Avalara, a provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation, has 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.
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.
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.
“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.”
“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,” said Craig Reed, general manager of cross-border at Avalara.
“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,” said Randy Rotchin, president and CEO of 3CE Technologies.
