Terms of Service

1. Introduction & acceptance

These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your access to and use of the Herbal Habits website and services ("Herbal Habits", "the platform", "we", "us"), operated by Herbal Habits (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/302352/07). By creating an account, listing a store, or otherwise using the platform, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree, you may not use the platform.

These Terms are a binding agreement concluded electronically in accordance with the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act, 2002 (ECTA).

2. Definitions

"Shopper" / "Member": a user who browses the directory or holds a membership.

"Store owner" / "Vendor": a business that lists a store on the platform.

"Listing": a store's profile, content, deals, and information on the platform.

"Content": any information, text, images, reviews, or material submitted to the platform.

"Membership": a paid or free subscription giving access to certain features.

3. Eligibility & age restriction

You must be 18 years or older to use Herbal Habits. By using the platform, you confirm that you are at least 18. Underage users (anyone under 18) may not create an account or use the platform. We may require age verification and may suspend or terminate accounts where this requirement is not met. The platform and its content are intended for a general adult audience.

4. Nature of our service: directory only

Herbal Habits is merely a platform that brings shoppers and independent store owners together. It is an online directory and information platform for independent stores that sell herbal and related products. We are a listing and discovery service only.

We do not manufacture, sell, supply, endorse, or take responsibility for any products listed, described, or sold by store owners. Any transaction for products takes place directly between the shopper and the store owner, in person or through the store's own channels. We are not a party to those transactions.

Listings, store descriptions, and deals are created by store owners. We do not verify, guarantee, or warrant the accuracy, quality, safety, legality, or availability of any product or claim made in a listing.

5. No health or medical claims

Herbal Habits does not provide medical, health, or professional advice. Nothing on the platform is intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or health condition, and nothing on the platform should be interpreted as a health or medical claim.

Information on the platform is for general informational and directory purposes only. You should consult a qualified healthcare professional before using any product. You use any product you discover through the platform entirely at your own risk.

Store owners are solely responsible for ensuring that their listings comply with all applicable laws, including those governing product claims, labelling, and how products may be described or promoted to the public. We prohibit health and medical claims in listings (see our Content Guidelines), but we do not and cannot guarantee that store-provided content is compliant.

6. Accounts & registration

To access certain features, you must create an account with accurate, current, and complete information. You are responsible for keeping your login details confidential and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately of any unauthorised use. We may suspend or terminate accounts that breach these Terms.

You can add Herbal Habits to your phone or computer's home screen ("the app") from herbalhabits.co.za/app. It is the same service as the website, under these same Terms, and is free. If you switch on app notifications, we send only the kinds you choose (such as event reminders, new promotions at stores you saved and giveaway results), and you can switch them off at any time in Account Settings or your device's settings. Notifications are a convenience: always check the details on the site, and we are not responsible for a notification that arrives late or not at all.

7. Membership & subscriptions (Shoppers)

Certain features require a paid membership. By subscribing, you authorise us (through our payment provider) to charge the applicable fees on a recurring basis until cancelled.

• Fees, billing frequency, and what each tier includes are shown at the point of purchase.
• Memberships renew automatically unless cancelled before the renewal date.
• You may cancel at any time; cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period.
• Except where required by law, fees already paid are non-refundable. We may, at our sole discretion, issue a refund outside of this policy; doing so in one instance does not create an obligation to do so again.

Membership tiers: we offer a Starter and a Premium membership. What each includes and costs is shown on the Membership page at the time you subscribe.

• Starter lets you redeem a limited number of promotions in each billing month (currently 3). A redemption counts once its code is used in store, or while an unused code is still valid; a code that expires unused does not count. Unused redemptions do not carry over to the next month. Giveaways and Premium-only articles and events are not included.
• Premium has no monthly redemption limit and includes store giveaways and Premium-only articles and events.
• Each store's own limits on a promotion (for example, how often it can be used) apply to every tier.
• Moving from Starter to Premium takes effect immediately; we charge the difference in fees for the rest of your current billing period to your payment method on file. Moving from Premium to Starter takes effect at your next renewal date, and Premium continues until then.
• We will give you reasonable advance notice by email before changing a tier's fees or reducing what it includes.

Household: a Starter or Premium member (the main member) may add up to 3 other people to their membership. Each person uses their own account and must be 18 or older.

• Each added person costs R20 per month on a monthly membership, or R200 per year on an annual membership, charged to the main member's payment method on file. When you add someone and no paid place is free, we charge for the rest of your current billing period straight away (monthly: the share of the month left; annual: R20 for each month left, including the current month).
• At each renewal you pay for the people in your household and any invitations still waiting. Removing someone, or someone leaving, takes effect immediately; their place stays paid until your next renewal (no refund), and you may add someone else to it at no extra cost until then.
• Limits are shared, not multiplied: Starter's monthly redemptions, each promotion's own limits and cool downs, and giveaway entries (one per household) count across everyone in the household.
• Only the main member manages billing and the plan. People in a household cannot change the plan or payment details. If the main member's membership is cancelled, paused, lapses or is suspended, the household's benefits end or pause too.
• Points, levels, reviews and saved stores belong to each person's own account. A person can leave a household at any time; to buy their own membership, they leave first.

Invitation offers: we may personally invite you to a membership or a store plan with an offer, such as a free period, a discount for a set time, or both. The offer is shown in the invitation and on your My Membership or Billing page.

• An invitation is for the person it was sent to and is accepted with the email address it was sent to (an invitation link shared openly can be used once per person, up to the number of people it allows). It expires on the date shown. A gift on an ambassador's link (section 13, Ambassador Programme) is also an invitation offer: it starts when your new account is confirmed (for a store, when you choose a plan), with no payment method needed.
• No payment method is needed during a free period. We remind you by email 7 days and 1 day before it ends. If you add a payment method, your plan continues at the offer price, then the normal price, charged automatically at each renewal until you cancel. If you don't, nothing is charged and the plan ends when the free period does (a store listing goes offline and can be restarted later).
• If you already pay for a plan when you accept, the offer starts at your next renewal. While an offer applies, plan changes, switching between monthly and annual billing, and pausing are not available.
• An offer has no cash value and cannot be transferred. If an offer lasts until we end it, we will give you at least 30 days' notice by email before it ends; after that the normal price applies. You may cancel your plan at any time under these Terms.
• Accepting an invitation for a store does not guarantee approval: every listing is reviewed under our Content Guidelines.

Pausing a membership: monthly memberships may be paused once in any 12-month period, for one month. Annual memberships cannot be paused.

• A pause begins at the end of the billing period you have already paid for. Your membership benefits continue until then and are unavailable during the pause.
• No fees are charged during the pause. When it ends, billing restarts automatically at the then-current monthly fee, charged to your payment method on file, and your membership benefits resume.
• You may cancel a booked pause before it begins, or resume early during it. Resuming early charges a full monthly fee on that day and starts a new billing period from that date. Cancelling or ending a pause early still counts as your pause for that 12-month period.
• The 12-month period runs from the date your most recent pause was scheduled to begin.
• You may cancel your membership during a pause; it then ends when the pause would have ended, and no further fees are charged.
• Codes and giveaway entries obtained before a pause remain subject to the relevant store's own terms.

8. Store listings & vendor terms (Store owners)

If you list a store, you additionally agree that:

• You are a legitimate business authorised to sell the products you offer, and you comply with all applicable laws and licensing requirements.
• All listing content you provide is accurate, lawful, and not misleading.
• You will not include prohibited content, including health or medical claims (see our Content Guidelines).
• Your listing is subject to review, approval, and moderation by us. We may edit, suspend, reject, or remove listings that breach these Terms or our Content Guidelines.
• Listing tiers, fees, and features are shown at the point of purchase. Vendor subscriptions follow the same billing, renewal, cancellation, and pause terms as section 7, with these additions for pausing a listing:
• While a listing is paused, it, its promotions, and its store feed are not shown on the platform, and listing changes cannot be submitted for review until it is live again.
• A listing cannot be paused while any of your giveaways is still running or awaiting fulfilment. A giveaway is complete once a winner has been drawn and their prize has been marked as fulfilled.
• Free-trial periods and annual listing subscriptions cannot be paused.
• Changing your listing plan: an upgrade takes effect immediately, and you are charged the difference in price for the remainder of your current billing period (monthly or annual), then the new plan's price at each renewal. Upgrading during a free trial ends the trial and starts a paid billing period immediately.
• A downgrade takes effect at the end of your current billing period, with no refund for that period, and can be cancelled before then. From that date, content beyond the new plan's limits (for example photos, categories, an intro video, or active promotions) is no longer shown on your listing or is paused. It is not deleted, and is restored if you upgrade again.
• Your plan's limits apply to active promotions: you cannot have more active promotions than your plan allows. Introductory pricing on the Bloom plan applies for the first six months from the date your listing first moved onto Bloom, and does not restart if you change plans.
• You are responsible for your own transactions, customer service, product fulfilment, and compliance with the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 where it applies to your sales.
• Employee Accounts: you may invite staff to help run your store, up to your plan's allowance. Each person uses their own account, must be 18 or older, and can do only what the role you give them allows. Billing, your plan, your team and publishing your listing always stay with you. You are responsible for what your staff do on your store's behalf, as if you had done it yourself, and for removing access when someone no longer works for you.
• A store's employees cannot redeem that store's promotions or loyalty rewards while they work there. Their own membership is otherwise unaffected.

9. Payments

Payments are processed by our third-party payment providers, currently Peach Payments, Paystack and PayFast (which one handles your payment is shown at checkout). By making a payment, you agree to their processing of your payment information. We do not store your full card details. You warrant that you are authorised to use any payment method you provide. We utilise a payment system that is reasonably secure in line with accepted technological standards, as required by ECTA.

10. User content & reviews

The platform allows shoppers to submit reviews, ratings, and other content, and allows store owners to submit listing content. You retain ownership of content you submit, but you grant us a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide licence to host, display, reproduce, and distribute that content on and in connection with the platform.

You are solely responsible for content you submit and warrant that it is accurate, lawful, your own or properly licensed, and does not infringe any third party's rights or breach any law.

Reviews must reflect a genuine experience. You may not post reviews that are false, misleading, defamatory, or manipulated, or reviews in exchange for payment or incentive. We may moderate, decline to publish, or remove content that breaches these Terms or our Content Guidelines.

11. Our role in user content (intermediary)

Content submitted by users does not reflect our views, and we do not endorse or verify it. We act only as a platform hosting user-submitted content.

You can report a review, listing, or store post directly on the platform using the "Report" option shown against that content, which sends it to our moderation team. For unlawful content, or where the in-platform option isn't available, you may instead follow the take-down notification procedure under Chapter XI of ECTA by contacting us at hello (at) herbalhabits.co.za with sufficient detail to identify the content and the basis of your complaint. We reserve the right, but are not obliged, to monitor or moderate content.

12. Acceptable use

You agree not to:

• Use the platform for any unlawful purpose or in breach of these Terms;
• Post prohibited, false, defamatory, infringing, or harmful content;
• Make health or medical claims about any product;
• Impersonate others or misrepresent your affiliation;
• Interfere with, disrupt, or attempt to gain unauthorised access to the platform or its systems;
• Scrape, harvest, or collect data from the platform without our written permission;
• Use the platform to distribute spam or unsolicited communications. Breach of this section may result in suspension or termination and, where appropriate, referral to the authorities.

13. Giveaways, promotions, loyalty points & ambassadors

Store owners may run giveaways or promotions through the platform. Unless we expressly state otherwise, giveaways and promotions are run by the relevant store owner, not by Herbal Habits, and the store owner is solely responsible for them, including eligibility, selection of winners, prize fulfilment, and compliance with applicable law (including the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 and its rules on promotional competitions). We are not responsible for any giveaway or promotion or its outcome.

Loyalty points: where loyalty points are available, members on a paid plan earn points at a store when that store scans a redeemed deal, and for a verified review of that store. Points earned at a store can only be spent at that store, on loyalty rewards the store owner sets up. Points have no cash value, can't be exchanged for money, sold or transferred to another person or store, and don't expire while your account and the store's listing remain active. The store owner decides which rewards it offers and what they cost, and is responsible for honouring a reward once it has scanned your code. We may correct points added or removed in error. If a store leaves Herbal Habits, points at that store can no longer be used. Levels and badges are a record of your activity only and have no value.

Vendor points and Trusted Store status (for store owners): where Vendor Rewards are available, a store earns vendor points for keeping a good listing (for example a complete listing, Store Feed posts, replying to reviews, scanning members' codes, hosting events and good standing), within the monthly limits shown on the store's Rewards page. Vendor points expire 12 months after the day they were earned; when points are spent, the oldest are used first, and we email the store owner before any points expire. Vendor points can only be spent on the rewards listed on the Rewards page, at the prices shown there when they're bought. They have no cash value, can't be exchanged for money or a discount on your plan unless we say so, can't be sold or transferred, and end if the listing is closed. Points never buy a higher position in search results or Find a Store. If a reward can't be delivered (for example, content picked for a fan email is removed first), the points are returned. Trusted Store status is earned, never bought: we check every live store on the 1st of each month against the standards shown on the Rewards page, and the badge shows until the next check. We may correct points added in error, change rewards or prices for future purchases, and remove points or Trusted status where a store breaches these Terms.

14. Calendar & events

The calendar shows events from Herbal Habits and from store owners. Store events are organised and run by the relevant store owner, not by Herbal Habits, and the store owner is solely responsible for them, including what happens at the event, its safety, and compliance with applicable law. We only display them, and we may hide or remove any event at our discretion.

We don't sell tickets or take bookings. Any tickets, bookings or payments for an event are between you and the store owner or the ticketing provider they link to. Marking an event "Going" or "Interested" only saves it for you and lets us send you reminders; it is not a booking or reservation. We don't guarantee that an event will take place as listed.

15. Intellectual property

The platform, including its design, branding, logos, text, and software (excluding user content and store content), is owned by or licensed to Herbal Habits (Pty) Ltd and is protected by intellectual property law. You may not copy, modify, distribute, or create derivative works from the platform without our written permission. The "Herbal Habits" name and logo may not be used without our prior written consent.

Search uses South African place data from GeoNames (geonames.org), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Maps use data from OpenStreetMap contributors, displayed via CARTO.

Area statistics and analytics maps use municipal and provincial boundaries from the Municipal Demarcation Board, obtained via OCHA's Humanitarian Data Exchange under the Creative Commons Attribution for Intergovernmental Organisations licence (CC BY-IGO), and population figures from Statistics South Africa (Census 2022). Any figures calculated from that data are our own processing, not Stats SA's.

The weather shown in the illustration on the Home page comes from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute (MET Norway, api.met.no), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.

16. Third-party links & services

The platform may contain links to third-party websites, stores, or services that we do not control. We are not responsible for the content, products, policies, or practices of any third party. Your dealings with third parties are solely between you and them.

17. Disclaimers

To the maximum extent permitted by law, the platform and all content are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied. We do not warrant that the platform will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure, or that any product, listing, or information is accurate, complete, safe, or fit for any purpose. This clause does not exclude any rights you have under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 that cannot lawfully be excluded.

18. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law:

• We are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential loss or damage arising from your use of the platform;
• We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from any product, transaction, listing, review, giveaway, or dealing between you and a store owner or other user;
• Our total liability to you for any claim arising from these Terms or your use of the platform is limited to the amount you paid us (if any) in the 12 months preceding the claim. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by our gross negligence, or under the Consumer Protection Act, 2008 where it applies.

19. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Herbal Habits (Pty) Ltd, its directors, and its personnel against any claims, losses, liabilities, and reasonable legal costs arising from your breach of these Terms, your content, your transactions, or your use of the platform.

20. Suspension & termination

We may suspend or terminate your access to the platform, or remove any content or listing, at any time where we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms, our Content Guidelines, or the law, or to protect the platform or other users. You may delete your account at any time in Account Settings. Deleting cancels any membership or listing plan straight away, without a refund for the unused time, and takes any listing offline; the account itself is deleted after 30 days and can be restored until then. Provisions that by their nature should survive termination (including sections 15, 17, 18, and 19) will survive.

21. General

• Governing law: These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of South Africa.
• Jurisdiction: You consent to the jurisdiction of the South African courts.
• Dispute resolution: Before litigation, the parties will attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute. [Consider whether to require mediation/arbitration, flagged for legal review.]
• Changes: We may amend these Terms from time to time. The updated version will be posted here with a revised "last updated" date, and continued use of the platform constitutes acceptance. Material changes will be communicated where reasonable.
• Severability: If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in effect.
• Whole agreement: These Terms, together with our Privacy Policy and Content Guidelines, constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding the platform.
• Contact: hello (at) herbalhabits.co.za