What to Keep and What to Delete

Selling means collecting things about people. Names, addresses, payment references, conversations. Most sellers keep all of it for ever, because deleting takes a decision and keeping takes none.

Keep what you would need to answer a question

If a buyer asks in three months whether an order was sent, you want to be able to say yes and when. That is the order record and the postage reference, and it is worth keeping. It is also a very short list.

Delete the address once the parcel has landed

A delivery address is useful for exactly as long as the parcel is in transit. After that it is a home address for a person who buys adult items, sitting in your phone. Nobody has ever regretted deleting one.

Screenshots are the quiet problem

Chat screenshots pile up in a camera roll that gets backed up, synced and occasionally handed to somebody to look at a photo. If you are keeping one because a conversation went badly, keep it deliberately in one place. If you are keeping it because you never cleared it, that is not keeping, it is accumulating.

Write down what you do

One sentence is enough. Orders kept a year, addresses deleted on delivery, chats cleared monthly. A buyer who asks what you hold deserves an answer, and the answer is much easier when you decided it in advance rather than in the middle of the question.

Then actually do it

A retention rule nobody follows is worse than none, because it is a promise you are quietly breaking. Put it on a monthly reminder and give it ten minutes.