US eCommerce websites and Tax Setup

CMS > eCommerce
1

Hello all,

I hope everyone is doing well. I had several questions regarding the tax setup in Treepl CMS’ eCommerce releases. Mary from Treepl support was able to help me navigate through a few of the questions, but there is one feature that is missing that I think is really important for US-based Treepl CMS eCommerce users: charging customers tax based on their shipping zip code. The response was:

We’ve implemented this item like it was on BC (you can’t change the country and the zip code on the shopping cart in the checkout, it means that these fields are already filled and not editable).

So there are two ways to implement your request:

1) You could suggest this feature in the Treepl backlog as built-in (there is a possibility that other US Partners may also need this feature).

2) We could custom implement this feature for you on this particular site:
We’ll need a list of zip codes for each state.

This will take us 3 business days and will cost approximately $350

Luckily for now, both of my clients have opted to just not charge tax or shipping and built the cost into the products. Am I the only one that thinks this feature would really benefit the platform and open Treepl CMS up a bit as a competitive platform in the US eCommerce space? Thoughts? I’d obviously prefer to not have to include an additional $350 for every client that wants to use Treepl CMS to host their eCommerce sites. I find it really challenging to place Treepl CMS in the same space as other eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc.

This isn’t a complain by any stretch of the imagination, the Treepl CMS team has done a wonderful job of getting all of the Adobe BC features built on Treepl CMS (and done so even better than Adobe in many instances). However, I’m thinking of ways that Treepl CMS can exceed what was offered in Adobe BC. To be honest, Adobe was so limited that I decided to build most of my eCommerce sites on alternate platforms because of the limited features/functionality on Adobe BC where eCommerce was concerned. I’d really like to see Treepl CMS become a front-runner in the eCommerce space so that it can be my primary platform for my client’s websites.

Any thoughts from the Treepl CMS partner community about adding this to the backlog?

Thank you!

  • Ryan
2

Hi Ryan, obviously being based in Australia, this wouldn’t benefit us, but have no objections to this being added to the backlog if it’s a feature you need to function (just like us with GST).

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3

Ryan I would agree that this is almost a must for any US ecommerce site, and most businesses would not accept just rolling it into the price. Besides state taxes many localities now charge a local tax on purchases being shipped into that area. Shopify handles that feature out of the box based on shipping destination and calculates total tax due to each local as this example shows. At a minimum having a way to enter a total tax rate for a state is needed. I agree with you, taxes are an important part of ecommerce and need to be considered before using a solution.

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Thank you @JFK and @lee.relianceit. I appreciate your input and I think @JFK hit the nail right on the head. While I know it’s a bit of a selfish ask since this feature would only benefit one country, but I really can’t sell the platform without it where eCommerce sites are concerned unfortunately. I am looking forward to the next Treehouse meeting as there was some chatter about a possible new ‘Masterplan’. If Treepl can build out some features that bringing it closer in line with some of the other popular eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, OpenCart, etc., Treepl would be a grand slam when it comes to selling the platform. I’m excited to see what the next few years holds. In all fairness to the Treepl development team, I realize that Shopify and some of the others have years and years of development and the features they built in didn’t come overnight. I think Treepl CMS is far superior to those platforms in a lot of ways when it comes to content management, SEO tools, and other features. If they could build in more shopping features and integrations like the other big eCommerce platforms there is no reason Treepl CMS can’t join the ranks of the leading CMS/eCommerce systems.

Anyways, thanks for listening and for your input!

  • Ryan
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