Online Ecommerce shop

[jewellerygirl]

Hi

This is my first thread on this forum which seems to have an abundance of information on it.

I run an ebay store, my sales have been growing month on month and I am selling in excess of 125 items per month. I would like to test the water with an online store. I have done research into the mechanics of setting up the store but I am more concerned with insurance and whether i should be a limited company. I have brought a company and a domain name but both are dormant at the moment but I wanted to secure the company name. I am currently a sole trader, can I run an online store as a sole trader? If so, i am guessing that I must have good insurance for me products. All comments will be much appreciated.
Kind regards
Mandy

[peterjhale]

Hi Mandy and welcome

Congratulations on your sales so far. If you are selling stuff in the UK as a sole trader you need to tell HMRC you are doing this.

Within Ebay you can set up your own store front - do you have this already as this is a good way to go.

For you own domain, best if you put up say a 10 page website and point a few links to it to get it aged for Google - you can always reference your ebay store from your website and vice versa - this will simply get the ball rolling for you.

[TWD-Tony]

Legally you can trade online as a sole trader no problem - you should however put "my name trading as xxxxx.com" somewhere on the site (and your letterheads etc).

Setting up an online store is quite easy these days and although there is supposed to be a credit crunch / recession looming I am busier than ever! ( 4 people rang me today for ecommerce website's) It seems like more and more people are turning to online shops as a revenue.

As for insurance - the only insurance I can think of that you would need is postal / shipping insurance?

Feel free to ask any ecommerce questions - It's my speciality

[fruitlover]

Definitely must congratulate you!You are doing very well on ebay as a sole seller.But can't figure out your point.What do your insurance for?for your store or your products?Or do you mean guarantee?