Swap and Avalara Team to Promote Cross-Border eCommerce Compliance

eCommerce operating system Swap has launched a partnership with tax compliance automation software maker Avalara.

The collaboration is designed to allow for cross-border compliance for brands selling on marketplaces and platforms around the world, while also powering cross-border compliance for online marketplaces, the companies announced in a news release Thursday (Jan. 16).

“The global cross-border e-commerce market is projected to surpass $9 trillion by 2032, with 28 percent of sales from companies already engaged in international e-commerce coming from cross-border commerce,” the release said.

The two companies say their integrated offering reduces cross-border complexity and compliance risk and ensures that duties, taxes and fees are paid at checkpoints to boost cart conversion in more marketplaces.

“Swap understands the needs of their customers, and their integrated offering reduces complexity for online retail customers in many ways,” said Craig Reed, general manager, cross border at Avalara. “We understand that digitization of business processes is not an option, it is essential; we are proud to offer fast, accurate and easy compliance automation solutions to our shared customers.”

The partnership comes at a moment when global merchants in the eCommerce space are wrestling with an array of challenges — and opportunities — brought by the digital era, as PYMNTS wrote earlier this month.

“Against this backdrop, building a thriving cross-border business demands a comprehensive strategy that navigates complexities while capitalizing on avenues for growth,” that report said.

“The concept of ‘good authorization hygiene’ emerges as a pivotal tool that merchants — especially those with recurring revenue business models — can leverage to optimize customer authorization rates when conducting global transactions.”

And businesses that aren’t ready for cross-border compliance, PYMNTS argued in a separate report last fall, “may as well be writing regulators a blank check.”

Companies in the financial services, eCommerce and digital platform space that want to navigate the complex landscape of data privacy, financial regulations and cybersecurity, are discovering that many foreign marketplaces have adopted ‘on-soil’ requirements.

These mandates require companies to keep certain data within a country’s borders, affecting cross-border transactions and compliance. Such laws can be found in India and China, while the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while not an explicit data localization law, still limits the transference of personal data outside the EU.