Steps Needed for Opening an Online Retail Store?

Hi I have a few questions that I'm hoping someone here will be able to answer. I do apologize if someone has already posted this question. I'm thinking of starting an online retail store, selling female accesories such as earrings, bracelets, headbands, handbags, sunglasses, etc. I also plan to promote through flyers and business cards to draw people to the website. I also was thinking of maybe setting up a few auctions on eBay. I've found a wholesaler in the US that I'm going to be purchasing from, so I'll be importing goods into Ontario, I will not be using a dropshipper. My question is what exactly do I need to do to get started. I know I have to get a business number, but after that what else will I require? I'm hoping someone will be able to help me out. Thanks in advance.

Steps Needed for Opening an Online Retail Store?
Ok if you are importing goods into Canada, first you should





Register a business name...although this is not absolutely mandatory.





Also, the business numbers you need are a Gst number if you are going to be making more than 30000 per year, a payroll number if you are hiring people and an importer exporter number. You can just go to a local tax services office and get a business number form, or call the business number office at revenue canada and they can issue the numbers to you, as you need them.





Next..do a search for the "border services agency" on yahoo or google..the border services agency has a lot of info you need to find out about..they have a web site....I'm not sure exactly what it is right now...I have to check this out myself.


they are part of the government of Canada and have lots of info about what you need to do as a Canadian Importer or Exporter








NEXT...and most important is that if you IMPORT goods into canada..you have to understand that you likely won't pay import duties on US made goods, but you DO have to pay GST..and also, customs brokerage charges... What will happen if you order stuff from your supplier is that they might ship to you via UPS...What you don't know is that 3 weeks later, UPS will send you an invoice because they had to pay the GST for you, they had to prepare the paperwork, they had to do such and such....well the thing you need to do is contact UPS before hand and ask them how to go about setting up a customs broker account with them so you can avoid a lot of the fees. Maybe call some other place like fedex or some customs brokerage houses and let them know what you are planning on doing, and what the best way to cut brokerage fees is.





When I was talking to UPS, they were kind of implying that if you ship goods by air, the brokerage fees are less...Therefore it MIGHT make more sence to pay more to have your shipper send by 2 day air delivery to save the ground based customs brokerage import fees. This could be something to talk to UPS or your customs broker about.








Then when you have your US supplier send you stuff, you can let them know that UPS or whoever is your customs broker, even if they are shipping by fedex or purolator....





I'll bet you didn't know you have to pay GST on goods you import from the USA!!!





That's why you need to find and read the "border services" web page.


if you have any other questions, just ask. I'm finding out about this stuff as well.





Oh yeah. For web site. Prostores- which is run by Ebay and Yahoo also offer fully functional ecommerce web sites for like


29 bucks a month. You don;t need to spend thousands to get up and running. Stay the hell away fro Stores Online. I just wasted 2 days of my life at one of their frigging seminars.


Most of the stuff they charge thousands for is offered for free by Prostores or Yahoo.





Hope this helps. Like I said..I'm probably just a few weeks ahead of you..I just got the friggin ridiculous UPS customer broker invoice!!!