How to sell online in Europe?

A possible self-employed activity

Self-employed people don't always know it, but it is quite possible for them to open an e-commerce site to sell womens clothing online.

They can certainly sell goods (jewelry, clothing, groceries, etc.), but also services (hairdressing at home, computer repair, home lessons, etc.). E-commerce is therefore a real opportunity to develop a self-business.

E-commerce allows you to make sales to individuals, in the same way as if you had a shop. By selling womens clothing online with no more prospecting limits: you can reach customers who are far from you, at any time of the day or night. A bet that can often prove to be more profitable than a store with a limited audience!

Self-employed e-commerce: advantages and disadvantages

Self-employed, the ideal status to launch your online store

The simplified auto-enterprise status has many advantages for starting your e-commerce activity.

The first: a competitive advantage over price. Indeed, as a self-employed person, you benefit from the VAT-based franchise if you do not exceed a certain turnover threshold. This specificity of the status allows you not to charge VAT to your customers! An ideal lever to offer very attractive prices to your potential customers. Be careful though: since you do not charge VAT, you cannot deduct it either.

Second advantage: social contributions are proportional to your turnover, which is a real advantage if your turnover has trouble taking off when you start your activity, for example.

Finally, the self-employed status can be combined with a salaried activity. You can therefore take the opportunity to test the viability of your project before possibly making it your main activity.

Self-employed and online sales: the limits of the status

The auto-entrepreneur status is the easiest to access if you want to get into e-commerce.

But beware, it also has some limitations.

In fact, to remain self-employed, you will have to respect a turnover limit:

Please note, the turnover corresponds to the total amount collected without any deduction. If you are selling expensive goods and your margin is low, then what you charge your customers can quickly go up. You will then pay social security contributions not on your profit, but on what you have collected.

What are your legal obligations?

Selling online meets a few legal obligations that you should know before starting your self-employed e-commerce business.

Consumer protection, a concept not to be overlooked

The Consumer Code protects consumers who make purchases online. It specifies in particular that you must respect:

A withdrawal period: minimum period of 14 days during which the buyer can withdraw and request a refund,

A delivery time: a maximum delivery date must be indicated to the customer. If it is not respected, he is entitled to demand reimbursement.

Declaration to the CNIL

As soon as a customer places an order on your sales site, you automatically collect their personal information (name, address, contact, etc.). This data collection is governed by the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) which imposes several rules on you to follow, including in particular:

-  the obligation to include your data management policy on your site (purpose, retention period, etc.)

-  the presence of a form allowing users to contact you regarding the management of their data

- the obligation to clearly inform the consumer through consent forms such as "By placing an order, you acknowledge having read our personal management policy and accept our General Conditions of Sale".

To avoid making mistakes on this data management, we strongly recommend that you inform yourself about the regulations before launching your site.

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