Shopify in 21 Days - Lesson 5: Tax Collection and Custom Notifications

Tax Settings

• Domestic Tax Collection. By default Shopify will collect taxes from customers in the USA based on their location. The price of shipping is also automatically added.
• International Taxes. For international shipping you can set up rates by country or do an override to set up a basic minimum rate that you will collect for all countries.
• Tax Reports. Shopify generates Tax Reports that show what Sales Tax you owe to what states.
• VAT Tax On Digital Goods. If you plan on selling Digital Goods worldwide then you'll also want to collect a VAT tax for European countries.

Actionable Steps

1. Familiarize yourself with the Sales Tax laws for your state or country.
2. If you are selling internationally, determine how you want to collect taxes for international orders.
3. Set your rates for domestic and international taxes.

Creating Custom Notifications

• Customizing Email Notifications. Shopify will notify your customers when certain events take place. For example, when an order is confirmed, canceled, or refunded. These emails are based off of templates with variables that store the order information. You can modify the wording of the the emails or the layout.
• Previewing and Testing. Once you have made any changes to the templates you can use the preview button to see how it will look to the customer. You can also sent a test email and see exactly how it looks in your email account.
• SMS Notifications. If your customer ordered with a cell phone then they will receive an SMS message in addition to an email. These are also based on templates and are fully customizable.
• Return Email Address. By default if a user replies to a notification it will go to your email that you used to open your Shopify account. This may pose a problem if you used your personal address. By forwarding your emails to a dedicated account you can reply quickly or send an automated response.

Actionable Steps

1. Have a look at all the different notifications and evaluate whether or not you want to make changes. Remember that you can always make changes later if you're not sure what to change now.
2. Forward the emails to a dedicated account. If you don't have one yet you can always wait until you get a domain name for your store. Many domain names also come with a custom email that you can use.
3. Make any changes and preview the results until you are satisfied.

Tomorrow's Lesson

Legal Disclosures and Account Settings