A State of California has fast growing online business market. If you are interested on starting an online e-commerce business in California, you may wish to consider a few things that you may need to review from a practical and legal perspective.

 

Vibrant Market

Do you want to know whether e-commerce is a good niche to drive business? Absolutely. The whole world is constantly converting to buying goods and services online. Lately we used to spend hours of browsing in bookstores. Now many people buy e-books online and haven’t been to a bookstore for many years! Since it is so easy to place order online, the future for online ecommerce sites seems to be brilliant.

But the described supposingly bright future of e-commerce doesn’t mean you can just start with simple site selling anything. Let's admit it, not everything is successfully selling online. As you would do traditional way, it's worth to take the time to develop a business plan.

The checklist include:

What problems does the current California market have?

How can you solve the problems?
Where will you get the goods to sell?
What custom software you may need for your e-commerce website?
What software solutions you will be using to track inventory?
How wull you issue refunds?
How you will deal with customer service?

If you can’t answer each of these questions quickly, it's not a problem. Maybe you just need to slow down and develop the detailed business plan.

 

A Sole Proprietorship, LLC or Corporation?

To form a business entity is a good idea with e-commerce sites. Products are subject to a product liability. This means that anyone involved in the chain of product supply is jointly liable if a customer gets into trouble with the product. In practice, this means that you (or your business entity) can be found liable if a product fails, even if it is caused by manufacturer error.

A correcly formed business entity like LLC or Corporation will provide you with a legal shield between your personal assets (ex. home, investments) and the debts of your company.

 

Site Docs

E-commerce sites must have detailed legal documents. These documents define your relationship with the customer. eCommerce terms and conditions are critical in this regard.

As a California e-commerce business, you are legally required to provide service terms and conditions and a privacy policy. A privacy policy is required by the California Online Privacy Protection Act of 2003. There are also eight privacy laws in the California state that you may need to comply with. The terms and conditions is a contract between you and the customer, which should include: costs, refunds, shipping & handling, charges, disputes, the location of litigation are just a few issues that are needed to cover in the document.

 

E-commerce Website Development

Website development can be a tricky issue. The primary area of concern is the backend software of your e-commerce website. The custom backend software provides an interface where you create or upload products, track sales and maintain a database of your customers.

You have an option to buy pre-packaged backend software or ask us to develop a custom backend software for you. We have a vast experience in creating e-commerce supporting software for many platforms, including, but not limited to: Magento, ChannelAdvisor, Vurtuemart, also we did many custom e-commerce software solutions for our clients. Our software can provide online shop for your customers, stock-keeping, shipping API for DHL, UPS, FedEx, also payment solutions and online-banking for PayPal and credit cards. Our prices are quite reasonable.

 

Materials, used when writing the article:

1. Law Office of Richard A. Chapo