Terms of service

These terms are an agreement between you, the seller, and Duka, of Nairobi, Kenya. They apply when you open a store on Duka or use the seller dashboard, the point of sale or the Duka Seller app. If you sign up for a business, you confirm you can agree on its behalf.

Our privacy policy explains how we handle personal data and is part of these terms.

• You must be 18 or older, and the details you give us must be true and kept up to date.
• Keep your password and your phone secure. Tell us straight away at [email protected] if you think someone else has used your account.
• You choose who joins your team and what they can do. You are responsible for what your team does in your store.
• Before your first payout you must verify your identity. We can ask for more information, and refuse or pause verification if something doesn't check out.

You own your products, photos, videos, text and brand. You give Duka permission to host, copy, resize, translate and show them, and to make previews and link cards from them, so we can run and promote your store on Duka and on the channels you connect. This permission ends when you remove the content or close your store, apart from copies in backups and records we must keep.

• Your prices, stock, descriptions and photos must be accurate, and you must have the right to use everything you upload.
• Check anything written or designed with AI before you publish it. You are responsible for it like anything else in your store.
• Follow Kenyan consumer law, including the Consumer Protection Act, 2012: show the full price, describe goods honestly and honour your stated policies.

You can't use Duka to sell or promote:

• anything illegal in Kenya, or that you need a licence for and don't have;
• counterfeit goods, or goods that infringe someone else's trademark, copyright or design;
• stolen goods;
• narcotics and other controlled drugs, and prescription medicines without the required pharmacy licence;
• firearms, ammunition, explosives and other weapons;
• protected wildlife and wildlife products, such as ivory or rhino horn;
• alcohol or tobacco without a licence, or to anyone under 18;
• pornography or sexual services;
• hazardous materials, recalled goods, or goods that fail Kenyan safety standards;
• fake documents, IDs, SIM cards registered to someone else, or personal data;
• gambling, pyramid or investment schemes, or anything meant to mislead or defraud.

We can remove listings or suspend a store that breaks these rules.

For your customers' personal data, you are the data controller and Duka is your data processor. We process it only to run Duka for you and as the law requires, keep it secure, use the providers listed in our privacy policy, and help you answer your customers' requests about their data.

• Use customer data only for their orders and your relationship with them, in line with the Data Protection Act, 2019.
• Send marketing messages only to customers who agreed to them, and respect STOP and other opt-outs.
• Don't spam, harass or mislead anyone through Duka's messaging tools.

• Payments through Duka. Shoppers pay by M-Pesa at checkout. Duka collects the payment and records your share of every order in its ledger.
• When money becomes available. Your share stays pending until the order is delivered, then becomes available after a short hold (currently two days) as long as there's no open return or case on it.
• Withdrawals. You withdraw to your verified M-Pesa payout number, with an SMS code, within the limits shown in your wallet. Changing your payout number pauses withdrawals for 48 hours. We review withdrawals and can delay one while we check for fraud or a legal issue.
• Your own till or paybill. If you connect your own M-Pesa, shoppers pay you directly. Any fees, refunds or other amounts your store owes Duka are then taken from your Duka balance or invoiced to you.
• Cash and pay on delivery. Money you or your riders collect in cash is your responsibility.
• Mistakes. If money is credited or paid out by mistake, we correct it with a reversing entry and you agree to return anything you weren't entitled to.
• Taxes. You are responsible for your own taxes, including VAT and KRA eTIMS invoices where they apply.

Duka is free to use right now: no monthly fee and no commission on your sales. We'll give you at least 30 days' notice before introducing plan fees or commission, so you can decide whether to stay.

A few optional extras cost money when you choose to use them, such as SMS messages, promoted listings and cash advances. The price is shown before you use them and is taken from your Duka balance. Shoppers pay delivery fees at checkout unless you offer free delivery.

• You choose how each order is delivered: Duka riders, pickup points, couriers or your own riders.
• Pack orders well and have them ready on time. Delivery times shown to shoppers are estimates.
• When you use your own riders, you are responsible for them and for the delivery.

• Shoppers buy from you, not from Duka. You handle their orders, returns and complaints, following your store's policies and Kenyan consumer law.
• Shoppers can ask for a return within your store's return window and can open a case about an order.
• Refunds come out of your pending or available balance. If your balance can't cover a refund, withdrawals pause until it can.
• If you and a shopper can't agree, Duka can review the case and decide it, including refunding the shopper from your balance.

You can close your store at any time: in the Duka Seller app go to Settings › Account › Delete account, or email [email protected]. Withdraw your balance and finish open orders first.

We can suspend your store, remove listings or hold payouts if you break these terms or the law, if we suspect fraud, if shoppers are at risk, or if the law requires it. We'll tell you why unless the law or safety stops us. Once open orders, refunds and cases are settled, we pay out the balance that is yours unless the law requires us to hold it.

We work to keep Duka available and secure, but we can't promise it will never be interrupted. We may change, add or remove features. Some parts depend on other companies, such as Safaricom, Meta and couriers, whose outages we don't control. Duka's software, designs and brand belong to Duka: don't copy, resell, reverse engineer or scrape them.

As far as the law allows:

• Duka isn't liable for indirect losses, such as lost profits, lost sales or lost data, or for failures of services we don't control.
• Our total liability to you for any claim is limited to the fees you paid Duka in the 12 months before the claim, or KES 10,000 if that is more.
• You will cover Duka's losses from claims about your products, your content or your breach of these terms.

None of this limits anything the law doesn't allow us to limit, or your right to the balance in your Duka wallet.

We may update these terms. We'll tell you by email or in the app before a significant change takes effect. If you keep using Duka after that, the new terms apply.

These terms are governed by the laws of Kenya. If you have a problem, write to [email protected] first and we'll try to sort it out. If we can't, the courts of Kenya sitting in Nairobi decide.

Duka, Nairobi, Kenya. Email [email protected], or see our support page.