WooThemes Selects Avalara to Solve Sales Tax Challenges for Small Businesses and Online Stores

Helping WooCommerce Users with Sales Tax Management

Cape Town, South Africa and Bainbridge Island, WA – Nov. 3, 2014 – WooThemes, a leading developer of themes, plugins, and shopping cart functionality for WordPress, and Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of sales tax and other transactional tax compliance solutions, today announced a partnership that will bring simple, affordable sales tax management solutions to WooCommerce businesses selling online.

As a result of this partnership, Avalara’s sales tax calculation software will be offered in the WooCommerce Extension marketplace, and will be hosted, supported and maintained by WooThemes. WooCommerce is WooTheme’s flagship product and one of the most popular shopping cart functionality plugins available for WordPress.

For online stores, calculating and collecting the correct sales tax on each shopping cart transaction is challenging because tax rates and taxability rules vary by state and within each state. Avalara’s service allows businesses of all sizes to stay current with constantly changing rates and rules across more than 12,000 tax jurisdictions in the US and instantaneously delivers the right rate during the checkout process.

The WooCommerce Tax Connector Extension, powered by Avalara, will help online store owners deliver quick, accurate sales tax calculations for every purchase. WooCommerce customers will further benefit from Avalara’s reporting and easy sales tax filing for small businesses. By eliminating the complexities of calculating taxes, creating detailed reports, and preparing and filing returns, small businesses and ecommerce entrepreneurs can focus on growing their ventures and servicing customers.

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be partnering with a global leader in sales tax automation,” said Joel Bronkowski, Chief Business Development Officer of WooThemes. “As WooCommerce grows we are seeking opportunities to partner with companies offering services that improve the process of selling online and running a business. Avalara does just that by removing the headaches and challenges of taxation.”

“This partnership allows WooThemes to offer Avalara’s comprehensive solutions to WooCommerce online store customers in a fast, easy and cost effective way,” said Marshal Kushniruk, EVP of Global Business Development at Avalara. “We are thrilled to join WooThemes in providing innovative ecommerce tools that make building online stores easy and enjoyable for small businesses and entrepreneurs.”

Avalara pioneered a web-based compliance platform for sales tax automation a decade ago and now provides an end-to-end suite of transactional tax compliance services for businesses of all sizes. Today its SaaS solution integrates into numerous ERP systems, accounting packages, ecommerce shopping carts, Point of Sale systems, and mobile payment platforms.

About WooCommerce
WooCommerce is the world's most popular eCommerce platform. Powered by WordPress and built by WooThemes, the goal of WooCommerce is to allow businesses to sell anything online - beautifully. Users can integrate with payment processors, easily manage shipping methods and inventory, set up flexible tax rules, and view detailed store reports all from your WordPress dashboard.

With a free core platform and hundreds of premium add-ons available, WooCommerce allows businesses to set up an online shop with functionality catered to their store's needs. www.woothemes.com/woocommerce

About Avalara
Avalara helps businesses of all sizes achieve compliance with sales tax, excise tax, and other transactional tax requirements by delivering comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions that are fast, accurate, and easy to use. Avalara’s end-to-end suite of solutions are designed to effectively manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance obligations imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities in the United States and internationally.

Avalara offers hundreds of pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications. The company processes millions of tax transactions for customers and free users every day, files hundreds of thousands of transactional tax returns per year, and manages millions of exemption certificates and other compliance related documents. Founded in 2004 and privately-held, Avalara’s venture capital investors include Battery Ventures, Sageview Capital, Arthur Ventures, and other institutional and individual investors. Avalara employs more than 700 people at its headquarters on Bainbridge Island, WA and in offices across the U.S. and in London, England and Pune, India. More information at: www.avalara.com