Hairstory launched at the end of 2015 selling online to consumers and hairdressers across the US. It collected sales tax from launch but registered in only a handful of states, so for about a year the tax it owed everywhere else sat in a separate bank account and kept growing. Catching up, even with Avalara's help, took months of pulling order-level data for each state's forms, work that fell largely to cofounder Erica Halliwell, who had taken on sales tax with no background in it and says it left her in tears at least once.

Erica and Katie Overdevest, who runs Hairstory's ecommerce, tell Rick how the company got current and what that made possible.

A cold call from DHL about its delivered-duty-paid service let Hairstory ship abroad from its one US 3PL without registering for VAT or GST in other countries, and Erica credits Avalara with calculating VAT and other local taxes in each new market. Later the company set up entities in Europe and Australia with local banking and fulfillment, moved to Shopify in 2023, and cut five websites down to one.

Katie and Erica also talk through why Brazil and China are harder to enter and what consolidating subscription vendors meant for tax calculation and fixed local pricing. Erica says Avalara's managed filing still needs more manual work in Europe than in North America, and that her finance team, which is her and one bookkeeper, closes the books within ten business days.

This episode is sponsored by Avalara. Learn more at avalara.watsonweekly.com.

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