Online Sales Tax Compliance Education: Essential Free Webinar To Stay Out of Jail

eTaildTail can not emphasize enough that all ecommerce undertsand the myriad of issues related to compliance with online sales tax levies on your online sales.

The online sales tax picture is certainly not clear, as I wrote about a few times, and the waters continue to muddy with Amazon leading the way (and spending lots and lots of money alonmg the way) in trying to ensure that there will never be any online sales' taxes related to online purchases...good luck!

Also, here are are my prior commentaries in regard to online, retail, sales tax issues, if you are interested. I think you will find them helpful if you have any interest to know about "how we got here today" and "where are going."

Will New York Online Sales Tax Legislation Kill E-Commerce?

Online Sales Tax..Yes You Must Pay It...Or Do you?

Now is not the time to ignore the online, sales tax issue because:

1. knowledge is power
2. you might be fined heavily for not compying with state and federal regulations, which are very, very convoluted, and
3. you don't want to penalize yourself by ignoring the inevitable...yes, it is going to happen. 

So, eTaildTail friends at Avalara, experts in the online sales tax arena, are hosting a free Webinar to learn about what you must do, might do, and don't have to do regarding online sales taxes related to online purchases.

Here is Avalara's formal invitation:

"You are invited to attend a webinar on Wednesday, March 4th, 2009: Tips For Helping Online Merchants Achieve Sales Tax Compliance.

Nexus, taxability and exemptions - these seemingly innocent words are more complex than they first appear. With the constantly shifting sales tax rates and jurisdictional boundaries, many e-commerce business owners simply cannot keep track of compliance details. It is compulsory, and without it you risk incurring unnecessary tax and penalties in the event of an audit. However, achieving compliance is a serious drain on your business' time and resources.

By integrating its services directly into accounting and e-commerce applications, Avalara has helped over 20,000 users eliminate the tedious work and complexity of calculating, collecting, reporting on and remitting taxes in multiple jurisdictions. As a leading provider of web-hosted sales tax management services, Avalara brings you this webinar to show how your e-commerce business can dramatically reduce the risk of suffering loss or penalty as you go through a tax audit.

Join us for this 30 minute, free, educational webinar:

Date: Wednesday March 4th, 2009
Time: 12:00 pm to 12:30 pm PST. 
Take-A-Ways: You will learn how easy it can be to achieve end-to-end sales tax compliance for your e-commerce business."

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register now for this free Avalara Webinar to educate you all about online sales tax obligations that you might not want to ignore.

- Chip Arndt

Online Ecommerce Holiday Retail Sales and Traffic Ahead of 2007

There are many reasons why 2008 Holiday Traffic and Sales are up over 2007 in this recessionary economy, but I will leave that analysis for a post Holiday blog entry.  

For now, as I know you are all busy with marketing efforts to drive traffic to your Web Store and increase sales, know that 2008 Holiday traffic and revenues are up from 2007.

The below chart, released this week, shows year-to-year growth at some of the the major online retail channels. While the below chart does not track a wide array of online retailers, it is generally agreed by most analysts that sales and traffic data from a sample group of top online retailers is a good indicator of what is happening across the entire ecommerce marketplace.

The below chart tracks online data from: Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, JCPenney.com, Kohls.com, Macys.com, Overstock.com, Sears.com, Target.com, and Walmart.com.

I was highly encouraged by the report and what it signals for the future of ecommerce across the board.

I encourage all online retailers, and those of us ecommerce and mcommerce "addicts" in the world, to read the complete article by <<<CLICKING HERE>>> for an excellent overview of the 2008 Holiday Shopping Season to date from eTaildTail friends at Seeking Alpha: "Experts in Stock Market Opinion and Analysis"

Happy Holidays!

-- Chip Arndt

Mobile..."IZE" Your E-Commerce Storefront

Many ecommerce merchants have asked MerchantAdvantage about the benefits of having your ecommerce storefront accessible on mobile devices.  MerchantAdvantage believes that every ecommerce merchant should list their products on mobile devices because of:

• the advent of improved mobile interfaces and devices to accomodate shopping
• trends in consumer behaviour patterns, and
• flat pricing by mobile technology providers to surf the Web.

Apple's iPhone led the way to providing a user friendly shopping experience on a small mobile device.  This included being able to locate products, compare prices of products, and buy products.  Because Apple's iPhone appealed primarily to a 15-35 year old demographic, this led to a pattern of increased usage by "younger" people to "mobile shop." An article from USA Today, titled Shop By Phone Gets New Meaning, confirmed these findings.  And here is another article, First Data's McCarthy Examines MCommerce Trends, from industry experts Mobile Banker, August 2008, which speaks to why they believe that "...everything is in place...finally..." for mobile commerce to explode in 2009.

Just this week, Practical E-Commerce wrote an article on new open source mobile commerce platforms referencing Nielson's, which stated that 9 million Americans have already made a purchase from a mobile device and that 50% of the 250 million odd mobile handset users in the USA are willing to make a purchase. Can you feel the trend?

While the mobile shopping experience is far from perfect, youth today expect to be able to "do it all" from their mobile device including buying anything at any time they want. And the marketplace is catching up because this is the demographic whom all companies and ecommerce merchants must reach to drive sales and increase brand exposure into the future.

Soon after the iPhone release in 2007, every major mobile device company upgraded their interfaces to compete with Apple to ensure that customers can virtually do whatever they want using their mobile devices.  The most recent announcement came from T-Mobile and Google. For November 2008, T-Mobile and Google are launching a new 3G/JavaFX mobile device to compete directly with Apple.  This new mobile device's shopping experience will be powered by Amazon and offer consumers a complete shopping experience from one of the best and largest e-retailers in the USA. Information on this new launch can be found by <<<CLICKING HERE>>>.

T-Mobile and Google had a soft launch of the product in New York two weeks ago and are launching their new offering first in Europe, where adoption of such technologies is quicker than the USA.  Introduction of the new "Google/T-Mobile Andoid, JavaFX Phone" will reach the USA 1st quarter 2009. MerchantAdvantage believes that all ecommerce merchants should realize that mobile shopping is becoming a part of our culture and stay ahead of this trend so they can be more competitive.

These mobile shopping experiences include the ability to instantly buy a gift or product, compare prices while shopping at one store or anywhere where they want, download coupons, take a picture of a product - share it with a friend - and then purchase it, and receive special offers from companies they like shopping from and trust. 

Further evidence of the proliferation of mobile shopping is evidenceed by wireless carriers building out the national infrastructure for mobile commerce and their continued flat pricing to surf the Web.  Internet Retailer reports that, by the end of 2009, 51.9% of merchants expect to operate their own m-commerce site for users of wireless devices and 57.1% also expect to design and maintain pages on social networks that give shoppers options to download digital coupons, upload videos, and participate in blogs or forums.  These m-commerce sites would be in addtion to working with shopping portals as Amazon, which also can get an ecommerce merchants products in front of consumers.

“We are seeing a fundamental shift in how retailers are deploying new web technology and that trend is going to accelerate over the next year,” says Evan Gerber, principal consultant, user experience, with Molecular Inc., an e-commerce consulting and web design firm.

“Web shopping isn’t about creating the best desktop experience on a hard-wired personal computer any more. The retailers that make best use of emerging technologies such as mobile commerce and social networking are the ones that will build the best brand recognition and create the most diverse means for shoppers to complete a transaction.”

The whole concept of mobile shopping is intuitive but the execution can be complicated. For instance:

1. How does an ecommerce merchant list/feed their products to Amazon easily so there products can subsequently get listed on the new T-Mobile/Google mobile device?
2. How does an e-commerce merchant list their product catalog into other supported mobile shopping networks and syndicated comparison shopping engines to ensure that a consumer can find their products and brand on any mobile device?
3. How does an ecommerce merchant create their own user-friendly, mobile Web Store that a consumer can go to directly and navigate through easily, and finally...
4. How does an ecommerce merchant update their product catalog and inventory management across all of these channels when a sale on a mobile device occurs?

There are answers to help ecommerce merchants "Mobile...IZE" their ecommerce storefront and excellent companies to initiate an mcommerce (mobile commerce) strategy.

MerchantAdvantage is one company that helps by:

1. supporting mobile shopping technologies that set up mobile commerce storefronts
2. supporting Amazon, and
3. feeding product catalog feeds, cost-effectively to over 150 comparison shopping engines, coupon sites, and other maketing channels that support both online ecommerce and mobile commerce

mShopper and mPoria are examples of excellent companies, whom MerchantAdvantage works with, to set up a mobile storefront in less than 24 hours from a clean data feed.  MerchantAdvantage also is glad to put any ecommerce merchant in touch with a myriad of other companies to accomplish all that an ecommerce merchant needs to leverage the growing mobile commerce space and we recommend that you start today to stay competitive.

While I disagree with Bill Mirabito below who says that "mobile technology is not ready for actual transactions/mobile checkout", because I find it is and getting better every month, I do encourage all readers of this post to check out the following Webinar hosted by eTaildTail friends at ElasticPath.

The Webinar is free and will give you valuable insights into the best use of mobile shopping technology for the holidays.  And, when you are done with the Webinar, give me a call and I would me more than happy to go into further details of how MerchantAdvantage and our many mobile strategic relationships can help you reach customers this holiday season via their mobile devices.

Holiday Wish List for Mobile Commerce: Free Webinar: October 23rd, 2008 @ 9am PT/12pm ET

Guest Panelist: Bill Mirabito, Founder & Principal Consultant, B2C Partners

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this free Webinar from our friends at ElasticPath.

Retailers love growing store traffic and improving the brand experience, but mobile devices are rarely part of the equation. Present-day technology isn’t ready for mobile checkout. However, today’s cell phones can be used by in-store consumers as an effective “kiosk on the hip.” In this session, Bill Mirabito will outline how mobile technology can help retailers drive cross-channel sales this holiday season.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Engage in-store consumers and get them to register their device
• Deliver enhanced product information to consumers in the aisle
• Direct shoppers to alternate store locations with available inventory
• Create wish lists in store and share gift registries for holiday shopping
• Personalize recommendations and promotions for cross-channel consumers

<<<CLICK HERE>>> to register for this free Webinar from our friends at ElasticPath.

- Chip Arndt

Everest Software Names MerchantAdvantage Top Data Feed Management Software Tool

I just wanted to thank Ryan Brown, Everest Software, for the accolade and recommendation from the recent Internet Retailer 2008 show in Chicago to utilize MerchantAdvantage and our cost-effective, Channel Management with Chanalytics Professional and Lite products.

We work hard at MerchantAdvatage to provide the best value for small to mid-sized businesses to manage their product catalog data feeds to ecommerce and mobile commerce comparison shopping engines, affiliate sites -- as Commission Junction and LinkShare -- and over 150 other shopping destination sites and marketplaces -- as Amazon, Become.com, buySAFE bonded shopping network, eBay!, FindGifts.com, Gifts.com, Google Product Search, JellyFish, Like.com, Microsoft Cashback, myCoupons.com, mPoria.com, mShopper.com, Pricegrabber, Pronto, Shop.com, Shopzilla, Smarter, SortPrice, theFind.com, Underbid, Yahoo!Shopping, and many, many others -- without charging any listing, set up or transaction fees or revenue share.

Here is the full review of MerchantAdvantage and other recommendations from Ryan Brown and Everest Software.

"MerchantAdvantage facilitates the marketing of your products through online shopping sites, coupon sites and mobile commerce sites..."

Chip Arndt
Co-Founder|EVP
MerchantAdvantage, LLC

eBay Cuts Listing Fees and Boosts Commission Fees = Follows Amazon Model...Sort Of!

So the competiton is heating up and no longer is eBay the only kid on the block...but then most of us knew that already.  I have posted below a full article on what eBay announced today, or <<<CLICK HERE>>> to read about their new pricing strategy.

Fierce competition exists among new online shopping comparison sites and the "old guard" shopping sites as eBay.com, Shopzilla.com, PriceGrabber.com, Shopping.com, Amazon.com and Yahoo! Shopping, to name just a few.  For a good list of over 100 shopping comparison sites, with whom you can work, check out MerchantAdvantage.

Online retailers have known about other market places and shopping comparison sites to list their product catalog to reach consumers for sometime and they have done fairly well using these other sites, in addition to listing on eBay.com. 

Now eBay is feeling the pressure, especially from Amazon.com, which does not charge listing fees but rather "high" commissions on sales, and is responding to the marketplace as revenues have "flat lined" at eBay and online retail listings have followed, with only a 4% increase in the 4th quater last year, which reverses two Q's of declining listings.

All in all, competition is good for the the online retail marketplace, and the consumer, so I am glad to see eBay react and try to rebuild their following and attract new online merchants into their family.

I personally think that the recent declines, and now restructuring, at eBay are not signs of the demise of online shopping but rather a direct response to unique, and sometimes better, shopping experierneces and business models offered by new shopping sites.  Check out the blog entry below about Ciao.com as an example of what I am talking about!

Happy shopping and listing and work with eBay -- they are great and I think with this new pricing model, any online marchant can better manage and increase their return on investment. 

And one special note, this fee restructuring generally benefits the larger seller with lots of SKUs and might not be the best deal for the "onesy-twosy" sellers (which mind you used to be the heart and soul of the "original" eBay) who will have to pay higher commissions on a small SKU count.

And if you need some help with your eBay listings give us a shout, we support and can feed your product to an eBay Storefront.  Just click here and call us to help....MerchantAdvantage

-- Chip

<<<CLICK HERE>>> for full article, or read below

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- EBay Inc. said Tuesday it will cut by up to 50 percent the fees it charges sellers to list their goods online, in an effort to boost listings and keep pace with other burgeoning e-commerce sites.

To balance the fee cut, the company plans to increase its commission on items that do sell, a method the company says sellers prefer because it lowers their risk if items do not sell.

The greatest fee increase will come for goods selling for less than $25. EBay's fee for those transactions will rise 67 percent, to 8.75 percent of the final sale price.

"A majority of sellers will see their fees go down," said company spokesman Usher Lieberman. "We are basing our success on their success and we want to encourage sellers to list more items with us."

The new fee structure, announced to a gathering of 200 of eBay's top North American sellers in Washington, goes into effect February 20 in the United States. More pricing changes are coming shortly in the United Kingdom and Germany.

EBay has struggled with flattening growth in recent years and a temporary drop in the number of items for sale on its site.

Listings on eBay's various sites in the fourth quarter rose 4 percent, reversing two straight quarters of declines, the company reported last week. The number of people actively using the site has also stagnated, rising just 2 percent from a year ago.

The online auctioneer has faced increasing competition from other e-commerce sites such as Amazon.com, which does not charge a listing fee.

EBay's various fees have long been a point of contention for its sellers, which range from mom-and-pop vendors to online stores with large inventories.

The changes come as longtime chief executive Meg Whitman announced she would retire at the end of March. Incoming CEO John Donahoe, president of eBay Marketplaces, which encompasses its shopping sites and classifieds, has said he will aggressively change eBay's product, customer approach and business model.

Along with changes to the fee structure, eBay said it will change how sellers show up on customer searches. Those with high rates of customer dissatisfaction will get lower exposure in a search, the company said.