Therabody eases pain of complex global tax compliance with Avalara

Therabody develops wellness technologies intended to reduce muscle tension, accelerate recovery, and improve performance. Since launching its Theragun product in 2008, the company has pioneered percussive massage therapy and now offers over 30 devices, as well as wellness centers and educational programs across the U.S.

Therabody’s rapid expansion following the success of Theragun created multiple tax challenges as the company began selling across multiple channels — including ecommerce, Amazon, big-box retail, hospitality, and distributors, reaching a global customer base with varying tax rules and compliance requirements.

Further, the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court ruling introduced economic nexus laws, requiring businesses to collect and remit sales tax based on where the sales are made, not just where the business had a physical presence.

As a result, Therabody’s U.S. filing obligations jumped from eight states in 2019 to 32 states in 2020 — creating a complex web of varying tax rates and jurisdictional rules that were difficult to manage. As Vivek Dadhania, Tax Manager at Therabody, explains, “Once economic nexus opened up across the United States, that meant I now have to figure out these rates by local jurisdictions, and these rates change every quarter or even more frequently.”

At the same time, Therabody’s international expansion introduced GST and VAT compliance challenges. Registering in multiple countries required navigating different tax structures, reporting requirements, and fluctuating rates, adding a significant administrative burden on the team.

“You’ve got Amazon marketplaces, Amazon warehouses, our own websites, consignment locations... and the question is how to not only understand how much VAT to charge but also how to file the VAT properly in each respective country,” says Vivek.

In 2023, Therabody underwent a major ERP reconfiguration that disrupted the exemption certificate management process, requiring thousands of certificates to be revalidated quickly. Manual processes couldn’t keep pace, and with several key accounts integrated with electronic data interchange, a minor tax calculation error could disrupt business operations and cash collection.

“In February 2023, all our overrides went away... we had to start exemption certificate management from scratch,” says Vivek.

Vivek’s first exposure to Avalara came in 2018 while working for a publishing company, navigating the impact of the South Dakota v. Wayfair ruling. While searching for accurate tax rates by ZIP codes, Vivek stumbled upon an Avalara CSV resource.

At that moment, Vivek realized that the publishing company’s internal systems were not equipped to handle the immense complexities of tax compliance in a post-Wayfair world and manually updating tax rates wasn’t a sustainable solution.

Later, while working for a company in the fitness industry, Vivek gained firsthand experience of Avalara’s tax automation capabilities — including comprehensive reports, simplified obligations, reduced manual efforts, and more accurate and efficient tax compliance.

When he joined Therabody in 2022, the company was in the midst of rapid expansion across multiple sales channels and international markets. Recognizing the growing complexity of multistate filings, international compliance risks, and exemption certificate management, he saw an urgent need for automation to replace manual tax processes.

Although Therabody had been an Avalara customer since 2018, Vivek saw an opportunity to optimize its use globally. Drawing on his prior experience, he knew Avalara could streamline compliance, improve accuracy, and reduce the burden across multiple teams — including billing, customer service, finance, and IT.

With 2,600 exempt customers in the U.S., exemption certificate management was a top priority for Therabody. Beyond reducing the burden on frontline teams, automation was critical to maintaining audit readiness across multiple jurisdictions.

Therabody’s foundation on NetSuite ERP — one of Avalara’s key integration partners — made it even easier to scale. With over 10 Avalara integrations available, expanding usage across platforms was a natural next step.

In early 2023, Vivek implemented Avalara Exemption Certificate Management (ECM), onboarding more than 2,500 customers and validating over 5,200 certificates — a major win after the ERP overhaul.

By mid-2024, Therabody began to use Shopify Plus for its B2B portal along with the retail POS stores. Vivek led the implementation of Avalara with both systems, seamlessly connecting them to NetSuite and Avalara AvaTax for accurate tax calculation and filing. He also used Avalara’s tax code database and AI tools to classify product SKUs and apply exemptions efficiently within Shopify.

In early 2025, Therabody extended the integration to its B2C website using Avalara for Shopify, ensuring global tax rates were calculated accurately at checkout.