WP eCommerce Show

Episode 52 is the first of four shows in a series on Starting Your WordPress Online Store. In this show, we talk with Mike Hansen, WordPress expert at Bluehost, who is the sponsor for this series. Mike has a lot of experience around WordPress, and we brought him in to give us some tips on starting the search for a WordPress eCommerce plugin for your online store.

We chatted about:

* The differences between using a plugin on your site vs. connecting with a plugin to an eCommerce platform

* How to prepare for the expense of premium extensions, add-ons and plugins

* Planning ahead for growth into other aspects of eCommerce, such as memberships, subscriptions and affiliates

* The pros and cons of using a page builder for your online store

* The importance of planning for and paying attention to your analytics

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: WordPress eCommerce Show February 20 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone. Welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is not only episode 52, but it is the first series of Season Two. For those of you new to the show, our series consist of four consecutive Mondays where we talk with a special expert each Monday about an important aspect of running an eCommerce site.

Today, we are kicking off the series starting your WordPress online store. This series is going to cover the critical pieces you should get in place for your first online store,  creating your online presence from your brick-and-mortar shop, and ending with us looking at your product shots and making sure that they are doing the right job for you and your online store.

Meet Mike Hansen, the ‘WordPress Guy’ at Bluehost

To kick this series off, we are joined today by Mike Hansen, the WordPress guy of Bluehost and a long-time friend of mine, about choosing the right eCommerce plugin. Hey Mike, welcome to the show.

Mike Hansen: Hey Bob.

Bob Dunn: Now before we get into the questions, I gave you a title there, the WordPress guy, which is vague in a way. Can you tell us a bit more about what you do as far as keeping WordPress and Bluehost connected?

Mike Hansen: Yeah. I’ve been at Bluehost for a number of years and I’ve ad a few different roles. I started out on the open source team, contributing to open source projects and trying to make sure that we’re doing our commitment to the community in that sense. Then I became the lead WordPress developer and helped build out some of our features that we needed to have.

More recently, I’m doing WordPress product work as a WordPress product owner. What that means is that I’m just trying to make WordPress better at Bluehost all around. This is everything from our tools inside of our control panel to just the experience that the customer has as they onboard and get going with their WordPress website.

Bob Dunn: Very cool. I know that Casey, in our first show when we introduced this new partnership with Bluehost as a sponsor,  mentioned that there’s going to be come exciting stuff coming down the pike here over the next year. I’m anxious to see what happens there, and I’m sure you’re going to have your hands or arms up to your elbows, elbow deep into WordPress here it sounds like.

Mike Hansen: Absolutely, absolutely. I’m already in it.

The functions of different plugins: it’s all about your goal

Bob Dunn: Oh I bet. Now we’re anxious to talk about the specifics around choosing that plugin for you...

Today starts Season 2 of our podcast. And we are excited to say the least because it also begins with a new partner. Bluehost has stepped up to the plate to sponsor both our regular Wednesday shows and our series for the next season (six-months). To kick it off the right way, Casey Rowland, Marketing Director for Bluehost, joins us today. Listen in as he shares with us the history of Bluehost, their involvement with WordPress and eCommerce, and what the future holds for them in the WordPress open source community.

Also, stick around till the end to hear what we have lined up for the next six months on our in-depth series each Monday.

We chatted about:

* The history of Bluehost: how and where it all started

* How WordPress played into their history and influenced their involvement

* What Bluehost brings to their customers around the eCommerce space

* Some of the exciting things coming to Bluehost in the next year

* How WordPress is becoming an even bigger part of the future for Bluehost

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Bluehost

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: WordPress eCommerce Show Epsiode 51 Transcript for February 15 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is a huge day for our podcast in a couple of very exciting ways. First, it’s the start of Season 2. Now, you may be wondering why we’re starting Season 2 a little earlier than when we first started this podcast last March, but our second big announcement will explain that more.

What is really, really, exciting is that our friends over at Bluehost have stepped up to sponsor the next six months of the WP eCommerce Show, and I’m talking not only about our regular Wednesday show, but also our Monday series. I’ll be sharing with you a bit at the end on what you can expect from that. You’re going to see a lot of content coming your way twice a week, at least for the next six months, and to celebrate this partnership, I’m lucky to have Casey Rowland, Marketing Director at Bluehost, on our show today to kick it off. Hey, Casey. Welcome to the show.

Casey Rowland: Hey, Bob. Great to be here.

Meet Casey Rowland, Marketing Director at Bluehost

Bob Dunn: Now, unless you live in a cave or somewhere else very remote—and I’m not talking about Casey, I’m talking about you, our listeners— I’m sure you’ve heard of Bluehost. What I’d like to do is have Casey introduce himself and give us some insight into why Bluehost believes in the power of the web.

Casey Rowland: Oh, for sure, so thanks for the great introduction, Bob. I am Casey Rowland, the Marketing Director here at Bluehost.  Bluehost has really believed in the web and the power of the web since the company’s inception back in 2003. One of the reasons we got started as a company was to give people the power to get their voice out onto the internet. We started in late 2003. It’s super-disruptive, the way that we’ve kind of changed the industry by offering free hosting for advertisements based within people’s websites, and we quickly changed after that to a paid service. As we changed and pivoted into a paid service, we became more and more focused on open source and giving back t...

In episode 50, the last show of Season 1, I had the pleasure of chatting with David Bradley, co-founder of Patterns in the Cloud , where they offer scalable and affordable web production. They are also the force behind WC Autoship for WooCommerce, which enables your customers to add any item to a future Autoship order without changing your store’s products or checkout process.

In today’s show we are talking about the customer experience. David shares his experience of creating solutions to help online store owners analyze and improve their customer’s experience. He also shares how AI (artificial intelligence) plays an important role and will become even more prominent in the future of customer experience.

We chatted about:

* The role his company takes when helping clients with their customer experience

* The biggest challenge that online stores have when it comes to customer experience

* His own unique and challenging experience with a client

* What conversational customer experience is with a real-world example

* What their focus on replenishment purchasing might look like in the future

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Patterns in the Cloud

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript February 8 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone and welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. We are excited to be chatting with David Bradley, co-founder of Patterns in the Cloud, where he manages eCommerce and web production. Also, I must mention, Patterns in the Cloud is today’s sponsor.

Now, David and his team have been building WordPress sites and helping online retailers since 2014. Any time you are working with online stores, well, one of the biggest slices of the pie for those store owners is making  making sure that they are providing the best customer experience that they can. That is what we are talking about today:  the customer experience. With that said, I’d like to welcome David to the show.

David Bradley: Hi, Bob. Thanks for having me.

Bob Dunn: My pleasure. Now, I know we want to get into this topic here. A lot to talk about, but before we do, can you tell us a bit about yourself and your company?

Meet David Bradley, Co-founder of Patterns in the Cloud

David Bradley: Sure. We created Patterns in the Cloud, my partner John and I, to help businesses and agencies be successful building websites and software. We use an approach that looks for and identifies what’s already out there in the web services world. Be it a service like WooCommerce, that does a shopping cart that can be customized very well, that could be leveraged for the business’ vision, to maybe an integrated service, like a payments company that works well for the customer to use, maybe Stripe for implementing Apple Pay, kind of like a new thing to do. Sort of identifying what’s out there for the business owner and comparing that with their ultimate vision and then building a scope for them, or a project, be it a website or maybe it’s a web app piece of software that gets the job done.

Bob Dunn: Now, I know that, well, we’re talking about customer experience and it’s critical to any online store. Maybe just to elaborate a little bit more, how does your company fit into the role of improving customer experience for your clients?

Episode 49 is fourth and last in our series on eCommerce Sales Tax. In this show, we have Amy Morgan, Product Manager at Avalara, our sponsor for this informative series. She gives us some great insights into Landed Costs. If you are an online business, small or large, buying or selling product across country borders, this show is  for you. Whether you are aware of what Landed Costs are or not, you will want to make sure you are in compliance so any taxes you or your customers are responsible for, don’t come back and bite you later on.

In this show, we chatted about:

* What exactly is Landed Costs

* Things businesses need to consider when selling across country borders

* Why Landed Cost is such a big deal now even though it’s been around for sometime

* If shipping companies take care of you with Landed Costs

* How a seller can mitigate their risk and calculate cross-border custom duty and taxes

* Are you responsible for these costs once you have calculated them

* Amy’s craziest cross-border story.

Resources:

Avalara’s landed cost calculator.

The other shows in this series:

Sales Tax Essentials For Online Small Businesses

Charging Sales Taxes on Your Online Services with Scott Peterson

Learn How VAT Affects Your Online Sales with Colin Matthews and Matthew Harrison

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Avalara

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript February 6 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is the final show of our four-part eCommerce sales tax series, brought to you by our sponsor, Avalara.

In the previous three shows we’ve talked about sales tax essentials for online small businesses, charging sales tax on your services and diving deep into the VAT tax. Today we are talking about landed cost. If you are wondering what landed cost is, don’t worry, you will know by the end of this show. And if you are familiar with it,  I’m sure you’re going to pick up some great added pointers today.

To help us understand landing cost, we welcome Amy Morgan, product manager at Avalara. Hi Amy, and welcome to the show.

Amy Morgan: Hey, Bob. Good to be here.

Meet Amy Morgan, Product Manager at Avalara Inc.

Bob Dunn: I know that people are anxious to learn about landed costs. In fact, people are anxious about learning about taxes all the time. I mean, they’re on the edge of their seat. But seriously, before we get into it, tell me a little bit about what you do at Avalara and how you ended up being there.

Amy Morgan: Yup sure. I am, like you said, I’m the product manager, I’m a product manager at Avalara. I’m responsible for our landed cost calculator and all of our cross-border tax calculator tools. What’s cool about my role here is that I come from a big retail background where I was responsible for managing cross-border shipments and international trade compliance for big companies, so the problems I get to solve at Avalara are problems I grappled with as an employee of big retailers in my past. I’m a licensed US customs broker. Customs duties and cross-border taxes are my l...

In episode 48, we talk with Joost de Valk from Yoast.com about how to get the most from his SEO plugin that has 1 million plus active installs on WordPress sites throughout the world. As a long-time user of this plugin, I wanted to dive into how store owners can get the most out of it on their eCommerce site. Listen in as we hear some great tips straight from Yoast, as well as some interesting news around WooCommerce and Yoast.com.

We chatted about:

* The top three benefits of using Yoast SEO plugin with your online store

* How important AMP is and how it works with his plugin

* What redirect rules you should follow when removing products from your site

* The most common mistake store owners make— and the solution

* The future of the WooCommerce extension

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: Mode Effect

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript Februrary 1 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the WP eCommerce Show. Bob Dunn here. Also known as BobWP on the web. Today we are lucky to have the founder of the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress on the show and, yes, I’m talking about Joost and his Yoast SEO plugin. Chances are if you have a WordPress site, you are using his plugin. I’ve been using it myself for as long as I can remember. Today we are going to talk more about the eCommerce aspect of the plugin, but before we dive into it, I would let to tell you a bit about today’s sponsor

Joost de Valk: Well, thank you.

Bob Dunn: You are coming from across the pond. Way across. Actually across the United States for me and the pond.

Joost de Valk: Yeah, no, I am. I’m in lovely Europe where it’s not sunny or warm. I hail from the Netherlands, as does most of our team.

Bob Dunn: Yeah. We’re in the Pacific Northwest. Washington State. We’re rainy and not sunny and warm either.

Joost de Valk: Okay.

Bob Dunn: So I can relate.

Joost de Valk: Good.

Yoast in a nutshell

Bob Dunn: Well, I’m excited to hear about the nitty-gritty around your plugin and eCommerce, but first for those who don’t know what you do beyond the plugin, can you give us that in a nutshell?

Joost de Valk: We do a lot of things. The plugin by now has become the biggest part of our business, but we have services around that and some other plugins like a local SEO plugin and a new SEO plugin, etc., that sit on top of Yoast SEO or Yoast SEO Premium. We have an SEO care service that’s actually sold out at the moment so I can promo it, but you can’t buy it, where we help you … Give you monthly advice on how to improve your site. Then I still do some consulting on the side as an SEO consultant for some of the bigger brands in the world.

Bob Dunn: It’s all SEO all the time, right?

Joost de Valk: Well, yeah. To be honest, the type of consulting I do becomes more digital strategy than just SEO because it’s usually at board level for pretty high … Large companies. Stuff I did, for instance, the migration of The Guardian from theguardian.co.uk to the theguardian.com. Those kinds of projects are what I like to do and what I get asked for a lot.

Bob Dunn: Yeah, boy, I bet that was a huge undertaking.

Joost de Valk: That was ridiculous. It took us a year and a half and it was … Yeah. Some of the best team I’ve ever worked with and it was a gigantic piece of work.

Bob Dunn: I can imagine. Well, I’m going to dive right into these questions and hopefully they won’t take us a year and a half to answer.

Joost de Valk: No.

In episode 47, we are chatting with Andy Hayes from PlumDeluxe.com. Andy shares the story about selling organic tea online. He tells us his personal insights on the pros and cons of usingWooCommerce, as well as some of the technical challenges he faced. We also get a bit of behind-the-scenes advice on what it’s like to sell custom, organic tea online.

We chatted about:

* Why he chose WordPress and WooCommerce for his store

* What he loves about WooCommerce his biggest frustration with the eCommerce plugin

* When he chose to turn his site into a subscription site,  and how he did that

* The challenges of selling organic tea online

* The number one thing he wishes he had known when he first started

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: infolinks

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript January 25 2017

Bob Dunn: Hey everybody, and welcome back to the WP eCommerce show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today we are swinging back around and bringing you some insights directly from a shop owner:  Andy Hayes from PlumDeluxe.com.

We like to bring shop owners on as guests because it helps other online store owners learn from their experience. And consultants, developers, and designers can also take away some solid tips of what works and doesn’t work in the eCommerce realm. Today we’re going to hear the story of PlumDeluxe.com.

Meet Andy Hayes, owner of Plum Deluxe, the best monthly tea subscription service

Andy, welcome to the show.

Andy Hayes: Hey Bob, thanks for having me. It’s a shame that we have to schedule a podcast call to catch up. I haven’t seen you in awhile.

Bob Dunn: We don’t live that far from each other so.

Andy Hayes: Not anymore.

Bob Dunn: We’ll have to actually do something and we can say all the stuff we want to say that we don’t want other people to hear.

Andy Hayes: Sounds like a plan.

Bob Dunn: Well, let’s start out by having you just tell us kind of in a nutshell what Plum Deluxe is.

Andy Hayes: Thanks. Plum Deluxe, we like to say, is the website that helps you create moments that matter. We’ve been around almost ten years now. Some name changes, some business changes on that journey. Plum Deluxe started as just a blog. When I started my question that I was really curious to answer was why are we better versions of ourselves when we’re on vacation? This was the question that started it all.

At the beginning, it was a blog that we had similar to the show like this. We had sponsors and advertisers that would pay for the content. Think of, I guess, an online magazine kinda thing. Over the years we tried a lot of different kinds of products to make it more of a richer experience. We did themed Plum Deluxe events. We created our own store that was actually an affiliate store, so we had links to other people’s products. It never was really enough to make it what my vision was.

Once I really got clear on what was the purpose of this website, which was kind of … I spent more of my life living in Europe and I felt that here in the United States, people just never slow down and take a second and have a thoughtful conversation.

Bob Dunn: Right.

A unique business model

In episode 46, I have the pleasure of chatting with Jason Cosper at WPEngine. And today’s topic is fine-tuning your eCommerce web site. We are in the middle of Web Week, where often when traffic is lower between the holidays, it’s the perfect time to do a tuneup on your online store. Jason brings his experience of working with clients of all sizes on their sites and what you should make sure and revisit throughout the year.

We chatted about:

* Cleaning up the clutter on your WordPress site

* What red flags to look for when improving your product images

* Tips to buff up your SEO and what to look for

* Ways to improve the search on your online store and other issues you may want to consider to help customers find the right product

* Hosting and what to think about when making the decision of if your host is right for your needs

If you are a WordPress developer, WPEngine has a free staging site for you. Go here to request your site.

Thanks To Our Podcast Sponsor: WP Engine

Transcript

You can download the transcript of this show at: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript December 28 2016

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone and welcome to episode 46. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Well, as we wind up the year, you may or may not know that we are right in the middle of Web Week and our sponsor WP Engine is stepping up for today’s show. I’ve taken the liberty to call it eCommerce Web Week. What do we mean by Web Week? A lot of sites find the time between the holidays, and with the lower traffic, it’s a perfect time to get your new site ready or, even better, tune up your existing site. As we all know, your site needs to be a finely tuned engine. Even more so with the eCommerce site. It’s critical that your online store is running smoothly year round.

Today we are going to be looking at tuning up your eCommerce site. Now we know this shouldn’t only be done at the end of the year but also regularly throughout the year. Get ready as we chat with Jason Cosper, Senior Technical Advisor and Developer Advocate with WP Engine. By sharing his experience and knowledge, he’ll help you construct a plan for that tuneup. Hey Jason. Welcome to the show.

Jason Cosper: Hey Bob, it’s so great to be here. I’m a big fan of everything you’ve done and it’s great to actually to get the opportunity to come on the show.

Meet Jason Cosper, Developer Advocate at WP Engine

Bob Dunn: Thanks so much. All right, I’m glad this isn’t actual a visual thing because my face would start to turn a little red now and I’d go, “Oh.” So it’s great it’s just audio. Well I am so glad you’re able to join us. This is a busy time for everyone and I know we all have plans for the week so let’s just dive right it, get the show on the road. Before we get into the questions, for those who don’t know about WP Engine or what you do there, give us an introduction.

Jason Cosper: Yeah, so WP Engine is a managed WordPress platform. We host websites for WordPress, only WordPress, so a lot of shared hosts, a lot of other VPS solutions, things like that. You can bring in whatever you want. However,

Episode 45 is the third of four shows in a series on eCommerce and Sales Taxes. In this show, we talk with Colin Matthews, Senior Manager of Solution Consulting and Matthew Harrison, Sales Delivery Consultant, both at Avalara, who is the sponsor for this series. Colin and Matthew are based in the UK and serve Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The topic is VAT—Value Added Tax— and we discuss the implications that will affect you as a store owner if you sell to or from any country that has implemented the VAT. It’s something you will need to know in order to add to your tax compliance if you are selling online.

The other shows in this series:

Sales Tax Essentials For Online Small Businesses

Charging Sales Taxes on Your Online Services with Scott Peterson

Your eCommerce Site and Landed Cost with Amy Morgan

 

We chatted about:

* The differences between VAT and sales taxes

* What you need to consider when shipping goods to the EU from the US

* Downloads, streaming and other digital services and whether the rules differ for those

* The things you need to consider when shipping goods from the EU to the US

* What services are available to help you with determination and compliance when it comes to the VAT

Resources:

If you want a recap of the differences between VAT and sales tax, visit this post over on Avalara.com.

Learn even more about the VAT over on Avalara VATlive.com

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Avalara

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript December 19 2016

Bob Dunn: Welcome to The WP eCommerce show. A podcast about everything eCommerce and WordPress. Hey everyone, welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is part three of our four-part eCommerce sales tax series, brought to you by our sponsor Avalara. Although sales taxes for your online business is not the most sexy subject, it’s one that you need to know, as its a huge part of the success of your online store and that is why we are so excited to bring you this series.

On the first show, we talked about the bigger picture of the sales tax essentials needed for online small businesses. On the second show, we clarified online services and what you should be aware of when and if you need to collect sales tax. Today we are going across the pond and learning more about the Value Added Tax, VAT, and how it affects you. We all know that with online sales, you are able to reach even more customers abroad, but at the same time you need to understand what taxes you may need to be preparing for and collecting for. To learn all about this, we have Colin Matthews, senior manager, solution consulting, and Matthew Harrison, sales delivery consultant. Both serve the EMEA, which, if you are not familiar with,

Episode 44 is the second of four shows in a series on eCommerce and Sales Taxes. In this show, we talk with Scott Peterson, Director of Government Relations at Avalara, who is the sponsor for this series. Scott helps understand that whole sales tax collection piece when selling your services online. Your decision and strategy depend on several variables, so we would recommend listening to the show to make sure you are tax-compliant.

We chatted about:

* The differences between sales taxes on products and sales taxes on services

* How to figure out as a business owner whether your services are subject to sales tax

* Whether a single state sales tax rate covers all the services provided in a specific state

* What happens if a service is associated with equipment or a product that needs to be taxed

* The initial steps a business should take to get their sales tax on services in full compliance

The other shows in this series:

Sales Tax Essentials For Online Small Businesses with Jake Estes

Learn How VAT Affects Your Online Sales with Colin Matthews and Matthew Harrison

Your eCommerce Site and Landed Cost with Amy Morgan

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Avalara

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: The WP eCommerce Show Transcript December 12 2016

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone, welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as BobWP on the web. Today is part two of our four-part eCommerce sales tax series, brought to you by our sponsor, Avalara. Although sales taxes for your online business is not the most sexy subject, it’s one that you need to know, as it’s a huge part of the success of your online store. That is why we are excited to be able to bring you this series. On the first show, we talked about some insights into the bigger picture of the sales tax essentials that are needed for an online small business, but today we are going to narrow that down a bit more and talk about sales tax and services with Scott Peterson, Director of Government Relations at Avalara.  Welcome to the show, Scott.

Scott Peterson: Thank you Bob. It’s very nice to be on the show.

Bob Dunn: I just have to ask, because I asked Jake last time, are you also in Seattle or not?

Scott Peterson: Not. I live in Nashville, Tennessee.

How is sales tax on services different from sales tax on products?

Bob Dunn: Okay Nashville, Tennessee, so you’re a little bit aways from here. Now, from my own experience, I know that I’ve dealt with clients in the past, I’ve done coaching and consulting, and I know when it comes to sales tax and services, it’s one of those areas where people who sell online may get the most confused. I’m guessing a lot of people who also offer services think that their products, or that people that have products, just need to be taxed. Let’s dive into these questions and clarify that for everyone. I’m going to start with this very first one, Scott.

Episode 43 is the first of four shows in a series on eCommerce and Sales Taxes. In this show, we talk with Jake Estes, Business Development Manager at Avalara, who is the sponsor for this series. Jake shares with us the big picture of sales tax for your online businesses and the essential needs you should be considering.

We chatted about:

* When a merchant needs to start collecting and paying sales tax

* Knowing which states you should collect tax in

* If you need to collect for both the local tax jurisdiction and the state level jurisdiction on every sale

* Whether zip codes really suffice for getting the right sales tax

* How to know which products you should tax and not tax

* What you need to do to help keep sales tax collection and filing on target for your business

The other shows in this series:

Charging Sales Taxes on Your Online Services with Scott Peterson

Learn How VAT Affects Your Online Sales with Colin Matthews and Matthew Harrison

Your eCommerce Site and Landed Cost with Amy Morgan

Thanks to Our Podcast Sponsor: Avalara

Transcript

You can also download the transcript of this show: the-wp-ecommerce-show-transcript-december-5-2016

Bob Dunn: Hey everyone. Welcome to our show. Bob Dunn here, also known as Bob WP on the web. Today is not only episode 42, but the first part of a four part series. For four Mondays, we will be talking with a special expert or experts and our sponsor about an important aspect of running an e-commerce site.

Since this is the second series we’ve had, the first being on security, what better topic to segue into than sales tax? Yep. You heard it right. If you sell online, you do need to know if you are responsible for sales tax and there are just so many variables, so many aspects of it and of course, so many laws, that you want to make sure you are heading in the right direction.

To help guide us through this maze, we have my friends over at Avalara and today we have Jake Estes, Business Development Manager from Avalara. Welcome to the show, Jake.

Jake Estes: Hey. Thanks Bob, great to be here. Thank you.

Bob Dunn: Jake, I’m just going to ask you, where are you located?

Jake Estes: Avalara is headquartered downtown Seattle, Washington, so I’m in the corporate office here. We also have offices all over the world now, but most of us are in Seattle.

Bob Dunn: Yeah. Very cool. I’m about a three-hour drive from Seattle, so I’ll have to come up and have a tour of your offices sometime.

Jake Estes: Absolutely. You’re welcome anytime.

Meet Jake Estes and the Avalara team

Bob Dunn: Cool. For the first show in this series, we’re going to look at the big picture and the sales tax essentials needed for an online small business and as we do more in this series, we’ll be focusing down on some really need to know topics...