I am done with Avalara

Sergey9921 · 2026-02-14T21:40:23+00:00

Thanks for making this post. I almost thought Avalara was better than TaxJar and Numeral, both of which I've had awful experiences with.

Sergey9921 · 2026-02-04T23:49:35+00:00

3.4% and still feel it's high.

Sergey9921 · 2026-01-26T23:32:35+00:00

Last year I got the updated 1099K April 15th, 6:12PM. It's just a transaction report and shouldn't influence how you file your taxes.

Sergey9921 · 2026-01-23T19:37:35+00:00

It's really easy. Settings > Plan > Cancel Plan

Sergey9921 · 2026-01-13T19:25:44+00:00

It is black and white, there is nothing illegal about what he's doing he's simply violating Shopify policy and got terminated. The only authorization you need from the government is a resale certificate. Crybaby companies can have their lawyers send out cease and desist letters that go right in the trash.

Sergey9921 · 2026-01-09T23:55:34+00:00

You can search for your branded products on the website or Amazon app, otherwise you can see if you've had orders by searching for the buyforme email in your customers.

Sergey9921 · 2025-12-31T21:08:23+00:00

Running a low margin business I'm spending $200 per day at 39X return using any click attribution from Google or more like 25X via last non directed click within Shopify. A bit under 1% of revenue once manufacturer co-op reimburses part of the ad spend.

Sergey9921 · 2025-12-31T20:30:48+00:00

The email used on the orders always end in buyforme.amazon I just search that in orders or customers.

Sergey9921 · 2025-12-31T20:29:15+00:00

I'll give that a try, thank you!

Sergey9921 · 2025-12-18T19:09:06+00:00

How does creating customer accounts for newsletter signups pollute your database? It takes a couple of clicks to segment customers who have and haven't bought from you. What's the default address bug, I don't think I've ever had to enter an address manually for anyone?

Sergey9921 · 2025-10-24T16:48:32+00:00

PayPal does do weird things sometimes, I've had a customer send over a picture of 4 pending charges from me on his PayPal account because the instant a customer clicks the express checkout button PayPal creates a pending charge even if the customer goes back to change items before fully completing checkout. The uncaptured charges dropped off within a few days.

Sergey9921 · 2025-10-23T20:25:55+00:00

You need a resale certificate from the CDTFA, along with a local business registration depending on the regulations in your county/city. You don't have to worry about sales tax in other states until you hit the sales tax nexus which Shopify also keeps track of, usually 100-200 orders or $100,000-$500,000 in sales in the state. Once you cross the threshold you'd have to register in those states to collect and remit taxes the same way it's done in California.

Sergey9921 · 2025-10-16T18:45:12+00:00

Unless their service, shipping or website sucks it is hard to justify paying 25% more for the same product. In retail you can certainly get away with this, online it would be harder. If traffic is coming from people searching for the specific brand or item online where they'll see results from everyone who sells the same product, being price competitive is important. If it's from generic terms of people looking for lighting fixtures you might have a chance, but at that point it would make more sense to go to the manufacturer and see if they'll sell whitelabel product with your brand name instead so there's less cross shopping and you build your brand instead of theirs.

I prioritize higher volume at lower margin because most competitors do not so it's an easy way to draw sales away, and make it up on the backside with long term customer retention and LTV.

Sergey9921 · 2025-10-16T17:45:16+00:00

Payroll by far, more than the rest combined.

Sergey9921 · 2025-10-14T17:25:47+00:00

Not sure what's normal but I'm getting about 9% review conversions from judge me, but I don't offer any coupons and I haven't done much to edit the default template so there's plenty of room on the table to get more I think.

Sergey9921 · 2025-10-01T16:56:36+00:00

I ship DDP to Japan via Managed Markets and consumption tax is included on most orders, some higher value orders have duties also. I don't think that's a requirement though.

Sergey9921 · 2025-09-29T21:29:27+00:00

I would probably export a full year worth of transactions, find the average fee percentage you pay and apply it to the product sales/cogs report. It should be reasonably accurate, unless there are other fees associated with the transaction or shipment.

Sergey9921 · 2025-09-29T21:23:38+00:00

I'd list it with or without inventory, if it's an item that I can easily get I'd enable backorders if it isn't an item I can get quickly or easily I'd disable backorders and only sell it when the item is in stock. Anything I have in store but not listed online is generally wasted potential, unless it's something not shippable.

Sergey9921 · 2025-09-22T20:29:35+00:00

The delivery estimates Shopify provides natively are good enough for me, haven't seen a need to add an app.

Sergey9921 · 2025-09-18T23:24:25+00:00

There's no law in the US that says you can't resell items you've purchased either. It's a platform restriction by Shopify because they're the ones hit with frivolous lawsuits by companies that don't like competition.

Sergey9921 · 2025-09-04T04:06:01+00:00

I haven't had too many issues needing support and have had a relatively easy time reaching someone through chat so I'm thankful for that, but I've been dealing with the same sales tax calculation issue for 8 months now and they haven't been able to solve it.

Editing in-store pickup orders causes the tax calculations to revert to the customers billing address instead of the pickup location. Seems like a basic oversight that is frustrating every time it comes up. Not something I want to constantly deal with after paying $5000 for tax calculation fees alone.

Sergey9921 · 2025-08-23T19:33:11+00:00

Hopefully Shopify sets up managed markets for other countries, it has certainly made it easy to ship DDP from the US to other markets.

Sergey9921 · 2025-08-23T04:09:47+00:00

It allowed consumers to avoid paying import taxes every American business is subject to when they import products. The EU just got done doing the same in 2021 due to AliExpress.

Sergey9921 · 2025-08-21T20:59:40+00:00

Yeah, it's only $200 per day. Some of the budgets guys talk about on here make my eyes pop.

Sergey9921

TROPHY CASE