Things to Keep in Mind

Here are some things to keep in mind when you are first getting started with e-commerce. If you don’t understand a question, worry not.

SHIPPING

  1. 1. Does your product require shipping?
  2. 2. If so, who are you going to use for shipping?
  3. 3. How do you want to calculate your shipping – flat rate, table rate, weight rate, etc?
  4. 4. If you are using weight rate, do you have weights for your products?
  5. 5. Are you going to be shipping abroad?

TAXES

  1. 6. If you are in the US, what is your state’s sales tax? Technically if your customers are in the same state as the physical location of your business, they owe sales tax on items they purchase from you. However, if you are shipping merchandise to a state where your business does not have a location, you do not need to collect tax. Click here to see a list of sales tax by state. You should also check out this article for a simple explanation about e-commerce and sales tax.
  2. 7. Are you in a country that requires tax inclusive pricing? Click here to see tax rates around the world.
  3. 8. Do you want to tax shipping? Some states and countries actually require businesses to tax their shipping. If you are in the US, you can check your states sales tax laws. If you are somewhere else, check your location to find out their particular tax laws.

PAYMENT GATEWAY

  1. 9. How are you going to process payments? Check out this article for a simple explanation of how payments work on an e-commerce site.
  2. 10. Do you already have a merchant account with a specific bank you want to keep using?
  3. 11. If you don’t already have a merchant account (or don’t need to use your current one), there are plenty of non-bank-related companies who will process your payments and deposit them in your bank account. Some of the most popular (and easiest to use) are PayPal and Google Checkout.
  4. 12. While some payment gateways are free to use (such as PayPal Payments Standard and Google Checkout), others require a monthly fee. However, all payment gateways (even the free ones), charge some sort of transaction fee.
  5. 13. Also, check with your payment gateway for their specific e-commerce requirements. Most payment gateways require that you display your return policy, sales policy and shipping policy somewhere on you site.