How to open an online store in Israel in 2026, step by step

Before you pick a platform, answer three questions in writing. The answers decide your prices, your photos, your delivery and even which kind of business to register.

• What exactly the product is. "Handmade silver earrings, ₪120 to ₪300" says much more than "jewellery". The narrower the answer, the easier it is to photograph, write and advertise.
• Who buys it. For themselves or as a gift, at what age, and where they already are: Instagram, WhatsApp, a craft market or a shop on the street.
• Why from you. The price, the story, the availability or the service. One sentence you could put at the top of the home page.

If you already sell on WhatsApp or at a stall, you have a head start: you know what sells, what people ask about and what comes back. Write it down. It is the best material for your home page and your questions and answers.

Start small. A few products that are fully ready, with good photos, beat a large catalogue that is half done. Add more once you see what sells.

Food, cosmetics and supplements usually need a licence or approval from the Ministry of Health, and sometimes a business licence from the local authority. Check this before you invest in the store.

To sell regularly you open a file with VAT, Income Tax and National Insurance (Bituach Leumi). There are three common forms, and they differ mainly in turnover, VAT and personal liability.

Osek patur (exempt dealer)

For a small business with yearly turnover under a ceiling set by law and updated every year. You do not charge customers VAT, and you issue a receipt for every payment. It suits people starting small and on their own. When turnover passes the ceiling, you move to osek murshe.

Osek murshe (licensed dealer)

You add VAT to the price, issue a tax invoice for every sale and report VAT every month or two. In return, you can offset the VAT you paid on business costs such as materials, packaging and equipment. It suits turnover above the ceiling, or selling a lot to other businesses.

A limited company (Ltd.)

A legal entity separate from you, so in most cases the business's debts belong to the company and not to you personally. It comes with more paperwork and cost: an accountant, annual reports and a yearly fee to the Registrar of Companies. Worth considering when the business grows, when you have partners or when you want to keep personal and business money apart.

You open the files with the Israel Tax Authority and with National Insurance. You can do it yourself on their websites, but most people starting out do it with an accountant or a tax adviser, who will also tell you which costs are deductible and when to switch forms.

The osek patur ceiling, the VAT rate and the duties of each form change from time to time. Before you choose, check the current figures with your accountant or on the Israel Tax Authority's website.

To take card payments in your store you need a card processor. Several work in Israel, for example Cardcom, Tranzila, PayPlus and Grow. They connect your store's checkout to the card companies and pay the money out to you.

Some processors also need an agreement of your own with a credit card company; others arrange it themselves. Ask in the first call, because it affects how soon you can sell.

What to ask before you sign

• Fees: the percentage of each sale, whether there is a monthly fee, and whether refunds cost extra.
• Payouts: how long until the money reaches your bank account.
• Bit, Apple Pay and Google Pay: whether they are supported, and at what cost.
• Instalments: whether a purchase can be split into several payments, and who pays for that. For expensive products, Israeli shoppers expect it.
• Connecting to the store: a ready connection to the platform you chose, and a payment page that looks good on a phone.
• Invoices: whether the processor issues an invoice or receipt itself, or connects to an invoicing service.

Many Israeli shoppers pay with Bit, mostly from their phones. In a store it comes through the card processor. A manual transfer to a phone number works at the start, but there is no payment confirmation inside the order and no automatic invoice.

Look at the platform's own fee too. Some platforms take a percentage of every sale on top of the processor's fee. Work it out on the turnover you expect, alongside the monthly price.

And before you open: buy from your own store with a real card, then cancel the sale. You will see exactly what a shopper sees, what arrives by email and when the money moves.

Every sale needs a document: an osek patur issues a receipt; an osek murshe or a company issues a tax invoice, or a tax invoice and receipt when payment arrives at the same moment. The document goes to the shopper and stays with you for reporting.

In an online store nobody writes invoices by hand. You connect an invoicing service such as Morning (formerly Green Invoice), iCount or EZcount, which produces the document the moment an order is paid and emails it to the shopper. Some card processors issue documents themselves too.

• Your business details on the document: name, VAT or company number, and address.
• Prices including VAT: a price shown to consumers in Israel must include VAT. An osek murshe sets store prices with VAT already inside, and the invoice breaks it out.
• Credit notes: when you refund an order, you issue a credit invoice. Check that your service does it from the order.
• Selling to businesses: a tax invoice to a business above a certain amount now needs an allocation number from the Tax Authority. The threshold is coming down in steps, and invoicing services request the number for you.

What each document must show, and how and for how long you keep it, depends on your business type. Your accountant will tell you exactly.

Delivery is part of the product. The shopper sees its price and timing before paying, so decide them early and write them down clearly.

Courier companies

Cargo, HFD, Chita and others collect from you and deliver to the door. Most give a tracking number, and some connect to the store so a shipment opens from the order.

Israel Post

Parcels to the door, to a post office or to a locker. Usually cheaper, sometimes slower.

Pickup points

The shopper collects from a nearby shop or locker, for less than door delivery. Good for small parcels.

Self-pickup

From your studio, home or shop. No cost, and a chance to meet your customers.

Your own delivery

To a nearby area, on a set day. Good for food, flowers and anything that does not travel well in a box.

How to price it: one price for the whole country is the easiest to understand. You can add free delivery above a certain order amount, and a different price for far areas such as Eilat, or places couriers do not reach every day.

Write on the product page and at checkout how many business days delivery takes, and keep to it. In a distance sale, Israel's Consumer Protection Law requires you to state the delivery date and the delivery cost up front.

As for the box: packaging that protects the product, a thank-you note and care instructions when needed. It is the only physical moment between you and the shopper.

Three pages every online store in Israel needs, small ones included. They protect your shoppers, and you.

Cancellation and returns

In a distance sale, such as buying online, the Consumer Protection Law lets the shopper cancel within 14 days of receiving the product or the disclosure document, whichever is later. You may charge a cancellation fee of up to 5% of the price or ₪100, whichever is lower. Some products cannot be cancelled, for example food and products made to a personal order, and some shoppers get a longer period.

Write on the page: how long there is to cancel, how to give notice (for example by email or phone), who pays for the return delivery, and how soon the money comes back.

Privacy

A store collects names, addresses, phone numbers and emails, so the Privacy Protection Law applies to it. Amendment 13 to the law widened the enforcement powers of the Privacy Protection Authority. Your privacy policy should say what you collect, why, who you share it with (the card processor, couriers, the invoicing service), how long you keep it, and how to ask to see or correct it.

And marketing: you may send advertising by email, SMS or WhatsApp only to people who explicitly agreed. A consent box at checkout that is not ticked in advance, and an easy way to unsubscribe in every message.

Accessibility statement

A website that serves the public, an online store included, generally has to meet the service accessibility regulations and Israeli Standard 5568 at level AA, and publish an accessibility statement. The statement says what was made accessible, what is not yet, and who to contact: a name, a phone number and an email.

In practice: alternative text for every product photo, enough contrast, a checkout that works with a keyboard alone, and forms with clear labels. Be wary of plug-ins that promise accessibility in one click: they do not replace a site that is built properly.

Have a lawyer read the three pages before you open, especially if you sell food, cosmetics or products for children.

Online, nobody can touch the product. Photos and text do the work of the hand and the eye, so they deserve more of your time than anything else in the store.

Photos

• Daylight: by a window, no flash, no direct sun. A recent phone camera is enough.
• One background: the same background and angle for every product, so the whole catalogue looks like one store.
• Several angles: front, side, a close-up, and one photo in use or in a hand, so the size is clear.
• One ratio: square or 4:5 for every photo, so the category grid stays tidy.
• Sensible files: heavy photos slow the store down on phones. Most platforms resize photos for you, but there is no reason to upload huge files.

Texts

• A name people search for: "Ceramic salad bowl, 28 cm" beats "Inbal". A creative name is fine, next to words that describe the product.
• The first paragraph covers the basics: what it is, what it is made of, its size and how to use it.
• Details in a list: dimensions, materials or ingredients, care instructions and delivery time.
• Alternative text for every photo: a short sentence describing what is in it, for screen readers and for search engines.
• A clear price: including VAT, with the delivery price close by.

Write the way you talk to a customer at your stall: short and exact. "The best there is" tells a shopper nothing; "dishwasher safe" tells them a lot.

The domain is your store's address. You can start on the address your platform gives you and connect your own domain when you are ready.

• Short and easy to say on the phone: no hyphens, and no letters people mix up.
• .co.il or .com: a .co.il address marks an Israeli business and is registered through a registrar accredited by the Israel Internet Association. .com suits you if you will also sell abroad. If both are free, you can buy both and point one at the other.
• In your name: register the domain in your own name and account, even when someone else builds your site, and keep the login.
• Auto-renew: a domain that is not renewed in time can pass to someone else. Turn on auto-renew, and update the card when it changes.

Connecting it happens in the DNS settings at your registrar, usually with one CNAME record for the address with www. Your platform should show you exactly what to set, and check by itself that the connection worked.

Before you tell everyone, go through this list. Every line is something shoppers run into on the very first order.

• A real purchase to the end, on a phone and a computer, then a cancellation and a refund.
• The emails a shopper gets: order confirmation, invoice or receipt, and the delivery update.
• Correct delivery prices and times, far areas included.
• Cancellation and returns, privacy and accessibility pages, linked in the footer of every page.
• Your business details on the site: name, VAT or company number, address, phone and email.
• On every product: photos, text, a price including VAT, correct stock and alternative text.
• The store loads fast on a phone, on mobile data too.
• A title and description for Google on the home and category pages, and a sitemap submitted in Google Search Console.
• Analytics with cookie consent, so you know where shoppers come from.
• WhatsApp or another way to ask a question before buying.
• A message to the people who already know you. They are usually the first to buy.

And after you open: read every question that comes in during the first weeks. A question that keeps coming back is a sentence missing from the product page.