AOW Platform Rules

1. Joining requirements

Merchant account

• Create a merchant account with your email, and link a mobile number by SMS code before you submit an application. One account can open up to 5 stores.
• Before you submit an application, you must tick the box to accept the AOW Merchant Services Agreement, the AOW Merchant Privacy Policy and these rules.

Online stores

• What to provide: region and type of business (company or sole trader); the company's full name, registration number, registered address and business licence (or local business registration); the legal representative's name and ID; a contact person (name, mobile number and email are all required); the store name, logo, description and main product category; brand documents (a trademark registration certificate for every brand, plus a brand authorisation letter if you are an authorised reseller or sell several brands); a shipping address and a return address (every field completed, and the return address must include a recipient and phone number); and an after-sales phone number.
• If you sell staple food, nutrition or health products for dogs and cats (treats do not count): in the China region you must join as a company with paid-in capital of at least RMB 500,000, upload a screenshot of the capital contribution page from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, provide a feed production licence (if you make the product), an imported feed registration certificate (if you import it) or the brand owner's qualifications and authorisation (if you resell it), and pass AOW's qualification review; each such product needs label photos and a third-party quality test report from within the last year. In Australia, the United States and Canada, each such product needs label photos and a ticked declaration that it meets local pet food rules (AS 5812 in Australia, FDA and AAFCO in the United States, CFIA in Canada).
• After your application is approved, you pay the deposit (the amounts are in the AOW Merchant Services Agreement); products can only be listed once it is paid in full.

Physical stores

• First choose the country the store is in. Public details: the store name, business categories (you can choose several; the first one is your main category, which sets your deal commission), description, address (it must be findable on the map), opening hours, and 3 to 30 photos (the first must show the shopfront, with the store name and street number visible). If bookings are needed, you must give your available booking times and a booking phone number. Describe how pet friendly the store is truthfully.
• Seen only by AOW reviewers: the applicant and their role (owner, director or legal representative, or authorised employee, who must upload an authorisation letter), the name on the licence or registration, the applicant's ID (front and back of a passport, ID card or driver licence), and store verification (a 30-second video taken on site, or a phone call from AOW to the store).
• The licences and permits you need depend on your region and business categories, as set out in the table below. Items marked "required" must be provided; provide the others if they apply to you. Anything with an expiry date cannot be submitted once it has expired.

AOW does not collect Australian TFNs, US Social Security Numbers or Canadian Social Insurance Numbers. The requirements for pet breeding and pet adoption are in their own sections below.

Review

• AOW staff review your application. We may check numbers against official public registers, and may ask for more documents, a video taken on site or a phone call to verify.
• Common reasons an application is not approved: documents are missing, unreadable or do not match what you entered; a licence or permit has expired or is invalid; a registration number cannot be verified; the country you chose does not match the location on the map; the store cannot be verified; or the scope of business on your licence does not match the store you want to open. If it is not approved, we will tell you why, and you can fix it and resubmit.
• Once a physical store is approved, it shows the "AOW verified" badge on the AOW map. This only means AOW has checked the documents you provided. It does not mean AOW guarantees your products or services.
• Once an online store is approved, its company, brand and ID details are locked; contact AOW to change them. The contact person, after-sales phone number and addresses can be changed at any time. For physical stores, changes to photos, opening hours, description, phone number, website, pet-friendly details, booking times and booking phone number take effect straight away; changes to the store name, categories, address, ID or licences go back to review, and the store's deals cannot be bought during that review.

2. Review of products and deals

Every product and deal must be approved before it goes on sale. Once you submit it, AI takes a first look, usually within a few minutes:

1. if the AI finds no problem, it goes on sale straight away;
2. if it clearly breaks these rules and the AI can give a reason, the AI sends it back straight away, saying that it did not pass the AI's first review, which rule it broke (for example, exaggerated health claims) and how to fix it;
3. if the AI is unsure, could not complete the check, or has not finished within 10 minutes of submission, it goes to AOW staff for a manual review.

• Staple food, nutrition and health products for dogs and cats are always checked again by AOW staff, whatever the AI says (they need to look at the qualifications and labels).
• If something is sent back, you can fix it and resubmit. If you think it was sent back by mistake, you can ask for a human review under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre.
• If you change the name, tagline, description, pictures (including description images), category or target animals of a product on sale, it goes back to review; changes only to the price, stock or shipping take effect straight away. If you change the title, pictures, content or validity period of a deal on sale, it goes back to review; changes only to the price, stock or purchase limit take effect straight away.
• Before you submit products, you must set up your shop front in the merchant centre (logo, banner and description). Deals can only be listed once the physical store is approved, and each deal needs at least one picture.
• If AOW staff find that a product or deal already on sale breaks the rules, they can take it down and will tell you why. Anything taken down has to be reviewed again before it goes back on sale.

3. Prohibited and restricted items

No online store or physical store may sell the following. Where the AI finds a clear breach, it sends the listing back straight away, without passing it to staff:

Online stores sell pet supplies: anything an ordinary pet shop may not sell cannot be sold in an online store either.

The following are not necessarily against the rules, but the AI will never approve them on its own; they always go to AOW staff:

• staple food, nutrition and health products for dogs and cats;
• medical or veterinary services in deals (such as vaccinations or desexing), alcohol, and services that need a licence;
• borderline wording, or pictures that cannot be read;
• phone numbers, social media accounts or QR codes that may lead customers away from AOW.

4. How to describe products and deals

• Describe things truthfully: the name, pictures, description, options and price must match what you actually sell, and the pictures must show the product or service itself.
• Show genuine prices: crossed-out prices and regular store prices must be real prices. Deal pages automatically show the total including the payment service fee.
• No exaggerated health claims: do not claim that something cures a condition, permanently fixes it or is guaranteed to fix it.
• How pet friendly your store is, your available booking times and whether bookings are needed must match what really happens at the store.
• Do not take customers off AOW: do not leave contact details or QR codes on product pages, deal pages, store pages or in chats to get customers to pay outside AOW (rule 5 of the AOW Community Guidelines).
• Respect other people's rights: do not copy other people's pictures or text, and do not infringe trademarks.

5. Prices, stock and regions

• Your store belongs to the region you chose when you applied, and products are priced in that region's currency. You can also sell a product in other regions by entering a separate price for each region (shipping and free-shipping thresholds can also be set per region). If you tick a region but do not enter a price for it, that region is removed automatically.
• Products can have options (such as size or colour), with price and stock set for each option. Each product can have up to 20 product photos, 30 description images and 30 options.
• When stock is set to 0 or sells out, the product is taken off sale automatically. You can change prices and stock in bulk, and price changes do not need another review.

6. Shipping and tracking

• An order only appears in the merchant centre once the customer's payment succeeds. Please ship promptly. Until you ship, the customer can cancel at any time and is refunded straight away, and you do not need to ship a cancelled item.
• When you ship, choose the carrier from the list and enter the tracking number. AOW tracks the parcel (through 17TRACK), and both you and the customer can see its progress. If you entered the wrong tracking number, you can change it in the order details, and tracking starts again from the new number.
• You can only ship to the order's region: a customer's delivery address is always in the region of the shop they bought from.
• Before you ship, the customer can change the delivery address once. Once you and the customer have agreed, you can also change it in the merchant centre (only for your own items in that order, as many times as needed), and the new address must still be in the order's region. Each change is notified to the other side and recorded in the order.
• Before you ship, the customer can switch an item to a different option once (same product, same price, in stock). AOW makes the change straight away and tells you, so please ship the new option.
• Any note the customer writes for you when ordering can be seen in the order.
• If tracking has shown the parcel as delivered for 7 days and the customer has not tapped "Confirm receipt", AOW confirms it for them; if delivery cannot be seen in tracking, we wait for the customer to confirm.
• If you need to cancel an order (for example, because you are out of stock), do it before shipping and give a reason; the customer is refunded. Items that have already been paid out cannot be refunded in the merchant centre; contact AOW instead.

7. After-sales

• After an item ships and before the customer confirms receipt, the customer can ask for after-sales service at any time; they can also ask within 7 days after confirming receipt. There are three kinds: return and refund, refund only, and exchange. The customer chooses a reason, writes a short explanation and can upload up to 6 photos.
• You must deal with each request within 48 hours: approve it, or decline it with a reason. If you do nothing for 48 hours, AOW approves it automatically.
• If you decline, the customer can ask again (up to 3 times per item) or complain to AOW.
• Once you approve: for a refund only, the money is refunded straight away; for a return and refund or an exchange, the customer is shown your return address and must send the item back and enter the tracking number within 7 days (if they do not, that request closes).
• Once the customer has sent it back: for a return and refund, tap "Return received" when it arrives and AOW refunds the customer; if you do not tap it within 7 days, AOW refunds the customer automatically. For an exchange, enter the new tracking number once you have sent the replacement, and the customer confirms receipt of the new item; exchanges are never completed automatically.
• The refund is the item's transaction price plus its share of the shipping, worked out by the system and returned to the customer's original payment method. Returned goods are not added back to your stock automatically.
• Return postage is agreed between you and the customer, and AOW is not involved; where the law says otherwise, the law applies.
• An item with an after-sales request still open is not paid out until the request is closed.
• The platform's after-sales periods do not limit the rights customers have by law. For quality problems raised after that period, the customer can complain to AOW, and AOW deals with it under the AOW Merchant Services Agreement.

8. Physical store deals

• Who can sell: approved physical stores, listing deals in the merchant centre.
• Category and commission: a deal's category follows your store's main category; commission rates are in "Fees" in the AOW Merchant Services Agreement.
• Validity: 30, 60, 90 or 180 days after purchase (90 days by default), or a set date range. You can tick days of the week when a deal cannot be used and add a note about other days. Vouchers are valid until 23:59:59 on the last day, in the store's local time.
• Bookings: if you tick "Book in advance", customers see a reminder; redemption does not check whether a booking was made.
• Purchase limits and stock: per-customer limits only count vouchers bought and not refunded; refunded vouchers go back into stock.
• Store owners and staff cannot buy their own store's deals.
• Redemption: the customer shows the QR code at the store, and you scan it under "My business → Redeem orders" in the app, or enter the 12-digit code or look it up by phone number (at least 4 digits) in the merchant centre. The system first tells you whether the voucher can be used (whether it belongs to your store, whether it has been used or refunded, whether it has expired, and whether it can be used today); check the name, mobile number and voucher code with the customer before you confirm. The store owner and staff with the "Orders" permission can redeem deal vouchers.
• Only redeem a voucher when the customer has actually come in to use it. Never redeem a voucher for a customer who has not come.
• Refunds: customers can refund unredeemed vouchers at any time, and AOW refunds them automatically after they expire. In both cases only your listed price is refunded, the payment service fee is not refunded, and nothing is taken from you. If a voucher is refunded for a reason on your side (you cannot fit the customer in, the store has closed, or you cancel it in the merchant centre), the customer gets back everything they paid, and the payment service fee refunded to them is taken from your next payout.
• Payout: 7 days after redemption.
• Deals in the China region can only be bought once Alipay and WeChat Pay are available there: they can already be listed, reviewed and seen by customers, but not bought yet.

9. Physical store bookings

• Customers book your store on AOW for free. You confirm or decline in the merchant centre or the app (you can add a short message), and a booking only stands once you confirm it. The store owner and staff with the "Bookings" permission can handle bookings.
• Customers can only book within the booking times you set.
• Each booking has a QR code that, by default, can be redeemed from 1 hour before to 2 hours after the booked time (you can change this in the merchant centre). A booking not redeemed in that window lapses, and a booking you have not confirmed also lapses once that time has passed.

10. Pet breeding

Pet breeding is the strictest category. This section applies together with "Pet breeding and pet adoption" in the AOW Merchant Services Agreement. Where local law is stricter, local law applies.

Who can sell

• Only breeders approved by AOW may sell live animals. Selling puppies or kittens, stud (mating) services and selling a litter from your own pet all count as breeding. If any other online or physical store lists something like this, the AI sends it back straight away, without passing it to staff.
• Animals currently open: dogs, cats and reptiles. Cats must also have proof of registration. Reptiles are only open in regions where local law allows them to be kept and sold; where the law does not allow it, they cannot be sold.
• Not open in the United States region for now. In the China region, pet breeding will only open after Alipay and WeChat Pay become available, and its joining requirements will then be stricter than local law.

Joining

• As well as the physical store details, you must provide your local breeder number or licence and proof of your breeding qualifications, for example a source number in Victoria, a BIN in New South Wales, a supply number in Queensland or a DACO number in South Australia.
• Breeders in South Australia must also enter the name, phone number and DACO number of every person involved in breeding and selling (South Australian law requires listings to show these).
• The breeding qualifications you provide are shown publicly on your store's home page: their name, number, expiry date, official lookup link and certificate file, which buyers can see, open and check on the official website. ID documents, business licence photos and payout details are not made public. If a certificate shows something you do not want made public, such as your home address, you can cover it before uploading, as long as the number can still be read clearly.
• AI first writes a review report from your details and information that is publicly available online: past experience, website details, past sales, price fluctuations, the specific breeds and their quality, breeding qualifications, and compliance. AOW staff then review each breeder by hand, and every breeder must be approved manually by a member of AOW staff.
• Like other physical stores, breeders do not pay a deposit.

Listings

• One animal per listing: a litter cannot be listed as "puppy × 5".
• Listings must show the numbers that local law requires, such as the animal's microchip number (or, for an animal not yet microchipped, the mother's microchip number where local law requires it) and your breeder number. In South Australia, listings also show the name, phone number and DACO number of every person involved in breeding and selling; in other regions, listings do not show phone numbers.
• Describe the animal's age, health and vaccinations truthfully. Where local law sets a minimum age for sale (in many places 8 weeks), handover cannot take place before that age.
• The validity period of an animal's listing is its handover deadline: handover must take place within it.

Payment and refunds

• No instalments and no buy now, pay later. Paw Coins cannot be used to buy live animals.
• By default, customers pay in full in one payment and can get a refund at any time before handover (the listed price is refunded; the payment service fee is not).
• You can instead choose a deposit: the deposit cannot be more than half the total price, and where local law sets a lower limit, the local limit applies (for example, under China's Civil Code a deposit cannot be more than 20% of the total price). The customer pays the deposit first and pays the balance before handover, and handover can only take place once the balance is paid. Each of the two payments carries its own payment service fee, and the customer pays both.
• If the customer changes their mind, or the handover deadline passes without a handover, it is treated as a cancellation by the customer: a full payment is refunded at the listed price; with a deposit, you keep the deposit and AOW takes 10% of it, and any balance already paid is refunded; payment service fees are not refunded.
• If you cancel the sale, or the animal cannot be handed over because of a problem with it, the customer is refunded in full (including the deposit, the balance and both payment service fees), and the payment service fees refunded to the customer become a merchant deduction taken from your next payout.
• If an order has been treated as a cancellation by the customer in this way (the customer cancelled, or the handover deadline passed without a handover) but the customer says the reason was actually on your side (for example, a handover time could not be arranged, or a problem with the animal meant it could not be handed over), the customer can contact customer support, and once AOW has checked, it is changed to a cancellation by you: for a deposit order, the customer is refunded in full (the deposit, the balance and both payment service fees); for a full payment, the payment service fee that was not refunded at the time is refunded too. The payment service fees refunded to the customer become a merchant deduction. For a deposit order, this can only be changed before the order is paid out; a deposit you keep is only paid out 21 days after the cancellation.
• If a problem appears after handover (such as illness or a congenital condition), it is handled under the protections local law gives the customer, and AOW customer support checks it and arranges the refund (for example, returning the animal within 3 days in Victoria for a 75% refund). Commission in that case: where the animal is returned and money is refunded, AOW no longer takes 10% of the original price but takes 6% of what remains after the refund; where the animal is not returned and the customer is only compensated (for example, for vet bills), AOW still takes 10% of the original price, and you pay all of the compensation. For example, an A$4,000 puppy is returned and A$3,000 is refunded, leaving A$1,000: AOW takes A$60 and you receive A$940. If it is not returned and A$500 is paid towards vet bills, AOW takes A$400 and you receive A$3,100.

Handover

• Handover must take place in person at your registered breeding premises; animals are never posted or freighted.
• At handover (redemption), you must enter the animal's microchip number and vaccination dates in AOW, and upload the vaccination certificate, your breeding certificate and any other documents local law requires you to give the buyer (such as a microchip transfer form or a health declaration). A handover cannot be redeemed until these are complete.

Payout

After handover, you are paid once the guarantee period set by local law has passed, and you receive the listed price less the 10% commission:

• Other regions follow the number of days set by local law, and the merchant centre shows how many days apply to your store.
• A deposit you keep is paid out 21 days after the cancellation (or after the handover deadline passed), and you receive the deposit less the 10% commission.
• Where a refund is made after handover and you have not been paid yet, it comes out of the money not yet paid to you, and you are paid on the figures after the refund. If you have already been paid, the amount overpaid to you becomes a merchant deduction taken from your future payouts. After you have been paid, you remain responsible for the protections the law gives customers.

11. Pet adoption

• Only registered charities and approved breeders may post animals for adoption. If any other merchant posts a paid adoption or paid rehoming, the AI sends it back straight away. Not open in the United States region for now.
• For adoption organisations, only dogs and cats are open at this stage.
• Adoption organisations must be registered charities: registered with the ACNC in Australia, registered with the CRA in Canada, or registered as a social organisation with the civil affairs authorities in China. Where there is also a local number, you must provide that number too, for example a source number starting with RE in Victoria, a rehoming organisation number (RON) in New South Wales, or a MAPAQ permit in Quebec.
• The qualifications you provide are shown publicly on your store's home page (name, number, expiry date, official lookup link and certificate file), just as for breeders: ID documents, business licence photos and payout details are not made public, and you can cover anything on a certificate that you do not want made public, such as your home address, before uploading, as long as the number can still be read clearly.
• AOW takes no commission: the whole adoption fee goes to the organisation, and the adopter pays the payment service fee.
• Full payment only; there are no deposits. Before handover, the adopter can get a refund at any time (the adoption fee is refunded; the payment service fee is not), and the same applies if the handover deadline passes without a handover.
• Handover follows local rules, and at handover you enter and upload in AOW the documents that local rules require.
• Payout: after handover, you are paid once the guarantee period set by local law has passed; where local law sets no specific period, 21 days.

12. Promotion

• You can pay to promote: product campaigns (by impressions), online store promotion (by impressions or by store visits) and physical store promotion (by impressions or by store visits). Promotion can only be bought by card in the merchant centre on the web.
• Prices are as shown in the merchant centre: the price of one pack and how many impressions it buys, the price per store visit, and the minimum and maximum per order.
• While a promotion runs, products are placed near the top of the shop, online stores near the top of the "Stores" tab in shop search, and physical stores near the top of "Pet friendly" on the map, all marked "Promoted".
• Impressions and visits are counted from AOW's records: your own views do not count; repeats by the same person within 5 seconds do not count; one person counts for at most 500 impressions a day; and for store visits, a customer visiting the same store counts at most once a day.
• Promotion does not guarantee results. For impressions, any part not delivered by the end of the period is refunded to the original card in proportion; for store visits, you can stop at any time and the unused amount is refunded to the original card (banks usually take 5 to 10 business days).
• Promotion can only be bought for products that are on sale and stores that are trading normally.
• From time to time, AOW may boost products for free, for example for an event or as compensation, and will send you an AOW notice each time. AOW can stop a boost it has given at any time.
• Under "Campaigns" in the merchant centre, you can see the impressions, visits, resulting sales and refunds for each order.

13. Buyer questions and complaints

• Customers can contact you from product pages, orders and store pages ("Buyer questions"). Please reply promptly. You can reply, reply to several at once, or reply and close the conversation, and you can see the photos and product cards customers send. Online stores do not show a phone number to customers; customer service happens online.
• AOW staff can see the conversations in "Buyer questions", but they do not reply for you.
• Customers can complain about your store (for example, paid but not shipped, not as described, returns or after-sales not handled, suspected counterfeits, or poor attitude). You will be notified; please explain the situation under "Complaints" in the merchant centre. AOW decides after reading both sides and tells you and the customer the outcome.
• Do not place fake orders, post fake reviews or make fake redemptions.

14. Customers' personal information

Customers' full names, mobile numbers, voucher codes, delivery addresses and similar information may only be used to fulfil that order, never for marketing, and must never be passed on. The full requirements are in "Customers' personal information" in the AOW Merchant Services Agreement; breaches are handled under "Breaches, measures and appeals" below.

15. Staff accounts

• The store owner invites staff by email; staff must upload an ID document and link a mobile number and email before they can start work. An email already used for an AOW app account cannot be used for a staff account.
• Permissions are granted one by one: orders and shipping, products, shop front, campaigns and promotion, payouts and invoices, buyer questions, complaints, bookings, live shopping, shop application details, and staff. Managers can only grant permissions they have themselves and cannot manage other managers.
• Only the store owner can see or change the payout account.
• Each store gets 20 staff accounts for free, and the owner can buy more by the month or by the year. Plans do not renew automatically; when a plan ends, the store goes back to 20 and the extra accounts are switched off (their details are kept).
• Switch off a staff member's account as soon as they leave. Anything done with a staff account counts as done by your store.

16. Breaches, measures and appeals

If you break the law, the AOW Merchant Services Agreement or these rules, AOW will act according to how serious the breach is and how often it has happened. Common cases:

• Each time, you will be told in the merchant centre or by AOW notice what was done and why. Except in urgent cases, you will be given a chance to explain and put things right before a suspension or the end of the agreement.
• While a store is suspended: an online store's products are hidden from the shop and cannot be ordered; a physical store is removed from the map, cannot take bookings and its deals cannot be bought, while bookings already made are kept. You must still complete orders, vouchers and bookings already made.
• Appeals: if you think a decision is wrong, appeal under "Contact AOW" in the merchant centre, explaining why and attaching evidence. AOW staff will review it and tell you the result. You can also ask for a human review of products and deals sent back by AI in the same way.

17. Changes to these rules

• Changes to these rules will be published on the website at least 7 days before they take effect, and you will be told in the merchant centre or by AOW notice. For the China region, we will also ask for public comment first.
• If you do not agree, you can ask to close your store before the change takes effect, and AOW will settle with you under the rules as they were before the change.
• The current version is always available on this page of the website.