Category: Growth marketing

The age of automation has well and truly arrived.

Whether online or at the supermarket checkout, automation technologies have become the standard tool for streamlining workflow and operations. They are undoubtedly one of the greatest business development tools ever invented. But as with the adoption of any new technology, there’s a risk of companies growing too dependent on it. If you’re not savvy with how you implement automation, it could cost you not only your profit but your business, too.

1) Don’t forget to continually optimise

Automation relieves a lot of stress for business owners, but don’t fall into the trap of ‘set and forget’. Optimising your automated systems is a manual process, but digital marketing is a fluid and ever-evolving environment. You can’t turn your back on it for a moment.

Make sure your automated systems are optimised for the current online climate, and that they meet the criteria of the most up-to-date search engine algorithms. If you have a dedicated development team, direct them to build in automated tools and advantages as they construct your systems. Remember, though, that to capitalise on that effort you must then maintain your systems well, and optimise your automation for best results.

Automation will only do what you tell it to, so treat it like an employee who needs observing and managing rather than like a consultant who can be left to their own devices. Pay attention. Automation exists to make you a profit, not cost you exposure.

2) Beware the pitfalls of automated bidding

Automated bidding automatically sets your bids on your ads based on their likelihood of getting clicked and achieving a sales conversion. The system can be customised for a specific sales goal or business objective, and saves hours of effort for business owners.

As we saw above, it’s appealing to just ‘set and forget’, and assume your approach to sales and lead gen is one-size-fits-all. But running automated ad campaigns unsupervised is unwise to say the least, and could cost you profit if you get complacent. Many algorithms aren’t (yet) as smart as humans, so your AI won’t be able to outperform a sales professional in this arena. Don’t shy away from automated bidding, of course, but use it as a tool, not a crutch. Marketing still demands human interaction, albeit online.

3) Keep your brand message front-of-mind

A perennial focus in digital marketing is customising your customer’s experiences. AI and automation can be hugely helpful in making this happen, but there’s a fine line between automation technologies helping you run your business and totally disregarding your customer’s existence. After all, you are your brand. So if you let automated systems do all the talking for you, eventually your customer will feel neither seen nor heard.

This doesn’t apply only to customers. Your brand is an employer, too, and adopting this mindset helps you attract the best talent. Because while automated software is useful for recruitment, when you’re marketing for candidates you need a human touch. So leverage your automation more for behind-the-scenes efficiencies, when candidates are less likely to see it.

4) Be mindful of over-messaging

Automated messaging systems can be a saviour for a business owner trying to optimise their customer service and comms. They help build and maintain rapport with the audience—but you can overdo it. Sending too many automated messages can be disastrous for your business. Over-messaging negatively impacts your recipients, damaging your engagement and client relationships, and it adversely impacts your app or website, too.

It takes years to build a brand. It takes seconds to burn your reputation. With automated messaging, it’s all about quality over quantity. Strike that balance.

5) Never automate what shouldn’t be automated!

There are so many ways automation technologies can improve your sales and branding, but there are certain aspects of your business that just shouldn’t be automated—even if they can be.

• Cybersecurity: Thieves and hackers constantly find new ways to break through cybersecurity systems. Manually ensuring yours are optimised maximises your business’s security and protects your customers’ data.
• Customer engagement: People want to know they’re dealing with a real person. They’re not naive, and will often pick up on when they’re talking to a bot.
• Social posts and messages: There are plenty of automation systems for social media engagement, and they’re a godsend for those who find marketing on these platforms to be tedious. But if you are such a person, it’s worth outsourcing your business’s social media marketing so it can be optimised in a human way. That’s not to say you shouldn’t use systems to automatically post your content at particular times, of course, only that you shouldn’t rely on automation and AI if you want to enhance the impact of your marketing.
• Marketing proposal templates: Digital marketers must ensure their marketing proposal templates come direct from them or one of their team, and include personalised comments relating to the specific prospect. Sending automated proposals may insult your client, and a pitch is far more likely to succeed if it’s customised to their needs.

Moderation is the key to successfully implementing your automation technologies

Marketing automation is a brilliant way to optimise and streamline your business, but it’s still just a tool like any other, and therefore has limitations as to how and when it should be implemented. Automation is no substitute for graft and passion. So use your raft of automation technologies as a complementary utility in growing your business, not as a business model unto itself. Find that balance—hard as it is—and you’ll reap the rewards.

The One-Stop-Shop is a new set of regulations concerning VAT duties in the European Union that was introduced in July 2022. The OSS offers a lot of opportunities and other steps on the way to EU-wide VAT compliance for online sellers and included changes concerning

• Delivery thresholds in the EU
• Taxation of goods sold in B2C distance selling
• VAT registration duty

This is especially true for entrepreneurs selling goods via Amazon and delivering with the help of FBA programs, as they tend to sell their products on a variety of marketplaces in Europe and in several European countries. However, the usability of the One-Stop-Shop for Amazon Sellers is greater than the usability for Amazon FBA sellers. Find out why below.

One-Stop-Shop for Amazon Sellers

Previously Amazon Sellers had to register for VAT in their home countries and in all countries to which sales exceeded the delivery thresholds, which were set by each country and usually set at 35,000€ or 100,000€. In all countries in which Sellers registered for VAT, they had to submit regular VAT returns.

Following the filing of returns, VAT needed to be paid separately to each tax authority, following differing deadlines and format. Furthermore, all sales prior to the crossing of the threshold limit were taxed with domestic VAT rate, which was paid to the domestic tax office, while all sales after the threshold was exceeded were taxed with foreign VAT rates and the VAT liabilities paid to foreign tax authorities.

All of the processes detailed above changed with the introduction of the One-Stop-Shop. While participation in the OSS happens on a voluntary basis, the introduction of the One-Stop-Shop was also accompanied by the abolishment of the former country-specific delivery thresholds in favour of an EU-wide applicable threshold of 10,000€. This new delivery threshold is reached by all cross-border deliveries combined and, therefore, crossed much earlier, leading to an increased urgency for foreign VAT registrations. This is why the OSS is a good option for many Amazon Sellers.

With the One-Stop-Shop, an OSS registration and the submission of an OSS return  in your home country replaces the foreign VAT registrations and returns. From the beginning, foreign VAT rates need to be applied to cross-border sales, through all VAT liabilities are paid collectively to the domestic tax authorities who then redistribute the amounts.

However, the OSS only applies to cross-border transactions. A VAT registration in your home country and the submission of domestic VAT returns are, therefore, still necessary. For the same reason, Amazon Sellers using Fulfilled-by-Amazon programs to deliver their products to customers EU-wide are facing a challenge, as products are stored in warehouses located in various countries and might not always cross borders when being delivered.

One-Stop-Shop and Amazon FBA

Within the PAN-EU FBA program, participant’s products might be stored in England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic. Just based on storage, VAT registrations are mandatory in all of these countries. However, participation in the One-Stop-Shop is still possible.

Deliveries from the home country to foreign countries are taxed with foreign VAT rates and appear in the OSS report, as detailed above. Deliveries from foreign warehouses to customers in the same country are settled in a froeign VAT return, while deliveries to third countries are again appearing in the OSS report filed in the home country. Lastly, deliveries from foreign warehouses to customers in the Seller’s home country appear in the domestic VAT return.

As evidenced, the usability of the One-Stop-Shop for Amazon Sellers using FBA is smaller than the advantages of the OSS for pure Amazon Sellers selling only from their home country. However, the new scheme can still be advantageous. This depends on the delivery volume, the chosen FBA program, and the customer base and is best decided on a case-by-case basis.

Technical solutions for the One-Stop-Shop

If you want to or have to use the OSS to fulfil your VAT duties in Europe as an Amazon seller another challenge facing you are the different VAT rates. This is especially true if you sell products from several niches or Amazon product categories to which country-specific reduced VAT rates apply. A solution comes in the form of the hellotax OSS full-service package.

This VAT service provider specialised on the Amazon and FBA E-Commerce business offers their proprietary OSS software in combination with an OSS registration. The software automatically calculates VAT rates and compiles reports which aid in the creation of OSS reports. The hellotax team of local tax accountants then regularly files your OSS returns.

The OSS service can also be used in conjunction with the regular VAT services, which include VAT registrations EU-wide and the submission of regular VAT returns. All your VAT duties are therefore taken care of by one service provider and you can concentrate on scaling your Amazon business while staying worry-free and VAT compliant across the European Union.