Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, today announced the company’s cross-border compliance capabilities power the new duty and import tax features of Shopify’s global commerce hub, Shopify Markets. Part of Shopify Markets, the new duty and import tax feature natively uses Avalara technology and content to generate landed cost pricing to determine duty and import tax requirements for more than 180 countries. Avalara also announced the expansion of its cross-border capabilities with the acquisition of 3CE Technologies, a company that provides Harmonized System (HS) commodity classification codes and verification solutions to private businesses and government agencies.
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“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”
Addressing cross-border compliance for Shopify merchants
According to eMarketer, global ecommerce saw significant growth in 2020, growing 27.6% to $4.2 trillion. Global sales are increasing rapidly as more consumers shop online, and more businesses take advantage of the ease of selling products online. Shopify merchants generated $20 billion in cross-border sales in 2020 alone. To take advantage of the cross-border opportunity, businesses need tools that can help identify, create, and manage international markets with minimal barriers. When it comes to cross-border compliance, businesses must ensure customs duties and import taxes are accurately calculated at the time of checkout to reduce compliance risks and negative customer experiences caused by surprise costs at the time of delivery. Shopify, a global commerce platform, has developed an end-to-end cross-border product to help its more than 1.7 million merchants grow their businesses internationally.
With Avalara Cross-Border Estimated, a new, patent-pending feature of Avalara AvaTax Cross-Border, natively available in Shopify Markets, merchants can calculate the appropriate duty and import tax fees at checkout, without requiring tariff codes. Avalara Cross-Border Estimated provides merchants a unique way to meet their cross-border business requirements and the flexibility to make decisions on their duty and import tax determinations. Benefits of the services include:
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- Improved accuracy of duty and tax estimates: Calculate costs with confidence by leveraging Avalara’s industry-leading artificial intelligence engine and global compliance content database.
- Enhanced checkout experience: Provide customers with landed cost estimates in the cart in real time to reduce unexpected costs at delivery.
“The power and promise of the internet was for businesses to reach customers anywhere, anytime. Ecommerce makes that a reality for buyers and sellers,” said Scott McFarlane, CEO and co-founder at Avalara. “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 cart, minimizing surprise costs, and reducing compliance risk.”
