Strategy

TOS

Terms of Service — the rules a platform enforces on its users. Violating TOS is the #1 way dropshipping stores die overnight, usually without warning or appeal.

TOS (Terms of Service) is the rulebook a platform enforces on its users — content rules, payment rules, advertising rules, account-behavior rules. Meta's TOS around health claims; Shopify's TOS around restricted products; Stripe's TOS around chargeback rates; TikTok's TOS around creative content — all are different, all are strictly enforced by automated systems, and all can kill a business overnight.

The most common TOS-related store deaths in dropshipping: Meta banning an ad account for non-compliant health or weight-loss claims; Stripe freezing funds after a chargeback spike; Shopify taking down the store for sale of TOS-restricted items (counterfeit branded goods, certain consumables, certain weapons/adjacent products).

Read the TOS of every platform you depend on. Build compliant-by-default processes. Maintain backup ad accounts and backup payment processors so a single TOS action doesn't end the business.

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Algorithm
The ranking and recommendation logic that decides which ads and organic posts a user sees. Every platform's algorithm is a moving target you optimize against.
Cohort
A group of customers who first purchased in the same window (e.g., "January buyers"). Tracking cohorts over time reveals how retention is actually trending.
DMCA
The US copyright law used to take down content that infringes on intellectual property. Dropshipping stores get hit with DMCAs for copied product images, copied ads, and copied branding.
FTC
The US Federal Trade Commission — the agency that regulates advertising truthfulness, "Made in USA" claims, subscription-billing practices, and influencer disclosure.
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