By Amit Mathradas

President and COO of Avalara, a cloud-based compliance solutions provider that helps businesses of all sizes get tax compliance right. 

The proliferation of e-commerce and cloud adoption in recent years has sparked a number of shifts in how our society engages in business. Businesses of any size are now able to leverage digital channels to reach a larger number of customers in nearly any corner of the globe. Cloud technology has increased the speed and efficiency of organizations through implementations across functions.

Through my time leading financial technology companies, I’ve found the adoption of these technologies has prompted more businesses to engage in real-time, 24-7 sales cycles across channels while enabling consumers to make purchases whenever, wherever and however they choose.

In the past year, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of cloud and e-commerce, prompting even further change in consumer behaviour and business operations. Amid temporary in-person business closures and social distancing practices, consumers have prioritized things such as convenience when it comes to making purchases. These priorities among consumers have increased the need for efficiency and urgency across businesses looking to capture consumer attention and convert customers.

All of the changes taking place on a global scale have created new rules of commerce for businesses of all sizes. Here are some of my tips for business leaders to navigate and succeed in the new era of global commerce:

1. Embrace omni commerce.

To compete in a digital-first society, businesses should have not only an e-commerce store but also an omnichannel presence. Consumers seek options and flexibility when it comes to shopping online. Because of this, it’s important for sellers to have a presence across platforms and devices.

Businesses can employ a mix of in-person, e-commerce, online marketplaces, subscriptions, live-streaming events and other channels to reach customers in a variety of ways. And as in-person shopping remains limited, it’s more important than ever to have more than just one e-commerce store. Selling through online marketplaces and advertising across social media can help you reach more customers online.

While the move to omni commerce has created ample opportunity for sellers, it has also created a complex ecosystem of applications and systems. From platforms to billing systems to supply chain management, omni commerce businesses are using a number of disparate systems to manage inventories, host products, process transactions, facilitate online and in-store returns and more.

To succeed in omni commerce, businesses not only need to expand their sales channels but also should consider embracing technologies that can easily integrate across systems, applications and channels to increase visibility across the business and create a seamless customer experience.

2. Reimagine customer experiences for digital.

The digital customer experience isn’t confined to the time one spends on a business’s e-commerce website. The digital customer journey spans from customer discovery to delivery. I believe consumers expect access to responsive e-commerce websites that deliver in-person shopping benefits, such as 1-to-1 support and options to “try on” products.

They also expect to have options for payment types and demand security for their personal information when shopping online. And, perhaps one of the most important aspects of the digital customer journey is timely shipping, along with notifications and updates, and the ability to return merchandise.

With elevated customer expectations, businesses need to deliver great experiences. Because my company’s solutions are cloud-based, I’ve found that using cloud-based technologies to optimize the entire customer journey is a scalable way to keep up with customer demand while providing a personalized and convenient experience for each customer. For example, leveraging out-of-the-box, cloud-based e-commerce platforms can be an easy way for sellers to work with the technology integrations needed to personalize the browsing experience and ensure an accurate checkout process.

3. Digitize operations to remove friction and enable growth.

As businesses grow, whether it be through omnicommerce, acquisitions, adding new products or expanding geographically, the complexity of business operations also grows. To enable efficient and scalable growth, businesses can identify operations that can be digitized and automated to reduce the burden on personnel and financial resources.

By digitizing lower priority operations, businesses can reduce the amount of friction prohibiting growth and devote resources to the highest value projects.

4. Prepare for frequent tax rule and regulation changes.

Through my company’s specialization in tax compliance, I’ve seen firsthand that tax laws on a global scale have undergone rapid change in recent years. From economic nexus laws in the U.S. to e-invoicing across Europe, the sheer complexity of tax regulations and obligations facing digital businesses is unprecedented.

And in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, we can expect that tax authorities will be facing the daunting battle of balancing budgets and recouping lost revenue. This, in turn, can lead to trends including the addition of new taxes on goods and services and requiring even the smallest sellers to comply with tax regulations that previously impacted only larger e-commerce merchants.

In the new era of global commerce, businesses not only need to understand the tax obligations within their state or country but also those abroad. E-commerce enables businesses to sell virtually anywhere in the world, which also exposes sellers to a range of new, cross-border compliance obligations. As we move forward, I predict new tax regulations for a digital-first world will take aim at collecting revenue from digital commerce, and the enforcement of tax laws will become even more strict. In order to be competitive and thrive, businesses must have the expertise in place to manage these changing rules in real-time on a global scale.

The pandemic significantly disrupted how most of us make purchases and accelerated the adoption of digital-first strategies and channels. Consumers have more access to goods and services than ever before, and businesses have more power to reach and sell to consumers on a global scale. This new era of global commerce will require businesses to hedge on technology to provide the experiences, scalability and data needed to keep pace with the rapid changes impacting every industry. These new rules will continue to change, and businesses will need to put the foundation in place today to keep pace and continue growing their operations.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Amit Mathradas

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President and COO of Avalara, a cloud-based compliance solutions provider that helps businesses of all sizes get tax compliance right. Read Amit Mathradas’ full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes