Risk, Compliance & Accessibility

When you start selling direct to consumers, you take on new responsibilities. In wholesale, the retailer carries much of the burden for customer rights, product information, and online experience. In D2C, that responsibility falls on you. Managing risk, staying compliant, and ensuring accessibility aren’t just legal obligations – they are foundations of customer trust.

Understanding Risk in D2C

The risks of going direct are different from those you’re used to. Instead of dealing with a small number of trade customers, you’re now exposed to thousands of individual transactions. That means more potential for returns, chargebacks, or service complaints. You’re also collecting and storing personal data, which carries its own responsibilities.

The first step in managing risk is visibility. Create a simple risk register that lists potential issues, their likelihood, and what you would do if they happened. For example, what happens if your site goes down during a peak sales period? Or if a product safety issue is raised by customers? Having a plan doesn’t remove risk, but it reduces the damage when things go wrong.

Compliance: Playing by the Rules

Compliance is about meeting the legal and regulatory standards that apply to online sales. For UK manufacturers, this usually means:

• Consumer rights: Customers have a 14-day cooling-off period for most online purchases and must be given clear information about pricing, delivery, and returns. Refunds need to be processed promptly.

• Product safety and trading standards: Items must be tested, labelled, and documented correctly, particularly for categories like electronics, food, or children’s products.

• Data protection and privacy: Personal data must be handled under GDPR rules. That means clear privacy notices, consent for marketing, and the right for customers to access or delete their data.

• Payments: You should use secure, PCI-compliant payment providers and have fraud monitoring in place.

These requirements can feel daunting, but most are simply about being fair and transparent. Customers want to know what they are buying, what happens if it goes wrong, and that their data and money are safe.

Accessibility: Serving Every Customer

Accessibility is often overlooked but it is both a legal requirement and good business practice. It means making your website usable for all people, including those with disabilities.

At a basic level, this involves ensuring text is legible, colour contrast is strong, and images have alt text for screen readers. Navigation should be possible with a keyboard as well as a mouse, and forms should be clearly labelled with helpful error messages.

Accessibility benefits everyone. Clear labels, simple layouts, and fast-loading pages make sites easier to use for all customers, not just those with additional needs. Failing to meet these standards not only risks complaints or penalties but also shuts out potential buyers who want to shop with you.

Key Takeaway

Risk, compliance, and accessibility may not be the most glamorous parts of ecommerce, but they are some of the most important. They protect your business, reassure your customers, and give you the licence to grow.

Start simple: write clear policies, check product safety requirements, set up proper consent and privacy processes, and run a basic accessibility audit of your site. Over time, formalise these into a risk register, regular reviews, and a plan for improvements.

Handled well, these areas don’t just keep you safe – they strengthen your reputation and make your D2C brand more resilient.