Terms of Service

Helemart is a platform that lets merchants in Ethiopia sell through Telegram and a website: a storefront in a Telegram bot and Mini App, a public web storefront, order and inventory tools, and notifications. Helemart is not the seller. Each store is run by an independent merchant, and a sale is an agreement between the shopper and that merchant.

• Orders. Placing an order is a request to buy. It is confirmed when the merchant accepts it, and you will be told on Telegram. A merchant may decline an order, for example if an item is unavailable.
• Payment is cash on delivery. You pay the merchant in cash when your order is delivered or when you collect it. Helemart does not take payment online and does not hold your money.
• Prices, stock and delivery. Merchants set their own prices, stock, delivery areas and delivery fees. The total shown at checkout, including any delivery fee, is what you pay. Please give an accurate phone number and address.
• Problems with an order. Quality, delivery, returns and refunds are between you and the merchant. Contact the store first; its phone number is on the store page. If you can’t resolve it, tell us and we will try to help, but we cannot force a merchant to refund or replace anything.

• You must be 18 or older, give accurate information, and be authorised to sell what you list.
• You are responsible for your Telegram account and for login codes sent to you. Don’t share them.
• You are responsible for your listings (descriptions, photos, prices and stock), for fulfilling orders you accept, for your dealings with your customers, and for any taxes and licences that apply to your business.
• Orders you accept are commitments to your customers. Keep your stock, delivery areas and fees up to date, and use the order tools to keep customers informed.
• You keep ownership of the content you upload. You give us permission to store it and show it in your store, in the bot and Mini App, on the website, and in posts to your Telegram channel that you ask us to make.

You may not use Helemart to:

• sell anything illegal in Ethiopia, including illegal drugs, weapons, stolen goods, counterfeit or fake goods, or anything that exploits people;
• mislead customers, take orders you don’t intend to fulfil, or collect money outside the agreed cash-on-delivery arrangement under false pretences;
• upload content that is unlawful, abusive, sexually explicit or that infringes someone else’s rights;
• send spam, harvest other people’s data, or try to break, overload or gain unauthorised access to the service;
• pretend to be another person or business.

We may remove listings or suspend stores that break these rules, or that we reasonably believe put shoppers at risk.

Helemart works through Telegram, and using it means you also follow Telegram’s own terms. We can message you only after you have started a chat with our bot or allowed it to message you when you log in with Telegram. Telegram is not responsible for Helemart and is not a party to your orders.

Helemart is free for merchants during launch — see the Pricing page. If we introduce fees we will announce them clearly in advance, and they will not apply to anything you have already done.

We work to keep Helemart running and accurate, but we provide it “as is”, and it may sometimes be unavailable, delayed or contain errors, including because Telegram is unavailable. To the extent the law allows, Helemart is not liable for merchants’ goods or conduct, for orders that go wrong between a shopper and a merchant, or for indirect losses such as lost profit. Nothing here limits any right you have under the law that cannot be limited.

You can stop using Helemart at any time. Merchants can ask us to close their store and delete their data. We may suspend or end access for anyone who breaks these terms or misuses the service. Orders already placed remain the merchant’s and customer’s to settle.

How we handle personal data is described in our Privacy Policy.

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows the latest version, and we will tell merchants on Telegram about significant changes. Continuing to use Helemart after a change means you accept it. These terms are governed by the laws of Ethiopia. Questions about them: see the Contact page.