rights.
• Place fraudulent orders, manipulate ratings, or abuse the returns process.

11. Our intellectual property

The A E T L I E R name, wordmark, site design, editorial writing, photography we commission, and the software behind the platform belong to us or our licensors. These terms don't give you any right to use them beyond using the platform as intended. Designer content belongs to the designers — see section 17.

12. Availability and changes

We aim to keep the platform available but do not promise it will be uninterrupted or error-free. We may change, suspend, or discontinue features, and we perform maintenance that may take the platform offline. Where a change materially affects an order you have already placed, we'll contact you.

13. Selling on A E T L I E R — application

Designer applications are reviewed, not automatic. Applying does not guarantee acceptance.

The R150 registration fee covers the review of your application and is non-refundable, including if your application is unsuccessful. It is a fee for the assessment, not a deposit against acceptance.

You must give accurate business and identity information and keep it current, and you are responsible for your own tax registration and returns. We may verify your details and may suspend a shop while verification is outstanding.

14. Plans, commission, and subscription billing

Every sale carries a platform commission, deducted from the sale before payout. The rate depends on your plan:

• Starter — free, up to 6 products, 15% commission.
• Pro — R199 / month or R1,990 / year, unlimited products, 10% commission.
• Studio — R499 / month or R4,990 / year, unlimited products, 7% commission.

Subscriptions are billed through Polar and renew automatically until cancelled. You can cancel any time from your billing settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid period, and subscription fees already paid are not refunded on a pro-rata basis. Downgrading may put you over a plan limit — if so, listings above the limit are hidden until you are back within it.

We may change plan pricing, commission rates, or plan features on 30 days' notice by email. If you don't accept a change, you may cancel before it takes effect. Changes never apply retroactively to sales already made.

15. Payouts

Proceeds are paid to the bank account on your designer profile, net of commission, refunds, chargebacks, and any amount you owe us. Payouts run on the cycle shown in your dashboard — weekly by default — subject to a minimum balance of R500, which rolls over until met. Keep your banking details correct: we aren't liable for a payment sent to details you supplied incorrectly.

We may withhold a payout while an order is disputed, a chargeback is open, or we are investigating suspected fraud, and we may set off what you owe us against amounts we hold for you.

16. Your obligations as a designer

• Meet our Quality Standards and honour our Returns Policy — both form part of your agreement with us.
• List accurately. Photographs, materials, measurements, and origin claims must be true, and stock levels must be real.
• Dispatch within the lead time on your listing, provide tracking, and respond to buyer messages within a reasonable time.
• Comply with the law that applies to what you make and where you sell it — product safety, labelling, consumer protection, and tax.
• Don't divert buyers off-platform to avoid commission, and don't manipulate your own reviews or rankings.

17. Designer content and licence

You keep ownership of your brand, designs, photography, and copy. You grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, resize, and reproduce that content to run the platform and to promote it and your work — on the site, in editorial, in email, and on social channels. The licence continues for material already published in editorial or marketing after you leave, and otherwise ends when your listings come down.

You confirm you hold the rights to everything you upload, including model, photographer, and third-party textile releases, and that it infringes no one else's rights.

18. Suspension and removal

We may suspend or remove a listing, a shop, or an account where there is a breach of these terms, a legal requirement, a serious or repeated quality or accuracy failure, suspected fraud, or a pattern of unresolved buyer complaints. Where circumstances allow, we give notice and an opportunity to fix the problem first; where the risk to buyers is immediate, we may act first and explain after.

On termination, you must fulfil orders already placed. We'll pay out amounts properly due once the return window on those orders has closed. Registration and subscription fees are not refunded on termination for breach.

19. Designer indemnity

You indemnify A E T L I E R against claims, losses, and reasonable legal costs arising from the pieces you sell, your content, or your breach of these terms — including product liability and intellectual property claims. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach or negligence.

20. Liability

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits liability that cannot lawfully be excluded — including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, and rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act.

Subject to that, we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss of data, and our total liability to you in connection with any order is limited to the amount you paid for that order. Because the contract of sale is with the designer, claims about a piece itself lie against the designer — though we'll help you reach a resolution, and our Returns Policy applies regardless.

21. Complaints and disputes

Please raise problems with us first at hello@aetlier.shop — most are resolved quickly. If we can't resolve it, you may refer a consumer complaint to the National Consumer Commission or an accredited consumer-goods ombud. These terms are governed by South African law, and the courts of South Africa have jurisdiction.

22. Privacy

How we handle personal information is set out in our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, which form part of these terms. In short: we process your data to run the platform, we don't sell it, and you can exercise your POPIA and GDPR rights at privacy@aetlier.shop.

23. General

• Changes. We may update these terms. Material changes are notified on-site or by email, and the version number above changes. Continuing to use the platform after a change means you accept it. The terms that apply to an order are the ones in force when you placed it.
• Severability. If a provision is unenforceable, the rest stands.
• No waiver. Not enforcing a term isn't giving it up.
• Assignment. You may not transfer your rights under these terms without our consent; we may transfer ours as part of a reorganisation or sale of the business.
• Whole agreement. These terms, together with the Returns, Privacy, Cookie, and Quality Standards documents, are the whole agreement between us.

24. Contact

General: hello@aetlier.shop · Returns: returns@aetlier.shop · Privacy: privacy@aetlier.shop

25. Related documents

Returns Policy · Privacy Policy · Cookie Policy · Cookie Settings · Quality Standards

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