When selling to US customers, most of our clients design a US website specifically tailored to the US market. (A minority of our clients have a single global platform which redirects to a US payment page at checkout.) In designing a website for US customers, here are seven things every UK company should consider:

1. Language and Spelling. The choice of words should be tailored to the US market (e.g., pants instead of trousers) and spellings should be Americanized (e.g., color instead of colour). If used, dates should be in standard US format (i.e., MM/DD/YYYY instead of DD/MM/YYYY).

2. Units of Measurement. Be sure that all units of measure are in customary US units, including weight, temperature, and distance. Americans generally have little concept of kilograms, Celsius, and kilometers.

3. Currency and Pricing. Prices should be displayed in US dollars. In addition, unlike with VAT, prices are initially displayed exclusive of tax. Tax is only added at checkout, because the tax rate is based upon the specific shipping destination. When seeing a price on a website, Americans will assume that tax will added later at their local rate.

4. Contact Information. Your website should have a US address and phone number. It is very rare that an American would know how to dial a foreign phone number. A US address offers reassurance to customers who may anticipate the need to return their purchase.

5. ADA Accessibility. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), places of public accommodation must be accessible to persons with disabilities. Courts have held that ADA requires that company websites must also be accessible to persons with disabilities. This usually requires designing the website so that it meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Lawsuits against companies in this area are very common. In the most common scenario, a blind person sues claiming that a company’s website design did not meet ADA requirements.

6. Privacy Laws. GDPR may or may not apply to your US website depending on whether your US website collects or processes data within the EU or UK or collects or processes data from individuals located within the UK or the EU. Regardless, there are a growing number of state laws regulating privacy with which you may or may not need to comply (depending, usually, on your level of connection – including sales – with that state), most notably the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). There are also industry specific regulations that may apply (e.g., the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act).

7. Terms of Service (or Terms and Conditions). You should not simply cut and paste your UK terms of service and use them on your US website. UK terms of service are likely to contain provisions that are inapplicable to the US and omit provisions (e.g., attorneys’ fees provisions or UCC warranty disclaimer provisions) that should be included in US terms.