...its been nearly four years now: is custom taxes on the roadmap?

Design help Ecommerce
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…I write this thread out of frustration, because of this:

Is this actually on the road-map? Is it going to happen, or should it be removed from the website?

Because this has become a dealbreaker on ecommerce for me. I dabbled in building a few shop websites in Webflow, but the inability to display the GST amount without a complex workaround meant that I’ve held off on promoting e-commerce.

I’m in the position now where I need to make ecommerce websites a core part of my business plan. But I can’t really do that if I can’t do something as basic as display the GST component in the shop. I don’t really want to work outside the Webflow ecosystem. Because Webflow is simply 98% AWESOME.

But I jumped back into WordPress last month for a build and it was an absolute NIGHTMARE. I also tested doing conversions from Webflow to WordPress/Shopify and the process isn’t robust or adaptable enough (for me) yet. And I’ve played with various integrations, but I’ve always played with them from the perspective of my clients who would have to maintain that website, and I never found one that had a workflow simple enough for me to be comfortable enough to adopt.

So until custom taxes get added then it means I’m either going to be using Shopify (that has a much easier and vastly superior ecommerce system) or WordPress (where WooCommerce is great but a bit more complex and comes without Shopify’s problematic baggage).

It isn’t something that I want to do. Especially because it dilutes my messaging. (Hey! I can build you a custom bespoke website! UNLESS you want ecommerce. In which case…here’s a template!)

And even if custom taxes get added to Webflow, there are many instances (that have been documented in many other threads, like multiple variations) where you wouldn’t be able to use Webflow anyway. So that leads to my second (and probably more important question):

What is the roadmap for Webflow ecommerce?

There was the “community powered roadmap.”

Which, for things like custom taxes, wasn’t very helpful because those outside of the United States, Canada, the European Union, and Australia probably weren’t very statistically relevant.

We get the quarterly updates. But again these have typically overly general and lack specifics. So my question really is…is this is it? Should we be expecting anything more than the odd cosmetic update, but the platform as we see it today is essentially the platform that it will always be?

Or are there reasons why we should stick around? What does the future of Webflow ecommerce look like? Do you see yourselves eventually competing with the likes of Woocommerce or Shopify, or do you see it more in terms of a “niche addon” for small businesses who might want to sell a bit or merch?

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Unfortunately Webflow has given up on e-com, they are just not openly saying this. Visit Latest updates and features | Webflow and see what time they last had an e-com related update…

There are many basic e-com features missing after years of waiting, and they don’t even communicate that they have plans to add these.

For instance if customer wants to return 1 of 3 products, there is no way to partially refund their credit card…

Major European payment gateways which Stripe already supports are not offered by Webflow. It is one of the most popular items on the wishlist page but they don’t do it.

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Hi Mark,

I’m with you, feeling pretty disappointed with this aspect of Webflow. We have a project that would be perfect but it’s looking like we ware not going to be able to do it in Webflow and will probably have to do it in WordPress/WooCommerce now. Or leave it in Shopify but the client’s not too keen on having to pay another subscription (Shopyflow or Smootify) on top of the Webflow/Shopify subscription it would end up being.

Regarding using Wordpress as the solution, are you familiar with the Divi Builder tool for WordPress? It’s actually pretty good as far as allowing for a building experience not too dissimilar to Webflow.

Grant

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I ran this by Webflow Support today, just to confirm things, here’s the reply:

"At this time, New Zealand is not currently supported by TaxJar (the auto-tax calculation feature of Webflow), and there isn’t currently a feature to manually set sales tax rates. So at current you would need to include this GST in your product’s price and keep track of these taxes manually.

If your country is not supported by TaxJar and you are looking to implement auto-tax calculation into your store, one option to look into would be using a third-party integration such as Foxy with tax calculation integrations that support New Zealand’s GST.

With a solution like Foxy, you’ll use Webflow’s CMS to build your store and manage products, then add Foxycart as an ecommerce/payment processor. In this case, you’ll only need the CMS Site Plan from Webflow.

Here’s more information on how to get started: Foxy Support - Getting Started with Foxy + Webflow

We are limited in the amount of support we can provide for setting up third-party integrations. If you choose to proceed with using Foxy, I’d suggest to contact them and make sure their integration suits your business needs. They can also provide assistance with setting up an integration with Webflow.

I know this is probably not the answer you were looking for, but hopefully this information provides some more contexts on some alternate methods to collect this tax on your store."

It does mean the client is paying an extra subscription (US$25.25 a month), but it looks like a reasonably simple solution.

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Hi all.
Josh with Foxy here. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if we can be of assistance (hello@foxy.io). Happy to chat to help determine what’s needed, possible, costs, etc.

We support:

  • Manual taxes
  • Auto tax calculations
  • TaxJar
  • Avalara
  • Thomson Reuters Onesource
  • Custom tax endpoint (ie: hit an endpoint like Airtable or some other source for real-time tax rates)

Also, as noted in Webflow’s reply, you only need a CMS plan with Foxy (and even that’s not required if you want to manually control purchase forms/buttons in Webflow Designer).

Thanks,
Josh

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…hi Josh. Thanks for reaching out :slight_smile:

I’ve experimented briefly with Foxy a long while ago, but I didn’t really dive too deeply into it as I didn’t have a pressing need to do so at the time.

But I was hoping you could walk me through the user experience for when we hand over a website to our clients.

For example: Acme Corp asks me to to build an online store to sell their widgets. I build it, integrate Foxy, and hand it over to them. Imagine I want to have nothing to do with them any more after this.

So Acme pays two fees now: one to Webflow and one to Foxy, is that correct?

If they want to add a new product, they just need to add it in the Webflow CMS? They don’t need to do that anywhere else? If they want to change the price? Or temporarily hide a product from the shop?

Where is inventory controlled? If you need to contact a customer to let them know an item is out-of-stock, do they need to login to Foxy to do so?

What if taxes change locally? Is that changed in Webflow or Foxy?

Basically how much of everything is done in Webflow, and what tasks would require them to log into Foxy to do? And I see that Foxy have a new dashboard in the pipeline, is this far away from going live, or will it still be in beta for a while?

Thank you in advance. :slight_smile:

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Hi @Mark_Faamaoni.
Happy to help. I’ve responded to your questions below:

So Acme pays two fees now: one to Webflow and one to Foxy, is that correct?
That is correct. You’ll need a Webflow subscription (CMS plan is recommended. Webflow Ecommerce is not needed). And a Foxy plan. You can find our pricing here: https://www.foxy.io/pricing#plans

If they want to add a new product, they just need to add it in the Webflow CMS? They don’t need to do that anywhere else? If they want to change the price? Or temporarily hide a product from the shop?
That is correct. Product data/pricing will be 100% managed in Webflow CMS. No need to log in to Foxy for that.

Where is inventory controlled?
Webflow CMS. Also, we have a CMS inventory integration: https://support.foxy.io/webflow/manage-product-inventory-with-webflows-cms This will update your inventory counts after each Foxy order.

If you need to contact a customer to let them know an item is out-of-stock, do they need to login to Foxy to do so?
Customer information is available in the Foxy admin, via email notifications, Zapier, Make, Pipedream, etc.

What if taxes change locally? Is that changed in Webflow or Foxy?
Taxes will be managed in Foxy.

Basically how much of everything is done in Webflow, and what tasks would require them to log into Foxy to do?
Your website, product data, and product pages are managed with Webflow. Customers, orders, store settings, taxes, shipping, etc. will be managed in Foxy. As mentioned, customer/order data is accessible outside of Foxy via multiple services and our API/webhooks.

And I see that Foxy have a new dashboard in the pipeline, is this far away from going live, or will it still be in beta for a while?
You can use it now. It’s very powerful, but still in beta. We don’t have an official launch date yet.

Hope this helps. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any follow up questions or need help getting started: hello@foxy.io

Thanks,
Josh

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Thank you. That was helpful. :slight_smile:

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Always happy to help!

Josh

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I don’t believe Webflow is giving up on ecommerce as its a major selling point. However, about a year ago, they said they’re putting more efforts into their “core” product which is the designer and CMS. They didn’t give any more details.

A tool was recently launched called Shopyflow which integrates Shopify and Webflow really well. I recommend checking them out.

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Commenting because I disagree with joejola. I feel that Webflow has essentially given up on their ecommerce product. Maybe someone from Webflow can convince me otherwise.

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Hear, hear. I’ve wanted them to give Ecommerce a shot in the arm for years. We’re now at the point where it’s affecting sales, so I’ll absolutely be switching now to another more capable ecommerce platform. Ideally with integration into Webflow.

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