Use Cases
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Growing a business is difficult enough without adding the burden of the back-office admin.
How can an ecommerce organization ensure that tasks such as chargebacks, customer service, and taxes are handled in an efficient manner without adding those tasks to their to-do list? These tasks are vital to a business’s daily operation, but it’s not necessarily something that needs to be handled internally. Read on for tips to avoid the time-consuming administrative jobs required to keep a digital commerce organization on track.
Trouble with Taxes
Managing the sales tax for purchases made in a variety of states (or countries) is a daunting project. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, or SBA, if your business has any kind of physical presence in a state, you’re required to collect any applicable state and local sales tax upon purchase. This physical presence, or nexus, is applicable if the business is operated from a laptop in a home or a rented corporate office space. If there are employees consistently working in a state, this sufficient to establish that state as the business’s nexus.
With the United States’ 7,500 tax jurisdictions (give or take), it’s incredibly difficult (if not impossible) to keep track of each state’s evolving tax regulations. Factor in the European Union’s Value Added Tax (VAT) regulations and things get even more complicated. There have been efforts to create a bill to regulate sales tax from internet transactions, making it easier for vendors to determine what they need to charge customers regardless of their location, but the bill has yet to pass.
An ecommerce platform automatically handles tax collection with every purchase made, regardless of where it’s made. When a business implements a full-service ecommerce platform, they will know that the process for collecting taxes and tax payments is completely automated and compliant with the most up-to-date regulations.
Chasing Chargebacks
Chargebacks are a form of protection that banks offer to protect customers from fraudulent activity. There are a number of issues that could result in a payment being investigated. For example, a cardholder might discover activity on their card that they didn’t authorize, or perhaps they didn’t receive a product that they purchased— there are many issues that can result in chargebacks.
The chargeback process that ensues is tedious and time-consuming, requiring the business that processed the payment to confer with their merchant account provider to determine if the charge was, in fact, fraudulent. The back-and-forth between the business, the merchant account provider, the cardholder’s bank, and the cardholder can take weeks, if not months.
An ecommerce platform with strong back-office admin support ensures that the chargeback process is as painless as possible. You can focus on growing your business without worrying about checking the dispute status, collecting the necessary information required by the merchant account provider and the cardholder bank, or engaging in the pre-arbitration process.
Customer Support Conundrums
Consumers are savvier than ever, and they have exacting standards for customer service. They expect quick response times and real answers to their questions— a form email isn’t going to cut it. In fact, according to an article by Conversio, 89% of shoppers have stopped purchasing from online stores after a negative customer service experience. Alternately, 86% of customers say they would pay as much as 25% more for a positive customer experience. However, most businesses don’t have the time or the manpower to dedicate to stellar personalized customer service. Incorporating an ecommerce platform with back-office capabilities will ensure that customer issues receive immediate attention without pulling valuable staff members from their work to engage in tedious trouble-shooting.
An ecommerce platform can also help incorporate a business’s in-house CRM or ERP system. This will ensure that customers will enjoy a personalized experience in every interaction with the business. A report from Evergage states that 75% of shoppers are more inclined to purchase from a retailer that recognizes them by name, knows their purchase history, or recommends options based on past purchases.
Want to see FastSpring’s exceptional back-end support in action? FastSpring’s platform offers award-winning digital commerce customer service with live support professionals responding to customer queries, up-to-date sales tax support, full-service chargeback assistance, and more. Click the link below to request your free FastSpring demo today.
