Making eCommerce work for Xero

The US eCommerce industry is booming – worth a staggering $547,690 million today and predicted to grow an additional 35% by 2023. And its growth is benefitting everyone, from the mumpreneur and lifestyle seller to the big brands and that person in Seattle who had their La Crema Pinot Noir delivered in just nine minutes. But what about the accountant trying to make eCommerce work for Xero?

Making eCommerce work for Xero can be….a bit of a nightmare. Importing sales orders, assigning invoices, working with multiple sales channel(s), and battling with international sales tax.

But, before you pick up the La Crema and turn down potential clients, is there an easier way to marry up eCommerce and Xero? Of course.

eChallenge – the challenge of eCommerce

eBay, Amazon, Etsy, and Shopify have all made it real easy for anyone to sell online. Almost too easy. Nearly anyone can sign up to a platform and start selling online without first considering how they’re going to manage their accounts.

And when they do consider it and come to you for help, you’re faced with challenges including:

Importing orders

Getting tens, hundreds or even thousands of orders into Xero, approved, and linked with the correct bank account.

Multiple sales channel(s)

Repeating that above step multiple times if they sell via multiple sales channel(s), while you try to get to grips with different systems, data, and CSVs.

International sales tax

Finding and editing international orders to apply the correct sales tax.

Different apps

And, while there are Xero eCommerce integration apps out there, their sole-channel focus means that you need to pay for multiple apps to perform the same function. And then get to grips with them all too. 

 

Together, these challenges make eCommerce clients fiddly, time-consuming, and simply not worth your time or not interested in your quote.

eSolution – making eCommerce work for Xero

But, despite these challenges, you can’t overlook the fact that eCommerce is a hugely profitable industry. And, you certainly can’t overlook the fact that these common-place issues create a significant market opportunity for the accountant that can overcome them all.

“So, what’s the solution?”, we hear you cry. Simple.

1. Xero eCommerce integration apps

You might have already heard of these (we did mention them above) and you might already be using one. These apps download orders from a customer’s sales channel (e.g. Amazon) and uploads them to Xero, making the process somewhat easier. 

2. Xero multi-channel eCommerce integration apps

What a Xero eCommerce app doesn’t do is work across sales channel(s). If your client (or potential client) sells via Amazon and eBay, for example, you’ll need two apps for the job – costly and time-consuming.

A multi-channel app overcomes this problem by directly integrating Xero with multiple sales channel(s) to download sales data and upload it to Xero.

3. Xero multi-channel eCommerce software

But, to overcome all of the problems we mentioned above, you need something that does more than simply sending orders to Xero for you to later wade through. No, you need Xero multi-channel eCommerce software that:

? Sends these orders over automatically on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis;

? Batches invoices to avoid Xero’s soft transaction limit;

? Allocates orders to different bank accounts in Xero, depending on the sales channel and payment method;

? Auto-approves orders into the approved or paid section; and

? Auto-applies Xero’s tracking categories to use for international sales tax.

 

 

Not only does this make eCommerce easier for your practice, but it also enables you to appeal to a broader range of eCommerce sellers – especially that person selling La Crema Pinot Noir on Amazon.

Summary

In a nutshell: eCommerce clients don’t have to be difficult, costly, or time-consuming. You just need the right tools for the job.

 

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About Expandly

Expandly is a multi-channel Xero integration tool that helps accountants import their client’s orders into Xero. Even better, you can automate the process, bank account, status, batching and even tracking categories.