Failure to meet online business laws can have profound implications such as security breaches, license revocations, and financial loss. According to a report on Investopedia, non-compliance costs are approximately $15 million compared to compliance spending, which is $5.5 million. As an e-commerce store owner, you must meet all legal requirements to grow a successful venture. Aside from choosing the correct business legal entity, you need to ensure that your products and services are legal. Most importantly, your website should be compliant with online laws. With this in mind, you need to learn how to meet GDPR requirements and other internet regulatory laws. Below are a few steps to ensure you stay compliant with online business regulations.
Stay Current On Compliance Laws
One of the best ways to avoid issues and penalties is by staying compliant. However, compliance isn’t something you do once; it’s a continuous process. This means keeping track of the ever-changing laws within the e-commerce industry. Since compliance spans several legislative bodies, including state, federal, local, and international levels, you’ll need to use compliance calendars. That way, you can monitor regulation deadlines relevant to your industry, and then focus on implementing policy changes in your company. Doing so helps you feel less overwhelmed when new laws are implemented.
Keep Your Content Compliant
As a general rule of thumb, you should never use other people’s content on your website without their consent to prevent copyright issues. Likewise, you should protect your articles, images, videos, and podcasts to ensure others don’t copy and use them on their sites. You can keep your online content safe by writing a copyright notice on your website footer, auditing content, and archiving your site. According to Mirrorweb.com, website archiving supports your regulatory, record preservation, and compliance responsibilities. When you archive your site, you capture, index, and store your data in a way you can quickly access it for auditing at a moment’s notice.
Prioritize Data Privacy
Since e-commerce businesses collect and store sensitive data, the government requires entrepreneurs to prioritize data privacy and security to avoid legal problems. To stay compliant with data privacy laws, consider creating a privacy policy that reassures customers their data is protected from hackers. Also, implement the best data security practices, such as encryption, two-factor authentication, keep your antivirus software up to date and use strong database passwords.
Running a successful e-commerce store entails more than establishing a legal entity for your business. As a business owner, you’re required to meet all online legal regulations relevant to your industry. Therefore, stay up-to-date with current online policy changes, implement strict data privacy policies, keep your content compliant, create a cookie notice, and update your site’s terms and conditions.
