Online E-Commerce Site - Prerequisites

[eooc.box]

Hi everyone,

Basically I've been thinking about opening my online business for some time but only recently have gotten around to properly researching the fundamentals.

At present, this only requires buying wholesale items and reselling them on a website for profit at retail prices.

I haven't registered as a business, I have merely registered my .com & .co.uk domain names and want to make sure I have done everything that needs done before I go on to build the website and buy inventory.

Should I have already registered as a business if I want to do this?
Is there anything else I should be made aware of before doing this?
Do you have any suggestions/tips for me before doing this?

I've been to the HMRC and business links regarding registering as a business, but the mass amount of information can become overwhelming after a day of work and studying and sometimes you just need to be told what needs done in simple terms without the fancy terminology.