Terms of service

Last updated: July 23, 2026

Welcome to Ethercycle. "We", "us" and "our" refer to Ethercycle LLC, an Illinois limited liability company. We operate ethercycle.com and everything on it: our merchandise store, The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, our newsletter, our published articles, reports and free tools, and the ecommerce consulting, design and development work we do for clients (together, the "Services"). Our store is powered by Shopify.

These Terms of Service (these "Terms"), together with any policies referenced here, describe your rights and responsibilities when you use the Services. Please read them carefully. They include important information about your legal rights, including warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability.

By visiting, interacting with or using the Services, you agree to be bound by these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services.

1. Client Engagements Are Governed by a Separate Agreement

These Terms cover your use of our website and the things you can buy or read on it. They do not govern consulting, design, development, audit, retainer or any other professional services we perform for a client.

Those engagements are governed by whatever terms we and the client have agreed to for that work, whether in a signed agreement, a statement of work, an accepted proposal, an order form, or a written confirmation by email. Where any of those conflict with these Terms, they control for the work they cover. Where no separate terms have been agreed, these Terms apply.

Nothing on this website is an offer to perform services. Submitting an application, booking a consultation, requesting a proposal or corresponding with us does not create a client relationship, a contract, or any obligation on our part to accept your project. We may decline any engagement for any reason.

2. Content Is Not Professional Advice

We publish a lot of opinion: podcast episodes, articles, benchmark reports, teardowns, calculators and other free tools. All of it is general information for a general audience, provided for educational purposes only.

It is not legal, tax, accounting, financial or professional advice, and it is not tailored to your business. Benchmarks, aggregate data and performance figures we publish describe specific merchants over specific periods and are not a prediction or guarantee of what your business will do. Do not act on anything we publish without consulting a qualified professional who knows your situation. Any reliance you place on our published content is at your own risk.

3. Access and Account

By agreeing to these Terms, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence, and that you have consented to any minor dependents using the Services on devices you own or manage.

To use parts of the Services, including buying merchandise or subscribing to our newsletter, you may need to provide information such as your email address and billing, payment and shipping details. You represent that the information you provide is correct, current and complete, and that you have the right to provide it.

You are solely responsible for the security of your account credentials and for all activity under your account. You may not transfer, sell, assign or license your account to anyone else.

4. Merchandise

We sell a small selection of branded merchandise. We have made every effort to represent these products accurately, but colors and appearance may differ from what you see, depending on your device and its settings.

We do not warrant that the appearance or quality of any product will meet your expectations or match how it appears online. Product descriptions may change at any time without notice. We may discontinue any product at any time and may limit quantities by person, region or jurisdiction at our discretion.

5. Orders

When you place an order you are making an offer to purchase. We may accept or decline any order at our discretion, and your order is not accepted until we confirm it. We must receive and process payment before an order is accepted. Please review your order carefully before submitting it, as we may not be able to accommodate a cancellation after acceptance. If we decline, change or cancel an order, we will try to reach you using the email address, billing address or phone number you provided.

Returns, refunds and exchanges for merchandise and digital downloads are governed by our Refund Policy, and shipping is governed by our Shipping Policy. Merchandise is sold for your own personal use, not for commercial resale or export.

6. Prices and Billing

Prices, discounts and promotions may change without notice. The price you pay is the price in effect when you place your order, as shown in your order confirmation email. Unless we say otherwise, posted prices exclude taxes, shipping, handling, customs and import charges.

We may run promotions governed by their own terms. If those terms conflict with these Terms, the promotion terms control for that promotion.

You agree to provide current, complete and accurate purchase, payment and account information, and to keep it updated so we can complete your transactions and reach you. You represent that the payment information you provide is true and complete, that you are authorized to use the payment method, that your charges will be honored by your card issuer, and that you will pay the posted prices including shipping, handling and applicable taxes.

7. Shipping and Delivery

All delivery estimates are estimates, not guarantees. We are not liable for delays caused by shipping carriers, customs processing or anything else outside our control. Title and risk of loss pass to you once we hand the products to the carrier.

8. Intellectual Property

The Services, including all trademarks, brands, text, images, graphics, video, audio, podcast episodes, articles, reports, data visualizations and tools, and the design, selection and arrangement of all of it, are owned by Ethercycle, its affiliates or its licensors, and are protected by U.S. and foreign copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws.

These Terms permit you to use the Services for your own personal or internal business use. You may quote or excerpt our published articles, reports and podcast episodes with clear attribution and a link back to the source. You may not otherwise reproduce, distribute, modify, create derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, republish, download, store or transmit material from the Services without our prior written consent, and you may not republish any of it in full.

Except as expressly stated here, nothing in these Terms grants you a license or other rights under any patent, trademark, copyright or other intellectual property of Ethercycle, Shopify or any third party. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

The Ethercycle name, logo, and our product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of Ethercycle or its licensors, and you may not use them without our prior written permission. Shopify's name, logo, product and service names, designs and slogans are trademarks of Shopify. All other names and marks on the Services belong to their respective owners.

9. Third-Party Tools and Links

The Services may give you access to tools, embedded functionality, materials or hyperlinks provided or operated by third parties, which we do not monitor or control.

We provide access to these "as is" and "as available", without warranties, representations or conditions of any kind, and without endorsement. Your use of them is entirely at your own risk and discretion, and you should review the third party's own terms and policies before relying on them. We are not liable for any harm or damages related to your access to third-party sites or your purchase or use of third-party products or services. Direct any complaints or questions about a third party's products or services to that third party.

We may add new features, tools and resources to the Services in the future. Those will also be part of the Services and subject to these Terms.

10. Relationship with Shopify

Ethercycle is powered by Shopify, which enables us to provide the Services to you. However, any sales and purchases you make in our store are made directly with Ethercycle. By using the Services, you acknowledge and agree that Shopify is not responsible for any aspect of any sales between you and Ethercycle, including any injury, damage, or loss resulting from purchased products and services. You hereby expressly release Shopify and its affiliates from all claims, damages, and liabilities arising from or related to your purchases and transactions with Ethercycle.

11. Privacy

All personal information we collect through the Services is subject to our Privacy Policy, and certain personal information may be subject to Shopify's Privacy Policy. By using the Services you acknowledge that you have read both.

Because the Services are hosted by Shopify, Shopify collects and processes information about your access to and use of the Services in order to provide and improve them. Information you submit may be transmitted to and shared with Shopify and with third parties that may be located outside the country where you live, in order to provide the Services to you. See our Privacy Policy for details.

12. Feedback and Submissions

If you send us ideas, suggestions, feedback, reviews, proposals, questions for the podcast, or any other content (together, "Feedback"), you grant us a perpetual, worldwide, sublicensable, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, modify, publish, distribute and display that Feedback in any medium for any purpose, including commercial use and including reading it aloud on the podcast or quoting it in published work. We may attribute it to you by name unless you ask us not to.

You represent that you own or have all necessary rights to your Feedback, that you have disclosed any compensation or incentive you received in connection with it, and that it complies with these Terms. We have no obligation to keep Feedback confidential, to pay for it, or to respond to it.

You agree your Feedback will not violate anyone's rights, including copyright, trademark, privacy or personality rights, and will not be unlawful, defamatory, abusive, obscene or otherwise objectionable, and will not contain any virus or malware. You may not use a false email address or impersonate anyone. You are solely responsible for your Feedback and its accuracy. We may, but are not obligated to, monitor, edit or remove Feedback we consider objectionable or in violation of these Terms.

13. Errors, Inaccuracies and Omissions

Occasionally there may be information in the Services containing typographical errors, inaccuracies or omissions relating to product descriptions, pricing, promotions, offers, shipping charges, transit times, availability, or published data and benchmarks. We reserve the right to correct any errors, inaccuracies or omissions, and to change or update information or cancel orders at any time without prior notice, including after you have submitted an order.

14. Prohibited Uses

You may use the Services for lawful purposes only. You may not use the Services, directly or indirectly: (a) for any unlawful or malicious purpose; (b) to violate any law, rule, regulation or local ordinance; (c) to infringe our intellectual property rights or those of others; (d) to harass, abuse, insult, harm, defame, disparage or intimidate our employees or any other person; (e) to transmit false or misleading information; (f) to send unsolicited advertising, spam or chain letters; (g) to impersonate any person or entity; or (h) to engage in any conduct that restricts or inhibits anyone else's use of the Services, or that may harm Ethercycle, Shopify or users of the Services or expose them to liability.

You also agree not to: (a) upload or transmit viruses or malicious code; (b) resell or commercially exploit any portion of the Services; (c) collect or track the personal information of others; (d) phish, pharm or pretext the Services; or (e) interfere with, bypass or circumvent our security or authorization measures, or the measures described in Section 15.

We may suspend, disable or terminate your access at any time, without notice, if we determine you have violated any part of these Terms.

15. Automated Access and AI Agents

We publish for machines as well as people. Search crawlers, AI assistants and shopping agents are welcome to read, index, cite and summarize our published content, and to act on behalf of a real person using the Services, provided they follow the rules below.

An "Agent" means any software that takes autonomous or semi-autonomous action on behalf of, or at the instruction of, a person or entity, without direct supervision of each action.

Agents accessing the Services must: (i) identify themselves honestly in the user agent string of every request, including the name of the agent; (ii) not conceal or disguise that requests come from an Agent, including by mimicking human interaction patterns or by completing or circumventing CAPTCHAs or other measures meant to distinguish people from software; (iii) answer truthfully when asked whether an interaction is coming from a person or from software; (iv) respect robots.txt and any other published access controls; and (v) not circumvent any measure we use to block, limit or control automated access.

We may limit, throttle or block any Agent's access by technical or other means, at our discretion, including where automated traffic degrades the Services for other users.

Content you take from the Services, whether by person or by Agent, remains subject to Section 8. Attribution and a link to the source are required.

16. Termination

We may terminate these Terms or your access to the Services, in whole or in part, at our discretion and without notice. You remain liable for all amounts due through the date of termination.

These sections survive termination: Client Engagements, Content Is Not Professional Advice, Intellectual Property, Feedback and Submissions, Termination, Disclaimer of Warranties, Limitation of Liability, Indemnification, Severability, Waiver and Entire Agreement, Assignment, Governing Law, Privacy, and any other provision that by its nature should survive.

17. Disclaimer of Warranties

Information presented on or through the Services is made available for general information purposes. We do not warrant its accuracy, completeness or usefulness. Any reliance you place on it is strictly at your own risk, and we disclaim all liability arising from reliance on it by you or anyone else.

EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY STATED BY ETHERCYCLE, THE SERVICES AND ALL PRODUCTS OFFERED THROUGH THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" FOR YOUR USE, WITHOUT ANY REPRESENTATION, WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, MERCHANTABLE QUALITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, DURABILITY, TITLE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT. WE DO NOT GUARANTEE, REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR ERROR-FREE. SOME JURISDICTIONS LIMIT OR DO NOT ALLOW THE DISCLAIMER OF IMPLIED OR OTHER WARRANTIES, SO THE ABOVE DISCLAIMER MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

18. Limitation of Liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PROVIDED BY LAW, IN NO CASE SHALL ETHERCYCLE, OUR PARTNERS, DIRECTORS, OFFICERS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, AGENTS, CONTRACTORS, SERVICE PROVIDERS OR LICENSORS, OR THOSE OF SHOPIFY AND ITS AFFILIATES, BE LIABLE FOR ANY INJURY, LOSS, CLAIM, OR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, LOST PROFITS, LOST REVENUE, LOST SAVINGS, LOSS OF DATA, REPLACEMENT COSTS, OR ANY SIMILAR DAMAGES, WHETHER BASED IN CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF ANY OF THE SERVICES OR ANY PRODUCTS PROCURED USING THE SERVICES, OR FOR ANY OTHER CLAIM RELATED IN ANY WAY TO YOUR USE OF THE SERVICES OR ANY PRODUCT, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS IN ANY CONTENT, OR ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE OF ANY KIND INCURRED AS A RESULT OF THE USE OF THE SERVICES OR ANY CONTENT (OR PRODUCT) POSTED, TRANSMITTED, OR OTHERWISE MADE AVAILABLE VIA THE SERVICES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THEIR POSSIBILITY.

19. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless Ethercycle, Shopify, and our affiliates, partners, officers, directors, employees, agents, contractors, licensors and service providers from any losses, damages, liabilities or claims, including reasonable attorneys' fees, payable to any third party arising out of (1) your breach of these Terms or the documents they incorporate by reference, (2) your violation of any law or the rights of a third party, or (3) your access to and use of the Services.

We will notify you of any indemnifiable claim, though a failure to promptly notify will not relieve you of your obligations unless you are materially prejudiced. We may control the defense and settlement of the claim at your expense, including choice of counsel, but will not settle any claim requiring non-monetary obligations from you without your consent, which will not be unreasonably withheld. You will cooperate in the defense, including by providing relevant documents.

20. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is determined to be unlawful, void or unenforceable, that provision is still enforceable to the fullest extent permitted by law, the unenforceable portion is severed, and the validity and enforceability of the remaining provisions is unaffected.

21. Waiver and Entire Agreement

Our failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of these Terms is not a waiver of that right or provision.

These Terms and any policies we post on this site constitute the entire agreement between you and us regarding your use of the Services, superseding any prior or contemporaneous agreements, communications and proposals, oral or written, including any prior version of these Terms. This does not supersede terms agreed for a client engagement, which control as described in Section 1.

Any ambiguity in these Terms will not be construed against the drafting party.

22. Assignment

You may not delegate, transfer or assign these Terms or any of your rights or obligations under them without our prior written consent, and any attempt to do so is null and void. We may transfer, assign or delegate these Terms and our rights and obligations without consent or notice to you.

23. Governing Law

These Terms and any separate agreements under which we provide you the Services are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Illinois, without regard to its conflict of laws principles. You and Ethercycle consent to venue and personal jurisdiction in the state and federal courts located in Cook County, Illinois.

24. Headings

Headings are for convenience only and do not limit or otherwise affect these Terms.

25. Changes to These Terms

You can review the most current version of these Terms at any time on this page. We may update, change or replace any part of these Terms at our discretion by posting the revised version here and updating the "Last updated" date. It is your responsibility to check periodically. We will notify you of material changes as required by applicable law, effective on the date given in the notice. Your continued use of the Services after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of those changes.

26. Contact

Questions about these Terms should be sent to info@ethercycle.com.

Ethercycle LLC
4905 Old Orchard Center, Suite 512
Skokie, IL 60077
info@ethercycle.com