Avalara launches AvaTax for ProStores

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, WASH: Sales tax technology provider Avalara today announced the launch of AvaTax for ProStores. ProStores, an eBay Company, allows small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to create professional online stores, customized with their own branding and domain name.

The result of collaboration between Avalara and ProStores,  AvaTax for ProStores offers businesses a sales tax automation service that works in the background of the ProStores store via a secure Internet connection. The easiest, most economical, and most accurate sales tax automation solution  AvaTax for ProStores provides sales tax calculation and secure data storage for tax filing and reporting, which are critical functions for Web-based businesses.

“As master resellers and certified designers for ProStores, we have firsthand knowledge of the challenges businesses face when manually configuring complex tax tables in their online stores, deciphering reports, and filing sales tax in multiple jurisdictions,” said Kurt Davey, president of neoverve.com. “AvaTax for ProStores fills the gap by providing a much needed, end-to-end solution for ProStores merchants. Bravo!”

AvaTax for ProStores is fully integrated with ProStores, which makes deployment easy and eliminates the need for online merchants to struggle with integration. Once purchased, it only requires selecting AvaTax as the Sales Tax engine from within ProStores and completing the necessary set-up for Nexus and Product Taxability.

“Avalara and ProStores are a natural fit for serving the SMB market. We’re both committed to providing our mutual customers with online, self-service tools that are affordable and easy to use,” said Ranjit Mulgaonkar, Avalara’s vice president of business development. “Avalara has been integrated on a one-by-one basis into hundreds of eCommerce Web sites, so this isn’t a new market for us. With ProStores as an established leader in eCommerce, and Avalara an established leader in sales tax and the standard-setter for SMBs in accounting and enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, the two organizations working together will provide a tremendous degree of value for the ever-growing number of online businesses.”

While eCommerce has made it possible for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to compete in locations where they hadn’t previously, it has also introduced new complications, including compulsory sales tax requirements. Although online businesses currently only need to collect sales taxes where they have a physical location, there is legislation pending in the U.S. Congress that could change the laws regarding remote sales tax collection.

“Since ProStores customers are operating businesses that transcend geographic restrictions, sales tax is a huge consideration. By providing a completely customizable virtual storefront that is easy for small- and medium-sized businesses to deploy, ProStores customers haven’t had to worry about complexities associated with managing credit card transactions and payment processing on their own, and now they don’t have to worry about the sales tax component either,” stated Scott McFarlane, CEO of Avalara.

 “There are more than 12,500 sales tax regions in North America alone. That means each shopping cart checkout will likely require that a unique combination of rules and rates be applied. With AvaTax for ProStores, I am pleased to say that ProStores customers can focus on managing their businesses rather than managing the complexities of sales taxes.”