Avalara To Solve Shopify Import Tax For Merchants

Shopify Import Tax 💸

The latest news in Shopify ecommerce is that Avalara Inc. now powers the new duty and import tax features of the global commerce hub - Shopify Markets.

For those of you who don't know, Avalara is a provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation, which is used by businesses of all sizes and part of their new duty and import tax feature natively uses the company's technology and content via Shopify Markets.

The role of Avalara’s technology is to generate landed cost pricing to determine the exact duty and Shopify import tax requirements for merchants in more than 180 countries across the globe.

So, it would seem that Shopify taxes and duty calculations now have their saviour, but that's not all as Avalara has also announced the expansion of its cross-border capabilities with the acquisition of 3CE Technologies.

Cross-Border Compliance for Shopify Merchants

As global ecommerce sales rapidly increase, more businesses are eager to take advantage of the ease of selling products online and it has been estimated that Shopify merchants generated $20 billion in cross-border sales in 2020 alone.

To take full advantage of the cross-border opportunity that brands are presented with, businesses require a set of tools that can help to; identify, create and manage international markets with minimal barriers involved.

So, when it comes to cross-border compliance, ecommerce stores must ensure that customs duties and Shopify taxes are accurately calculated at the time of checkout to reduce compliance risks and negative customer experiences (which may be caused by surprise costs at the time of delivery).

As a global commerce platform, Shopify has evolved into an end-to-end cross-border product that assists over 1.7 million merchants to grow their business(es) online whilst selling internationally.

Avalara Cross-Border Estimated is a new, patent-pending feature of Avalara AvaTax Cross-Border, which is natively available for use within Shopify Markets. With this handy tool, merchants can calculate the appropriate duty and Shopify import tax fees at the stages of checkout, without any form of tariff code required.

Furthermore, the solution also provides merchants with a unique way to meet cross-border business requirements, whilst granting the flexibility for store owners to make decisions concerning their import tax and duty determinations.

The Benefits of Avalara’s Solution for Shopify Taxes

There are two key benefits in which Avalara’s services provide so, let's take a quick look at them below:

Improved Accuracy: With Avalara, merchants will benefit from the solution’s improved accuracy where duty and Shopify import tax estimates are concerned. This is achieved by calculating costs with confidence while leveraging Avalara’s industry-leading artificial intelligence engine and global compliance content database.

Enhanced Checkout Experiences: Additionally, Avalara provides its customers with landed cost estimates in cart (in real-time) to reduce the likelihood of unexpected fees being presented at the stage of delivery.

The Avalara x Shopify Partnership

Scott McFarlane, the CEO and Co-Founder at Avalara stated:

“The power and promise of the internet are for businesses to reach customers anywhere, anytime. Ecommerce makes that a reality for buyers and sellers.

However, cross-border commerce comes with increased compliance complexity that can create risk for merchants.

Shopify Markets provides merchants with the automated duty and import tax capabilities of Avalara’s cross-border solutions to streamline the checkout process and provide estimates to customers in their shopping cart, minimising surprise costs and compliance risks.”

Avalara’s cross-border solution makes it easier to sell anywhere in the world by automating the process of identifying and mapping tariff codes to products.

Furthermore, the solution calculates custom duties and Shopify import taxes for merchants. Through the acquisition of 3CE, Avalara expands its current cross-border compliance offerings by further automating its HS code classification services and self-service capabilities for businesses of all sizes.

Craig Reed, the General Manager of cross-border at Avalara commented:

“Integrating 3CE’s HS code classification engine enables Avalara to further enhance our cross-border solution, which will allow us to make it easier to sell anywhere in the world across new industries and use cases.”

Additionally, Randy Rotchin, the President and CEO of 3CE Technologies added:

“This acquisition brings together best-in-class HS classification technology to automate the onerous process of identifying and mapping codes for cross-border transactions. As part of Avalara’s cross-border team, we are committed to removing barriers to global commerce for businesses of all sizes.”

So, that’s the latest on the Avalara x Shopify partnership. Click the link provided for further information in regards to Shopify Markets and/ or Shopify import tax.

If you’re actively looking to work with a Shopify agency designer or developer to take your Shopify store international, we’d love to hear from you. Drop us an email to get started!