Shopify- September 2026

Watchdog has investigated the e-commerce platform, Shopify. This is a platform that allows anyone to build and run an online store, and hosts over 6.5 million businesses worldwide.

In 2025, Watchdog undertook an investigation into Couture Moda and Marble Muse, and discovered that whilst they claimed they were based in London, customers were having to ship returns back to China, costing them a huge amount of money.

Shopify is also hosting businesses that claim to be based in London, but have no evidence of actually being based in the city. One example is Grace & Charles London- whilst its website is designed to look like a London store, there is no physical evidence of the company being based in the capital. Grace & Charles have a returns policy that is illegal under UK consumer law. When Sue from Coventry wanted to return a dress, as she felt it was very poor quality. But, she found that it would cost almost as much as the item cost, to return it; and she would have to send it all the way back to China. Another store we featured was Martha London, who also does not tell its customers that it’s not based in London.

There are also other examples of stores on Shopify that suggest they are based in London, such as Mabel & Mae and Olyndra London.

When our presenter, Amber Haque, created her own store on the Shopify platform, using ‘red flags’ such as AI to create a fake store, it was instantly accepted as a business and able to start running immediately. The Watchdog team shut it down as soon as it was created.

We spoke to Katherine Hart of the Chartered Trading Standards Industry, who said this was a “huge problem” and that “Shopify are enabling these businesses.”

We wrote to all the fashion companies featured in our investigation, but only Martha London responded. The company told us that it accepts that the wording of its returns policy regarding promotional or sale items was not compliant with UK consumer law. It said it has now updated its FAQ section to make clear that items purchased during promotions or sales are eligible for a return or refund if they are found to be faulty or not as described, in accordance with customers' statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act 2015. It said it’s committed to ensuring its policies are fully compliant and that its customers are treated fairly.

We also contacted Shopify, but despite repeated attempts to get answers, the company didn’t respond.

Watch the full show on iPlayer: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b007tcw7/the-one-show