The company needed a scalable, cloud-based infrastructure to support expansion, along with reliable, real-time tax calculation across both in-store and shipped orders. It also required a way to manage differing taxability rules for food and non-food items, as well as better visibility and control over exemption documentation.
Hickory Farms sells a wide assortment of specialty foods and gift boxes, often combining food and non-food products in a single transaction. Because taxability rules vary by jurisdiction and product type, determining the correct tax treatment can be complex. The company’s omnichannel model — which includes retail stores, ecommerce shipments, catalog sales, and partner transactions — further increased this complexity, as each channel introduces distinct tax calculation and reporting requirements.
As the business modernized its systems and deployed Microsoft Dynamics 365 Finance on Microsoft Azure, transaction volumes grew and customer expectations for seamless experiences increased. Manual processes and legacy tax workflows created inefficiencies and heightened the risk of inconsistent tax calculation, particularly during high-volume holiday seasons. Hickory Farms needed a scalable, cloud-aligned solution capable of delivering real-time, reliable tax calculation across channels while reducing administrative burden on internal teams.
