PRIVACY POLICY

Effective date: 27 August 2026

Chekich South Africa ("Chekich", "we", "us" or "our") operates chekich.co.za and our related customer-service, retail, social-media and e-commerce channels. We respect your privacy and process personal information in accordance with applicable South African data-protection law, including the Protection of Personal Information Act, 2013 (POPIA).

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, where it comes from, how we use it, when we share it, how automated and AI-assisted customer service may be used, and the choices and rights available to you.

1. INFORMATION WE MAY COLLECT

Depending on how you interact with Chekich, we may collect or receive the following information:

Identity and contact information: name, surname, email address, telephone or WhatsApp number, social-media account identifier or handle, and other contact details you provide.
Order and transaction information: products purchased, sizes, colours, order numbers, order values, order dates, delivery and fulfilment status, returns, exchanges, refunds and customer-service history.
Delivery and location information: shipping and billing addresses, city, province, postal code and country. We may also record a location that you voluntarily provide in a conversation, for example when asking about delivery or a nearby store.
Product and preference information: products, styles, colours and sizes you ask about or purchase, preferred size where known, product interests, store preferences and similar information that helps us assist you and recommend relevant products.
Customer-service communications: messages, questions, comments and other communications you send to us through WhatsApp, our website, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, email or other supported channels, together with associated timestamps and channel identifiers.
Information you voluntarily disclose: for example, age or other profile information if you choose to provide it during a conversation. We do not need customers to provide unnecessary sensitive personal information in order to receive normal customer service.
Shopify customer information: where a channel identifier, telephone number, email address or other information allows us to identify the same customer in Shopify, we may associate the conversation with the relevant customer profile and purchase history to provide better service.
Marketing and consent information: email, SMS or other marketing subscription status, communication preferences, opt-outs and consents.
Technical and usage information: IP address, browser and device information, cookies, identifiers, referral information, website activity, session information and analytics data.

We do not intentionally infer or create sensitive characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, health status, political views or sexual orientation for customer-service or sales profiling.

2. HOW WE COLLECT INFORMATION

We may collect information:

directly from you when you purchase, register, contact us, comment, send a message, request support or otherwise interact with Chekich;
from our Shopify store, point-of-sale and order-management systems;
through WhatsApp and customer-service technology providers such as Dondy;
through Meta services including Facebook, Instagram and Messenger when you interact with our business accounts;
from payment, delivery, analytics, CRM, email and other service providers used to operate our business; and
automatically through cookies, pixels, logs and analytics technologies when you use our website.

3. HOW WE USE PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may process personal information for legitimate and lawful business purposes including to:

process and fulfil purchases and provide delivery, tracking, returns and exchange support;
identify a customer and connect a customer-service conversation with the correct Shopify customer or order where reasonably possible;
answer questions about products, prices, availability, sizes, stores, delivery, payments, returns and orders;
check current product and variant availability and suggest relevant alternatives when a requested item, colour or size is unavailable;
understand recurring customer questions and improve our customer-service processes, product information, stock planning and sales service;
maintain customer histories so that our team and authorised systems can provide more consistent service across supported channels;
personalise product and service recommendations using information such as prior purchases, product interests, size preferences and location where appropriate;
operate, secure, analyse and improve our website, stores, systems and services;
detect fraud, misuse, security incidents and technical problems;
send marketing communications where permitted and subject to applicable consent and opt-out requirements; and
comply with legal, accounting, tax, regulatory and dispute-resolution obligations.

4. AI-ASSISTED CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

Chekich may use artificial-intelligence and automated tools to assist with customer service. These systems may analyse the content of a question, classify the type of request, identify a product, colour or size mentioned, retrieve relevant Chekich information and prepare or provide an appropriate response.

Where connected to our commerce systems, an AI-assisted service may use current Shopify product, inventory or order information to answer a request. For example, if a requested size or colour is unavailable, the system may identify other available colours or related products in the requested size.

We may also analyse customer questions in aggregate to identify common needs, product demand, unavailable sizes or colours, and opportunities to improve service and stock planning.

Automated systems are intended to operate within Chekich-approved information and response rules. Complaints, disputed refunds, payment disputes, suspected fraud, unusual or high-risk requests and other matters requiring judgement may be escalated to a human team member. We do not intend to make decisions by AI alone that have significant legal or similarly material effects on a customer.

5. CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE AND CROSS-CHANNEL MATCHING

To provide consistent customer service, we may combine information from our supported channels when we can reasonably determine that the information relates to the same customer. For example, a WhatsApp conversation may be associated with an existing Shopify customer profile using a telephone number, and a social-media enquiry may later be associated with an order where the customer provides sufficient identifying information.

This may allow us to understand previous purchases, order history, preferred sizes, product interests, location and prior service interactions. We use this information to assist the customer, improve recommendations, analyse demand and improve our operations.

We do not sell personal information to advertisers.

6. LEGAL BASIS AND RESPONSIBLE PROCESSING

We process personal information where it is necessary to perform or take steps relating to a transaction with you, where you have consented, where processing is required or permitted by law, or where we have a legitimate business interest that is compatible with your rights and reasonable expectations.

We aim to collect information that is relevant to a defined business purpose and to use it in a manner that is adequate, appropriate and not excessive for that purpose.

7. MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

Customer-service and transactional communications are different from marketing communications. Placing an order or contacting us does not automatically mean that you have consented to every form of marketing.

Where consent is required, we will use marketing subscription and consent information recorded by our systems. You may unsubscribe or opt out using the method provided in the relevant communication or by contacting us.

8. COOKIES, ANALYTICS AND ADVERTISING TECHNOLOGIES

Our website may use cookies, pixels and similar technologies for essential website functionality, analytics, measurement, security, personalisation and advertising. These technologies may collect browser, device, IP, referral and website-interaction information.

Some technologies are provided by third-party platforms, including Shopify, Google and Meta. Their processing may also be subject to their own privacy terms and settings.

9. WHO WE MAY SHARE INFORMATION WITH

We may disclose personal information to service providers and operators that assist us in running Chekich, including e-commerce, customer-service, messaging, social-media, hosting, database, analytics, payment, courier, CRM, email and marketing providers.

These may include, depending on the services in use, Shopify, Dondy, Meta and its WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram services, payment providers, couriers and cloud infrastructure providers. We may also disclose information where required by law, regulation, court order or a lawful request, or where reasonably necessary to protect customers, Chekich or others from fraud, misuse or harm.

We do not authorise service providers to use Chekich customer information for unrelated purposes merely because they process it on our behalf.

10. INTERNATIONAL PROCESSING

Some of our technology and service providers operate infrastructure outside South Africa. As a result, personal information may be stored or processed in another country. Where cross-border processing occurs, we take reasonable steps to use service providers and safeguards appropriate to the nature of the information and applicable requirements, including the cross-border transfer requirements of POPIA.

11. DATA RETENTION

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary for the purpose for which it was collected, for customer service and legitimate operational requirements, and for any period required by applicable legal, accounting, tax, fraud-prevention or dispute-resolution obligations.

When information is no longer reasonably required, we may delete, de-identify or anonymise it, subject to technical backup cycles and legal requirements.

12. SECURITY

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, loss, misuse, alteration or disclosure. Measures may include access controls, restricted administrative permissions, secure authentication, encrypted communications and protected cloud infrastructure where appropriate.

No electronic system can be guaranteed to be completely secure. If we become aware of a security incident involving personal information, we will respond in accordance with applicable obligations.

13. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS

Subject to applicable law, you may have the right to:

ask whether we hold personal information about you and request access to it;
request correction or updating of inaccurate information;
request deletion or destruction where applicable;
object to certain processing;
withdraw consent where processing is based on consent, without affecting prior lawful processing;
opt out of direct marketing; and
raise a privacy complaint with us or with the Information Regulator of South Africa.

We may need reasonable information to verify your identity before responding to an access, correction or deletion request.

14. SOCIAL MEDIA AND PUBLIC COMMENTS

If you comment on, mention or message Chekich through Facebook, Instagram or another social platform, the platform may provide us with information associated with your interaction, such as your account identifier, profile name, message or comment and relevant conversation metadata. Public comments remain subject to the visibility settings and rules of the relevant platform.

If a support matter involves private order or personal information, we may ask that the conversation continue through a private channel.

15. CHILDREN

Our services are not designed to intentionally collect unnecessary personal information from children. If we become aware that personal information relating to a child has been collected in circumstances where consent or another lawful basis is required and absent, we will take appropriate steps in accordance with applicable law.

16. THIRD-PARTY SERVICES

Our website and communications may link to or operate with third-party services. When you interact directly with a third-party service, that provider may process information under its own privacy policy. This Privacy Policy describes Chekich's processing and does not replace the privacy policies of those independent platforms.

17. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, technology or legal obligations change. The current version will be published on chekich.co.za and will show its effective or updated date.

18. CONTACT US

For privacy questions, access or correction requests, objections or complaints, please contact Chekich South Africa:

Email: support@chekich.co.za
Telephone / WhatsApp: +27 83 880 8227
Location: Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa

You may also contact the Information Regulator of South Africa regarding rights or complaints under POPIA.