Online store legal checklist: what to have ready

Tellbrief · November 1, 2026

For education only. Not legal advice. Tellbrief is not a law firm.

An online store makes promises to strangers in many states at once: when orders ship, what’s charged, what gets emailed. Before you talk to a lawyer, write down what your store actually does.

Records to have ready

• Your store’s terms, shipping and returns policy, and privacy notice.
• The platform you sell on, and any apps that handle payments, reviews or email.
• Sales by state for the last 12 months, and the countries you ship to.
• Where you collect sales tax today.
• Your email and text sign-up forms, and what they promise.
• Product pages that make claims about health, safety, results or where things are made.

Send them only if your lawyer asks. For the first call, it’s enough to know where each one is.

When orders ship

The FTC’s rule on mail, internet and phone orders covers shipping times. It refers to a seller having “a reasonable basis to expect that it will be able to ship any ordered merchandise to the buyer” within one of two windows:

“(i) Within that time clearly and conspicuously stated in any such solicitation; or (ii) If no time is clearly and conspicuously stated, within thirty (30) days after receipt of a properly completed order from the buyer.”¹16 C.F.R. § 435.2

Note what your site promises, how long orders really take, and what you tell customers when you’re late.

Where you collect sales tax

In 2018 the Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair, about a state law requiring sellers outside South Dakota to collect its sales tax. The Court wrote that “the physical presence rule of Quill is unsound and incorrect.”² Ask your lawyer or accountant what the case means for the states you sell into, and bring your sales by state.

Marketing email and texts

The federal law on commercial email lists what a message must include. Among them is “a valid physical postal address of the sender.”³ Note how people join your list, what they’re told when they do, and how they leave it. If you text customers too, say so. Your lawyer may want to look at texts separately.

Customer data

List what you collect at checkout and on sign-up forms, and which apps receive it. The customer data privacy checklist covers this in more detail.

Subscriptions and what you say about products

If you sell anything that renews on its own, see what to have ready for auto-renewal subscriptions. For product pages, note each claim about health, safety, results, the environment or “made in” a place, and what backs it. A lawyer may ask about each one.

A made-up example

We sell handmade candles from our own store and ship to all 50 states. Last year we sold about $400,000, a third of it to California and Texas, and we only collect sales tax in Ohio, where we’re based. Our site says orders ship in two days, but over the holidays some took two weeks. We email about 8,000 subscribers each week. What should we fix first?

To write yours, fill in the brackets:

We sell [products] from [our own site, a marketplace, both] to [states or countries]. Last year we sold about [amount], mostly to [where]. We collect sales tax in [states]. Our site promises [shipping time]; it really takes [time]. We [email / text] about [number] people. Our main question: [the one that matters most].

Questions a lawyer may ask you

Have a short answer ready for each. “I don’t know yet” is a fine answer.

• Where do your customers live, and how much do you sell in each place?
• What does your site promise about shipping and returns?
• How do people sign up for your emails or texts?
• What do you say your products do?
• Does anything renew or charge again on its own?
• Who wrote your store’s terms and privacy notice?

Questions worth asking your lawyer

• What should our store’s terms and policies say?
• Where might we need to collect sales tax?
• Do our marketing emails and texts need to change?
• Which product claims should we change or back up?

Tellbrief adds questions like these to your brief when your answers point to them.

For education only. This article is general information for founders, not legal advice, and reading it doesn’t make you anyone’s client. Tellbrief is not a law firm. For advice about your situation, talk to a licensed lawyer.