Frequently Asked Questions

Our terms are attached below, we hope they are straightforward and fair but happy to take any feedback or questions, please just email us on support@goethical.com

We take keeping your data private seriously and want to respect your wishes when managing your data while providing you the service we promise. We comply with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) when dealing with all data received from users of our website or app.  We will only hold the data necessary to offer services provided on our website or app and for as long as necessary, once the data is no longer required we will delete it. When you delete your account we will also delete your personal data unless you have subscribed separately to our email newsletters.  Your data will allow users of the service to buy and sell and also communicate with each other as required. In addition we will also need to contact you from time to time to ensure the service is delivered.  If you are signed up to our email newsletters you can unsubscribe  anytime by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email. Any email we send you will be clearly marked from GoEthical. 

Please also be reassured that we will never sell your data.  Our full privacy policy can be found here if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us on support@goethical.com

If you’re creating an account and you close the app part way, don’t worry your progress will be saved. Rather than signing-up with the same details as you left off, try signing-in to complete your account.

To delete your GoEthical account, go to, My Profile> Setting> Delete Account. You won’t be able to delete your account if you have any pending orders or live transactions.

Check spam/junk. Sometimes some emails can end up there, but to ensure consistent reliability in receiving emails be sure to add our email address as a contact in your address book.

You can have  more than one account, however you will need to have a secondary email address to do this.

If you forgot your password tap on the ‘Forgot password’ link at the bottom of the sign-in page and follow the instructions.

GoEthical is the home to curated ethical brands, unique artisan items and preloved favourites,  buying directly from all these sellers under one roof.

To buy something you’ll first need to download our app on the iOS app store here or google play here. You don’t need to register to browse our shop, you can visit as a guest, however when you go to add items to your basket you will need to set up an account, which can be done in a few simple steps. Items will remain in your basket until you check out or remove them. This will mean that you can easily order time and time again as well as being able to set your preferences, view your order history, create your shop and view your sales history (if you’re selling preloved or artisan) as well as follow favourite brands, create a wish list and make the most of the lifestyle functionality. These are all achieved in a few easy steps.

When checking out – you can buy multiple items from multiple sellers and if you buy more than one items from one of the ethical brands you only pay a single postage charge rather than per product (  you’ll see this at checkout when you pay) so to really benefit order multiple  products per seller. Delivery charges are clearly shown under the product price prior to adding the product to your basket.

We are committed to reducing environmental impact in retail and key to this is ensuring transparency where we can. There are three types of product sold on GoEthical including; our ethical brands, artisan products and preloved items. To buy from ethical brands confidently, we ensure our sellers assign their products to one or more GoEthical Badges to provide visibility to customers of which ethical standard their products aligns to. Due to the expense of attaining certifications some smaller brands and manufacturers may not have received industry recognition but have adhered to the standards, our GoEthical Criteria helps ensure this is recognised and is more transparent. 

Firstly you can recognise our vetted ethical brands as they will have our eco-values against their products which shows that they have successfully been through our vetting process, then each product shows up to four of our 13 values (which you can find here) against each of their products. You can also hear more about the sellers story and in some cases watch videos and read more about other certified accreditations that they have.

The vetting process is based on our checking of the brands own self declaration as part of the registration process.

When choosing ethical fashion, a number of factors can be considered that may help you determining what is right for you, including:

Sustainable clothing:

• Does the brand support fair wages and the welfare of its workers?
• What actions have been taken by the company to support sustainable livelihoods?
• What has the manufacturer done to raise awareness of sustainability issues?


Eco-friendly clothing:

• Are the products manufactured from eco-friendly materials?
• Has the brand taken any action to minimise the use of water?
• What are the steps taken by the manufacturer to address the problem of waste management and energy efficiency?


Organic clothing:

• Are toxic chemicals used during the manufacturing process?
• Is the clothing hypoallergenic? i.e. causes no irritation upon contact with skin
• Avoids the use of GM (genetically modified) plants, which generate plants with larger yields
• Look out for organic accreditations such as the Better Cotton Initiative


Cruelty free clothing:

• Are animal rights being infringed by the company?
• Is the product vegan or are any animal products (e.g. leather) used?


Ethical policies:

Does the clothing brand have ethical policies? e.g. Toms Shoes donate one pair of shoes to charity for every pair purchased

ensure the app has no fake items in the preloved section, however, sometimes a few may slip through or we don’t get there in time. To assist us in improving your experience please report any items that look suspicious or non-genuine. Never hesitate to communicate with the seller with anything regarding their product.  If in doubt report the product or seller and we will investigate to rectify the issue. Tips on how to spot a fake item:

The item is well below retail price

For example, if the item is below usual retail price such as a pair of running shoes for £15 when they are usually £70, it could indicate that they are fake. Sometimes great deals do occur but if an expensive item is listed at an extremely low price, think twice and if it seems suspicious you should report the product. To do so: tap on the flag on the top right of the product or Seller’s profile.

Listen to the community

Checking a seller’s reviews can assist in identifying whether they are selling fake items. If the reviews are negative it is most likely their products may be fake, or the quality is extremely poor. 

Do the images match the description?

If the description of the product is written poorly, not detailed, is ambiguous or just doesn’t seem to fit the product, this can indicate that something is suspicious. 

Check the fine detail

Expensive items usually flourish in all areas of a product listing. For example: the image quality will be clear and well presented, the description and specification will also be well presented, well worded and detailed.

Ask lots of questions if you’re unsure

If you are unsure whether a product is real or fake, ask the seller for more pictures and information. If they are unwilling to provide this, think twice before making the purchase.

We love our community, and we are always striving to keep it a great place. Here’s how to make a purchase safely:

Always pay ‘in the app’

This ensures if something goes wrong, you can promptly rectify the situation. Completing a payment outside of the app comes with risks such as fraud, violence, scamming or robbery. 

Carrying out in-app transactions will help ensure you not faced with these problems and are more protected from all as such issues.

All buyers and sellers must complete transactions within the app even if you are personally meeting the seller to pick up the item. By completing transactions within the app, this will help ensure any future refunding of the order is hassle free. If buying preloved ask the seller for a tracking ID to help ensure safe delivery


Never pay for an item via bank transfer, concealed cash or any other out of app methods – this is strictly against our advice.

Always check the seller’s reviews

Seller’s reviews indicate whether the seller is reliable or whether their products are of a good standard. If a seller has poor reviews and a low rating, it may well indicate that the seller’s items are faulty, or the seller operates at a below-average standard. If you see that a seller’s items are of low quality or that they have a substantial amount of negative reviews and are unethical, please report that user or product listing so the GoEthical team can help rectify the issues all the while improving your experience.

Ask the seller about their return and refund policy

Does the seller offer a return and refund policy? Please check the individuals’ refund and returns policy on the policies section of their store.  GoEthical does not deal directly with refunds or returns as the sale is made directly between you and the seller.

You can find lots of information on the internet about accredited ethical sustainable organisations and their official labels and logos but try here for starters if you’re interested in finding out more:

• • UK: http://www.ecolabelindex.com/ecolabels/?st=country,gb  
  • Europe: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/eu-ecolabel-for-consumers.html  
  • USA: http://www.ecolabelindex.com/ecolabels/?st=country,us  

In addition you can find out about each of our ethical sellers, they will have at least one of our 13 GoEthical badges and some may have additional accredited badges as well.  We hope this helps.

Yes you can make multiple purchases from different sellers, each item will be added to your basket under one order.  Your order confirmation email will show all items under one order number.  Please note each seller will then dispatch your items at different times so please check with the seller about dispatch and delivery times. You will receive individuals dispatch notices by seller.

At checkout you will be asked for your payment card preference, as all payments are sent from you, directly to the seller.  You can store your favourite card payment option in your account settings and also add additional cards as you need to. It’s really simple to set up and change when prompted at checkout or account set up. Your money will be taken when the product is dispatched and processed using GoEthicals payment gateway – Stripe. This means that your payment and details are held securely and processed by Stripe, which is a highly secure and PCI Level 1 service provider. You can find more information here if you want to understand more about this.

Once your payment has been processed you will receive a payment receipt per seller that states your order ID and your card statement will show GoEthical or the seller name directly.

Delivery is made by the seller to the buyer. Sellers are directly responsible to package and send items to the buyer. Delivery times will vary by seller but typically should be no more than 5 days unless stated. The seller may share tracking data directly with you. If for whatever reason, the seller has not dispatched the order within a 14-day period, the order will automatically be canceled and no money will be taken. 

To cancel an order, go to – Account > My orders > Buying orders > Find the order you wish to cancel > Tap Cancel order. You will be able to cancel the order up until it is dispatched. If an item has already been dispatched, you will also be unable to cancel your order.

For orders made via a GoEthical Seller, please refer to the Sellers own terms and conditions. To return an item, contact the seller directly by email through their seller’s profile page. If you buy a pre-loved item, the seller may not want it returned. However, in most cases, the seller will work with you to return your item. The seller may provide a returns policy in which you will need to meet their return policy to return a product.
To get a refund, you must contact the seller to action a refund.  Please check and adhere to the seller’s refund and returns policy which can be found under policies on their shop.

If your order has been dispatched and you have not received your order within 5 days, you should contact the seller directly and ask about expected delivery timeline.

Firstly if you have an issue with a seller, please contact them directly in the first instance, however if you are unable to resolve please contact us directly  by tapping on > Account > Settings > Contact Support > support@goethical.com
 We will be more than happy to address your complaints or feedback and try and support a resolution between you and the seller.

You can also report a product listing, by tapping on the flag icon at the top right-hand side of the screen. Then select a reason why you are reporting the product and provide a short description. In addition once you have ordered a product  that has been dispatched and have an issue at this stage, in your order history you can Raise a dispute regarding item quality or detail .The GoEthical team will then investigate the report and take necessary action if required. 

Please note GoEthical do not deal with orders, returns or refunds. Please contact your seller directly with any complaints.  Please see Terms & Conditions

You need to be living in the UK to sell artisan and pre-loved goods. This enables us to support UK artisans and share the best of British handmade products with you. This app based sales service is aimed at UK based individuals looking to sell their preloved items, or handmade crafts, as well as enabling small scale handmade crafts items to be sold. Our ethical brands are vetted and details of how to sell these can be found under the I’m a Seller FAQ section.

Setting up your shop in the app takes a few simple steps. First create an account as a seller, add your bank details from the account section and begin selling. You won’t be able to list a product until you have added your bank account. We recommend including as much information in your store description to give customers some flavour of your store.

To list an item in the app head over to the home screen. Tap on the black plus icon and follow on screen instructions to list an item. Feeling a bit stuck? Contact support@goethical.com

We aim to make GoEthical one of the easiest platforms to sell products. To enhance your chances of becoming a successful seller, here are a few simple tips:

Use high quality images

To boost your chance of selling an item, ensure your product image is taken in a well-lit environment, simple background and in high resolution.

Sell at a reasonable price

Make sure your item isn’t over-priced. Double-check the retail standard and what your competitors are selling the item for, if you’re really eager on selling the product, drop the price below your retail standard and that of your competitors.

Add 10 images to your product listing

You’ve got an awesome product to sell, so show it off! You can add up to five images on your listing, make sure you do as buyers will want to see as much of your product as they can. Every image increases your chance of successfully selling the item.

Be creative

The best descriptions are usually short, sharp and straight to the point of what your product has to offer. Providing a creative description of your product is vital to engaging buyers further, if your description is too long, buyers may become uninterested.  However, if it is too short buyers may not understand what your product does. Ensuring your description is best suited to the product is key.

Describe & Specify in detail

Provide an accurate and detailed account of your product to improve the chances of success and reduce any potential misunderstandings of what your product includes.

Always use tracking numbers

Make sure you provide the buyer with a tracking number once you have dispatched the order. This way the buyer can track their order, but more importantly, you will have proof that the item has arrived if the buyer decides to raise a dispute and claims they never received their product.

• Keep it simple – don’t over complicate your picture, your photos are more likely to stand out on a small screen if you keep it simple

• Good lighting – Make sure that your product has a strong evenly spread light, avoid images with shadows on the product

• Take photos of products in good areas – Take a photo of the product where it looks best. If it’s an item of clothing, take a photo wearing it

• Shoot from different perspectives and angles – Images from different perspectives are intriguing, try shooting from a few angles to get the best photos

To edit your listings go to your store, tap on any product you wish to edit. At the top right you’ll see an edit icon, tap on this and begin editing.

When sending an item – just package your item and send it to the buyer. When you list an item make sure you enter in your delivery cost. *TOP TIP* you can also include the delivery cost in the price and set delivery as free. Please use sustainable or recycled packaging as much as you can.

• As a buyer you can choose to have the items in your basket delivered to multiple addresses, however to do this you will need to check out the items separately for those that you want to ship to a different address. You can save as many addresses as you wish in checkout.
• For personalisation and gift messaging, you will have the option to add personalisation before proceeding, if the seller does not offer personalisation this option won’t be available. For all products you will have the option to add a gift message before proceeding to check out, certain products offer gift wrapping however this is made available by the seller and is not available for all products.

Not receiving notifications? Head into your device settings and go to ‘Notifications’. Make sure these are turned on and specifically turned on for GoEthical. 

For emails, check spam/junk. Sometimes some emails can end up there, but to ensure consistent reliability in receiving emails be sure to add our email address as a contact in your email.


Once you’ve made a sale be sure to check your orders in the app to view the full order details. We recommend if you aren’t able to dispatch within 24hrs to let the buyer know their item will soon be on the way.

Just before you post the item make sure to mark it as dispatched, this makes sure of two things:

1. The buyer can no longer cancel the order
2. Your payment will be initiated to you and be in your account with 7-10 working days.

To mark an item dispatched, tap on the ‘Mark as dispatched’ button the order details screen.

As a buyer to cancel an item go to > Orders click on the order you wish to cancel and cancel it. This will inform the seller that the order has been cancelled.

As a seller to refund the order go into your Orders, click on the order you wish to refund. You can enter a partial amount of a full amount. All orders will require a full refund of the amount unless you have agreed otherwise with the buyer. Platform and payment fees will not be refunded to the seller.

Our fees are transparent and based on the principle of simplicity while ensuring the app remains free from adverts and noise by charging a fee on sale only. When you sell an item, GoEthical will automatically deduct a service fee based on the total value of your transaction (including shipping costs and any VAT if applicable). This charge will be deducted directly from your bank account, credit or debit card that you have registered with. To see our full breakdown, see ‘Fees’ at https://www.goethical.com/fees

On place of an order, you may notice difference amounts listed on your bank statement which may appear as a duplicate charge – these are authorisation holds. If you’re wondering what authorisation holds are, there’s no need to worry – these amounts will not be charged. They are temporary holds that are automatically voided. The amounts held are either the price when you purchased the item(s) or other small nominal amounts.

Our terms are attached below, we hop ethey are straightforward and fair but happy to take any feedback or questions, please just email us on support@GoEthical.com.

We take keeping your data private seriously and want to respect your wishes when managing your data while providing you the service we promise. We comply with the principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) when dealing with all data received from users of our website or app.  We will only hold the data necessary to offer services provided on our website or app and for as long as necessary, once the data is no longer required we will delete it. When you delete your account we will also delete your personal data unless you have subscribed separately to our email newsletters.  Your data will allow users of the service to buy and sell and also communicate with each other as required. In addition we will also need to contact you from time to time to ensure the service is delivered.  If you are signed up to our email newsletters you can unsubscribe anytime by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each email. Also any email we send you will be clearly marked from GoEthical. 

As a GoEthical seller brand, we will ensure we share monthly news with you as part of delivering our service, this includes tips, latest company news, promotional periods and how you can get more involved.

Please also be reassured that we will never sell your data.  Our full privacy policy can be found here if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact us on enquiries@GoEthical.com.

To sell as an approved GoEthical seller, you will need to have an ethical brand, with an inventory of products and a website shop. The GoEthical team will then review your application and notify you of your successful or unsuccessful application.

Take advantage of GoEthicals free Seller Dashboard functionality by registering as a GoEthical Seller.  For brands and sellers of ethical products; the Seller Dashboard will provide rapid access to upload products in bulk, manage your inventory and sales whilst connecting directly with your customers.

If you don’t meet our criteria then, it may be better to register  directly on the Get the App button,


Being an approved GoEthical seller is a brand, retailer or manufacturer of ethical, sustainable products, and enables you to showcase your strengths through our badge system that allows you to standout with customers who are passionate about these values. So it helps a quicker match of customers with brands that reflect their own values and preferences whilst differentiating you as a seller from other artisan or pre-loved sellers that don’t qualify for these eco-values in the same way.

GoEthical recognises the expense of attaining official eco label certifications, some smaller manufacturers and brands may not have received industry-standard recognition but have followed the standards and guidelines.  So as an approved GoEthical seller you can select up to four of 13 GoEthical eco values including: Eco-Friendly, Sustainable, Cruelty Free, Vegan, Plant Based, Organic, Natural, Plastic Free, Zero Waste Living, Made in Britain, Handmade, Social Impact and Third Party Certified. (You can find the value descriptors here)

Your badges will be showcased against each of your products to highlight those values.

GoEthical expects all Sellers that do not hold formal eco labels to adhere to ethical and sustainable standards and to confirm they meet the relevant criteria.  For brands and sellers with products containing ingredients; they must show their full list of ingredients transparently. They must also confirm how and where they are sourced from and that they are not tested on animals during any of the sourcing or manufacturing process.

Badges can be removed from sellers and businesses at any time if their account no longer meets the badge criteria selected upon application.

See our GoEthical Eco value/badge  criteria link.

You need to be living in the UK to sell artisan and pre-loved goods. To sell ethical brands your company or distribution centre needs to be based in the UK, with a UK VAT number ( if you’re eligible). This enables us to support UK businesses and share the best of British ethical and handmade products with you.

There are a number of things required by sellers to ensure they are operating legally and compliant with UK law. There are three main areas that GoEthical would expect all sellers to comply with including: product safety, GDPR and data privacy, and consumer rights. 

1. Product safety and Compliance
A number of laws cover the sale and development of your products so it is worth ensuring you understand which apply to your products and that you are compliant with The General Product Safety Regulations as well as ones that may apply specifically to your products:

• The Toy Safety Regulations
• The Furniture and Furnishings Safety Regulations
• The Food Hygiene Regulations ( and the Food Imitation safety Regulations)
• The Nickel in Jewelry Regulations
• The EU regulation 1223/2009 – cosmetic regulations and The Cosmetics Products (Safety) Regulations 2008

In addition to ensuring your product is compliant you must also ensure that you operate your business in a compliant way by adhering to:

1. GDPR and Data Privacy
Use of personal data for marketing reasons are taken seriously, some examples include: only using your customer data for the purpose it was collected which in this case if for delivering the service e.g. delivery confirmation, tracking ID’s, dealing with queries, but don’t add these details to mailing lists for marketing purposes unless you have their explicit consent separately for this use of data. Of course if anyone asks you to delete their data then please do so if requested, as well as ensuring that you store their data securely. Further information on the GDPR regulation can be found here. Our privacy policy can also be found here.

Consumer Rights
Consumer Contracts Regulations, which cover your legal obligations for selling online and by distance and relate to the consumers legal rights. This covers everything from cancellations, returns policy, lost items and provision of delivery details. Further information on Consumer Contracts Regulations can be found here.

Once registered as a seller we’ll be in touch, this may be up to 3 days as we verify your registration so hang tight. Once verified we’ll give you a call to help set up your store and confirm some details about your account, if we’re unable to get hold of you we will reach out by email.

If you forgot your password tap on the ‘Forgot password’ link at the bottom of the sign-in page and follow the instructions.

To list a product log into your dashboard and select ‘Single product upload’ or ‘Bulk product upload and follow the on-screen instructions.

When sending an item – just package your item and send it to the buyer. When you list an item make sure you enter in your delivery cost and remember if someone buys more than one product they only pay postage once. Please use sustainable or recycled packaging as much as you can.  If you have a tracking number for your parcel then do share with the buyer buy email.

Our fees are transparent and based on the principle of simplicity while ensuring the app remains free from adverts and noise by charging a fee on sale only. When you sell an item, GoEthical will automatically deduct a service fee based on the total value of your transaction (including shipping costs and any VAT if applicable). This charge will be deducted directly from your bank account, credit or debit card that you have registered with. To see our full breakdown, see ‘Fees’ at https://www.goethical.com/fees

If you’re not receiving notifications head into your device settings and go to ‘Notifications’. Make sure these are turned on and specifically turned on for GoEthical. 

For emails, check spam/junk. Sometimes some emails can end up there, but to ensure consistent reliability in receiving emails be sure to add our email address as a contact in your email.

To edit your listings head to ‘My Shop’. On right hand side of the product you wish to edit you’ll see an edit icon, click on this and begin editing. Once edited you will need to click on ‘Submit’ and this will update your listing.


If you haven’t dispatched the product and the order was cancelled make sure to not send the product. You won’t need to refund the buyer or take any action as the payment is only taken once the order is marked as dispatched. Always make sure to mark the item as dispatched just prior sending it so that you will receive payment. 

If you accidentally forgot to mark the order as dispatched but you have sent the item, and the buyer has since cancelled it, don’t worry. First you should go into the order and mark it as dispatched. Then write to the buyer letting them know the order has already been fulfilled. Lastly offer a full refund in exchange for a return. 

To refund any order go into your Orders, click on the order you wish to refund. You can enter a partial amount of a full amount. All orders will require a full refund of the order value unless you have agreed otherwise with the buyer. Platform and payment fees will not be refunded to the seller.

GoEthical use Stripe as its payment gateway. Stripe is a straightforward payment gateway that processes credit/ debit card transactions. Please see https://stripe.com/en-se  Once a transaction has been dispatched, the customer payment will be triggered with stripe and you will be paid  within 7-14 days after this dispatch date, assuming all your payment and ID details are up todate.

GoEthical uses Stripe custom connect accounts. A Custom Stripe account is almost completely invisible to the account holder and is not accessible. Since Custom account holders can’t log into Stripe, we’re unable to connect your existing Stripe account to GoEthical.

“Know Your Customer” (KYC) obligations require Stripe to collect and maintain information on all Stripe account holders. These requirements come from our regulators and are intended to prevent abuse of the financial system.

https://support.stripe.com/questions/know-your-customer-obligations

When sending an item – just package your item and send it to the buyer. When you list an item make sure you enter in an average delivery cost. Please use sustainable or recycled packaging as much as you can. 

Please ensure that all packaging is robust and able to protect goods in transit. At the same time, we encourage all sellers to use materials, which don’t impact the environment (e.g. are biodegradable, sustainable, etc.)

The best possible way to package your item is to purchase an eco-friendly packaging, parcel or box or recycle packaging you already have at home, it’s so much better for the environment. GoEthical encourage all ethical sellers to use eco-friendly packaging.


To access your sales dashboard login directly at the top right of our website.

All buyers will have the option to add gift messages to an order, the details of the gift message will be made available within the order details. If your product offers personalization and you have made this available in your product listing, the details of personalization that the customer has entered will also appear in the order details.