In recent years, e-commerce has stopped being “an option for the progressive”. For many Ukrainian entrepreneurs, doing business online has become the main source of income — from niche clothing brands to food producers in small communities.
At the same time, we still see the same questions in search: “e-commerce is…”, “how to open my online store”, “how to create my online store for free”, “online business from scratch”, “electronic business and e-commerce”, “models of e-commerce”, “online business ideas”.
This article is an attempt to connect basic definitions, legal requirements, and the practice of small businesses that want not just to “create a website”, but to build an online business with predictable revenue.
What E-Commerce Is from the Legal Perspective
In Ukraine, the definition of e-commerce is enshrined in the Law “On E-Commerce”. Simply put, it covers any transactions (sale-purchase, provision of services, etc.) concluded in electronic form using information and telecommunication systems.
In everyday speech, e-commerce or online commerce usually means:
- selling goods and services through e-commerce websites (own online stores, marketplaces, promo sites with catalogs);
- transactions on trading platforms (marketplaces such as Prom, Rozetka, Etsy, etc.);
- online business in the form of info products, online courses, affiliate programs, and so on.
The law does not distinguish between romantic “internet startups” and down-to-earth online shops selling household goods. If you sell anything online, you’re operating within the field of e-commerce — even if it’s a “small online business” with only a few orders per week.
From “How to Open My Online Store” to a Business Model
A typical path an entrepreneur follows in search looks like this:
- “How to open my online store?”
- “What e-commerce models exist?”
- “How to build my online store” or “create my online store for free”.
- “Which platform is best to create an online store on?”, “create an online-store website”, “UA market create website”, “Shopify store”.
Behind these phrases lies the same need: to turn an idea into a business model.
To put it simply, in e-commerce there are several basic formats:
- Classic online store.
Your own website (sometimes in combination with social media pages) where a company sells goods directly to end consumers. This is most often a B2C format. - Marketplace as a point of entry.
The business does not build its own site from scratch but starts on a platform such as Prom, Etsy or international marketplaces. In parallel, it may develop an online business from scratch on its own domain. - Dropshipping.
Popular queries like “create a dropshipping platform”, “dropshipping online store”, “free dropshipping store” reflect a model where the entrepreneur sells goods that are physically stored at the supplier’s warehouse. Here it is important not only to “create a site for dropshipping”, but also to regulate legal responsibility to the customer. - B2B e-commerce.
When a company sells goods or services to other businesses: B2B sales platforms, corporate client portals, closed wholesale websites. Queries like “B2B e-commerce”, “e-commerce companies”, “e-commerce platform” are precisely about this.
The key question is where to start. Not with the “cheapest website builder”, but with an understanding of what goods/services you sell, to whom and with what margin. Only then do you choose the platform, design and domain.
Law, Taxes and Trust
When people search “how to create my online store for free”, “online business without investment”, “online business with no upfront costs”, they are often subconsciously hoping to avoid extra expenses — including those on the legal side. In reality, a proper start in e-commerce saves you from problems later on.
A few basic things that are indispensable today:
- Official registration of activity.
Whether you are a sole proprietor (FOP) or a legal entity is not as important as whether your model complies with tax law. “Online business without registration” is not business, it’s a risk.
- Public offer agreement and privacy policy.
Every e-commerce website must have clear terms: who the seller is, how payment, delivery and returns are carried out, and how personal data is processed. The Law “On E-Commerce” explicitly obliges sellers to provide customers with full information about the seller.
- Tax model.
Many start as FOPs on a simplified tax system, test a niche (“online business ideas”, “product business online”), and only then move on to more complex structures. It is critical not to forget: online business does not mean “business without taxes”.
- Analytics services.
Queries like “e-commerce Google”, “e-commerce Yandex Metrica” are about measuring conversions, average order value and the effectiveness of ad campaigns. For a resilient business this is not a “nice-to-have”, it’s a must-have.
Where E-Commerce Meets the Real Economy of a Community
For many local entrepreneurs, online business is not about global brands, but about an additional sales channel:
- a small coffee shop in the center of a community sells coffee beans, mugs and local souvenirs through an online store;
- a producer of semi-finished products launches an e-commerce website for deliveries within the region;
- a local clothing designer launches an online fashion store, experiments with marketplaces and tests ideas for online business in parallel with an offline point of sale.
Here, e-commerce works as a risk-diversification tool: if one part of the market “sags”, online sales help smooth out revenue.
So the next time you type into a search engine “online business from scratch”, “how to grow my online store”, “how to promote my online store”, it’s worth adding one more question:
“What value does my online business provide to the customer, and am I ready to build it as a long-term venture rather than a one-off experiment?”
The answer to this question is exactly what separates a temporary website from a real online business.
