Deciding Your Business Information cont.

Your corporate or company name does not have to be the same as your store name. In fact, depending on what you name your store, you may want to avoid using the same name. If your e-commerce store is Cuddly Puppies, and you make your company/corporation the same thing, what happens when you're ready to open your second and third e-commerce stores selling electronics and fresh meat? Cuddly Puppies is definitely not the name you want for a fresh meat store! I'd suggest making your company/corporation a more neutral name and then DBA (doing business as) whatever you name your store.

Should you be a Limited Liability Company or a Corporation? There are differences in rules related to taxes, liability, flexibility, and profits. For most purposes of a small business, becoming an LLC is probably a better choice as it allows the most flexibility. You'll also have to register your business with the State to get a business license. How you do these things vary from state to state.

Sales, Shipping, Return, and Privacy Polices

The last thing you need to do in this stage is decide what your store's policies will be. Will you offer unlimited returns on a purchase? Who pays for return shipping? Are you going to sell international? If you're out of stock on an item, will you hold an open order or cancel the sale and offer to let the customer re-order when it's back in stock? Do you plan on selling your customers' information to other companies? Here's when you decide on what your businesses return, sales, and privacy policy will be.

Your return, sales, and shipping policy are critical because, often, this is what credit card companies and other methods of payment will look at in a dispute. If these aren't clear or vague, it's more likely they will rule in favor of the customer if there's a problem not specifically mentioned in your policies. Your privacy policy is important because more savvy shoppers will want to make sure that their private information will stay private and will look towards your privacy policy for that assurance.