Creating a website-online shop

Hey, i want to setup an online shop, i have my domain and my hosting sorted, is there any laws or regulations that i have to be aware of when i am selling products on there? any input would be gr8!

regards
matt

As long as you operate in the way you would expect a local store, or good ebay user to you should be well within the law, obviously different areas may affect what kind of tax or duty you are expected to pay. I would have a long read over any pieces of data you find on the net and then look at a good store design before you open. Good luck with it all and let me know if you need any help

Hi Matt,

There are several issues you need to consider with eCommerce.

Where are your products coming from (domestic or local) - If importing - what are the relavent laws - from the originating country and yours

Where are you shipping the products - if shipping internationally - what are the relavent import/export laws of your target countries (plus your own)

What will you actually be selling? If its brand specific, are you entitled to sell those products? to which areas?

Those are some things to get you started...

After that - you want to consider how youre getting paid, how youre shipping and what youre doing to minimize overall risk...

Welcome to the wonderful world of eCommerce - I think you will have a great time and learn alot along the way...

Make sure you do your research first - but remember - the best education comes from experience - so, dont be afraid to jump in and get going

Great post Andrew

hey matt, setting up an ecommerce online store is best left to experts. I hope your one such expert

cuz there are many things to consider when setting one up, otherwise the whole thing will flop = waste of time

Well I am not so sure I agree, if you have a bit of knowledge you can set one up, there are plenty of help sites out there and tutorials to guide you through the tough bits.

Like Andrew says, don't be afraid to jump right in!

Great point musik,

and speaking of eCommerce help sites - here is my favorite..

http://www.ecommerce-resources.com/

lol. just my two cents. I find that setting up one sounds easy but when it comes to the database security, its a whole new story.
unless you guys are talking abt someting else.

Hi Madmonk - you bring up a really good point....

However - this is the exact reason customers need a host - lets face it - most people could host their site off of their PC (ISP TOS permitting of course) - However, the value a host brings is to provide the infratructure required for people that rely on their sites for business.

This includes redundancy in connections, fire protection, theft protection, OS updates/patches to ensure a secure environment, data backups, etc...

Database security really shouldn't be an issue for someone starting an ecommerce business - this is just one thing they should not have to worry about... (though - I think we all need to worry about this to some degree )

Honestly - anyone can get hacked - this has been proven many many times - however, what a good host will try to do is minimize the probability of their sites and their customer sites - from getting hacked - I think this is the best one can hope for - and most hosts do a better then average job at this...