Merchant terms

What you get, what we promise, and what happens if it goes wrong

These are the terms between ForgeLab and the business running a shop on it. Written to be read, not to hide behind. If anything here is unclear, ask before you sign up and we will explain it.

Who you are dealing with

ForgeLab is run by ForgeLab, a South African business owned by Jade Riley. Contact: [email protected] or WhatsApp 073 429 5517. In these terms "we" is ForgeLab, and "you" is the business with a shop on it.

What we provide

Software you use over the internet: a storefront your customers can buy from, an order book, product and customer records, and the tools around them. You get the features that exist on the day you sign up, plus whatever we add later.

We do not promise the service is never down. We run it carefully and we fix problems quickly, but we do not offer a guaranteed uptime figure, and you should not build a business that cannot survive an outage. If we ever do offer a guarantee it will be in writing and it will replace this paragraph.

Money

Your customers pay you, not us. Card payments run through your own Yoco or PayGate account and settle into your own bank account. We never hold, touch or route your money, and we take no cut of your sales.

You pay us a monthly fee for the software. We tell you the price before you start and we give you at least 30 days' notice by email before changing it. Fees are paid in advance. If a payment is more than 14 days late we may put your shop into the offline state until it is settled, and we will tell you before we do.

You are the seller

Everything you sell is yours to stand behind: your products, your prices, your descriptions, your delivery, your refunds, your tax. Your customers' contract is with you. If a customer has a complaint about an order, it is yours to resolve.

You agree not to use the platform to sell anything illegal, to send bulk email people did not ask for, or to break the law in any other way. That is the one thing we will suspend an account over without notice.

Your data is yours

Your products, orders and customer records belong to you. You can export them to CSV from your dashboard at any time, without asking us and without a fee. We do not sell your data or your customers' data to anyone, and we do not use your customer list for our own marketing.

If you leave, we keep your data for 30 days in case you come back or need a copy, then delete it. Ask us sooner and we will delete it sooner.

Handling your customers' personal information

When your customers order from your shop, we store their names, contact details and addresses on your behalf. Under POPIA you are the responsible party and we are your operator. That means:

  • We process that information only to run your shop, and only on your instructions.
  • We keep it secure with reasonable technical measures, including encrypted backups and encryption of stored payment credentials.
  • We do not use it for our own purposes and we do not give it to anyone else, except where the law requires it.
  • If we discover a security breach affecting your data, we tell you as soon as we reasonably can so you can meet your own obligations.
  • You can delete a customer's details from your dashboard at any time, which is how you answer a customer who asks you to erase them.

If something goes wrong

If the platform fails and it costs you, our total liability to you is capped at the fees you paid us in the three months before the problem. We are not liable for lost profit, lost sales or indirect losses beyond that cap.

That cap does not apply to anything the law does not let us limit, including our own fraud or gross negligence.

Ending it

You can stop at any time by telling us. Your shop stays up until the end of the month you have paid for, and there is no cancellation fee and no notice period. We can end it too, with 30 days' notice by email, or immediately if you are using the platform illegally.

Changes to these terms

If we change these terms we will email you at least 14 days before the new version applies. If you do not want the new terms, you can leave before they take effect. The version on this page when you placed an order is the version that covers it.

Law

South African law applies, and the South African courts have jurisdiction.

Last updated 10 August 2026.