Tag Archive for E-commerce

QNET Commits To Delivering A World-Class E-Commerce Platform

As e-commerce sees accelerated growth for retail industries (Shopify reported that global commerce sales are expected to reach US$5 trillion in 2022!), companies like Hong Kong-based direct selling company QNET, are ready to reap the rewards.
QNET, an e-commerce direct selling company, is no stranger to the online scene. Established over two decades ago, the multinational company was one of the first in the direct selling industry to embrace digitisation – adopting an e-commerce platform as part of its strategy – charting rapid growth across borders.
Today, QNET is an industry leader with customers in nearly 100 countries, bearing numerous awards for its digital excellence, online communications campaigns, and mobile app. And the company’s lightspeed success is no coincidence: QNET is a company that believes in giving its employees, distributors, and customers the best online experience imaginable – and that starts by establishing a world-class e-commerce platform.
ENHANCING THE E-COMMERCE EXPERIENCE
In partnership with Microsoft, QNET switched to an end-to-end strategy built on Microsoft Security products and services, such as utilising cloud security through Microsoft Azure. QNET’s Chief Information Security Officer, Egal Egal, says,
“With the amount of data accessed, utilised, and shared across our global offices, it makes perfect sense to team up with

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The EU VAT e-commerce package: how accounting can help

Originally written by Dan Matthews on Small Business
On 1 July, the European Union will change the way in which VAT is reported and paid, potentially impacting anyone in the UK operating a business selling products & services online to consumers and practicing distance selling.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a big shift in working patterns and, as a result, a lot of people have out of necessity or opportunity taken to start up an e-commerce business or switch to digital selling,”
“The change to EU VAT reporting will help. It’s designed to simplify tax reporting, promote ecommerce and increase online cross-border transactions. It will support small business and remove barriers in a post-Brexit environment.” says Asif Chaudhry, Director, Product Marketing at Sage.
What will change?
The changes are that for sales to consumers (basically anyone without a VAT registration) the VAT is charged based on which country the customer is in, not the country of the seller. Prior to this date there were thresholds, and businesses selling below these thresholds could charge their home VAT rates which avoided needing to know many different VAT rates.
Alongside this change the EU is expanding their one stop shop (OSS) simplifications which optionally allow businesses outside of the

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Forward Advances wants to lend £250m to small businesses by 2023

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Forward Advances, the merchant cash advance provider, wants to provide £250m worth of cash to small businesses in the e-commerce space by 2023.
The lender, which set up in April 2020, is one of a new wave of small business funders base lending decisions based how much you are selling each month. In recent months Clearbanc and eBay have both launched their own versions of what’s known as merchant cash advance in Britain, while PayPal has been offering it for some time.
By tying its technology to your bank data, accounting software or social media ad accounts, a lender has a real-time view of your monthly income. This means repayments fluctuate as a percentage of income, rather than being a fixed amount each month like a bank.
>See also: One third of small businesses turn to Bank of Mum and Dad
Although well-established in America and in Sweden, where the concept originated, merchant cash advances are still a relatively new concept in Britain.
Hasam Silva, managing director of Forward Advances, said: “In the US merchant cash advance or revenue-based financing is a well-understood product but, in the UK, less so. Half of all founders I spoke to last

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Forward Advances wants to lend £250m to small businesses by 2023

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Forward Advances, the merchant cash advance provider, wants to provide £250m worth of cash to small businesses in the e-commerce space by 2023.
The lender, which set up in April 2020, is one of a new wave of small business funders base lending decisions based how much you are selling each month. In recent months Clearbanc and eBay have both launched their own versions of what’s known as merchant cash advance in Britain, while PayPal has been offering it for some time.
By tying its technology to your bank data, accounting software or social media ad accounts, a lender has a real-time view of your monthly income. This means repayments fluctuate as a percentage of income, rather than being a fixed amount each month like a bank.
>See also: One third of small businesses turn to Bank of Mum and Dad
Although well-established in America and in Sweden, where the concept originated, merchant cash advances are still a relatively new concept in Britain.
Hasam Silva, managing director of Forward Advances, said: “In the US merchant cash advance or revenue-based financing is a well-understood product but, in the UK, less so. Half of all founders I spoke to last

Read more...

Small businesses selling into EU face £180m in extra red tape costs

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small businesses that sell into Europe face £180m in extra red tap costs as they get swept up in new EU One-Stop-Shop VAT rules.
The new EU One-Stop-Shop rules, which will be introduced on July 1, are designed to stop an estimated designed to stop an estimated €7bn in annual VAT fraud by non-EU ecommerce sellers, mainly located in China, according to Alavera.
However, the EU One-Stop-Shop changes remove remove VAT exemptions for SMEs and shipments not exceeding €22 (£19), which means about 26,000 UK e-commerce sellers will have to register for VAT in an EU member state for the first time.
>See also: Where to find your £2,000 Brexit Support Fund grant
This will cost a majority of these companies at least €8,000 (£6,900) a year each, or roughly €208m (£180m) annually.
“Now we’re outside of the EU, [the UK has] been lobbed in with VAT-avoiding Chinese traders, and ecommerce companies will pay the price,” Richard Asquith, vice-president global indirect tax at Avalera, told the Financial Times.
UK e-commerce sellers will now have three options when trading into the EU:

Register for VAT in the country where they sell most of their goods, which the European Commission estimates will

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