Launching an online store in the US looks simple on the surface: pick a platform, list products, start selling. What actually trips up most first-time founders is everything around the storefront — how the business is registered, which states you owe sales tax to, which payment processor buyers actually trust, and how shipping gets handled once orders start coming in. Here's the order that saves the most rework.
1. Register your business and get an EIN before you touch a platform
Most online sellers register as an LLC, which separates personal assets from the business and is straightforward to set up in any state. Once formed, apply for an Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS — it's free, takes minutes online, and you'll need it to open a business bank account, apply for a payment processor, and file taxes. Selling under your own name works short-term, but it complicates everything downstream, from processor approval to sales tax registration.
2. Sales tax has no single national rule — track nexus by state
Unlike VAT-based countries, the US has no federal sales tax; each state sets its own rules, rates and thresholds. Once your sales into a state cross its economic nexus threshold, you're required to register, collect and remit sales tax there. Most states set that threshold at $100,000 in annual sales, though California, Texas and New York sit at $500,000, and Alabama and Mississippi at $250,000 — some states still layer a transaction-count test on top of the dollar amount. Selling through a marketplace like Amazon or Etsy doesn't fully get you off the hook: marketplace facilitator laws require the platform to collect tax on those sales, but they can still count toward your nexus threshold on other channels. Tools like TaxJar or Avalara track this automatically once you're selling into more than a couple of states.
3. Choose a payment processor buyers already trust
Stripe, PayPal and Shopify Payments cover the vast majority of US online checkouts, and offering at least two reduces abandoned carts from buyers who hesitate to enter card details on an unfamiliar processor. Apple Pay and Google Pay at checkout noticeably speed up mobile conversion, which now accounts for the majority of ecommerce traffic. Whichever processor you pick, factor the per-transaction fee (typically around 2.9% + $0.30) into your pricing.
4. Set shipping expectations before the first order ships
US buyers largely expect free shipping past a certain order value and a delivery window communicated upfront — not necessarily fast, but predictable. USPS, UPS and FedEx remain the default carriers; for lower shipping costs at scale, many stores use an aggregator like ShipStation or Shippo that compares rates across carriers per order instead of locking into one contract. Factor return shipping into your margins too: US shoppers return online purchases at a meaningfully higher rate than in-store ones, especially in apparel.
5. Pick a platform that can grow with the paperwork
Shopify remains the default choice for most new stores because it bundles hosting, payments and basic tax calculation in one place. WooCommerce on WordPress or BigCommerce make sense if you need more customization or already have a site built. Whatever you choose, confirm it integrates with your sales tax tool and payment processor before committing — migrating a live store later is far more expensive than picking correctly the first time.
What this means for your business
None of these steps is complicated in isolation, but doing them out of order — picking a platform before understanding your tax obligations, for example — tends to mean redoing work later. If you want to set up your store without trial and error, we can help you map the full stack — platform, payments, tax and shipping — before you write a single product listing.