EcomCrew - Digital ads are now taxed [Crew Review]

Taxes, lawsuits, and other constants

Another blow to advertising

Our favorite robot, Mark Zuckerberg, is still fuming about the iOS update that potentially limits Facebook’s ability to make targeted ads. We suppose the new Maryland law that imposes taxes on digital ads will make his batteries even hotter.

Benjamin Franklin famously said, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” This additional levy amidst a pandemic gives a new color to this saying.

The law was passed on February 12, and big tech companies are worried other states might follow suit.

Maryland’s legislative body had been working on the bill since last year, hoping to raise more money to fund educational projects. It was vetoed by Governor Larry Hogan, but he was overruled by the mostly Democratic legislature.

So how much would companies like Amazon, Facebook, and Google be paying?

• 2.5% (for those that make between $100 million and $1 billion in global revenue)
• 5% (for those that have a revenue of $1 billion or more)
• 7.5% (for those with $5 billion or more in revenue)
• 10% (for businesses generating $15 billion or more)

What could this mean for Amazon? On paper, it’s bad news. But Jeff Bezos is a magician. He already dodged tax payments before, paying nothing in 2018. Let’s see how he gets out of this one.

A quiet acquisition

A magician doesn’t reveal his secret. But that doesn’t mean the public won’t know about it eventually.

When Amazon acquired Shopify competitor Selz last month, it wasn’t lighting fireworks to celebrate. Amazon didn’t publicize the acquisition, and we only found out about it from Selz CEO Martin Rushe’s post. 

Selz is an Australia-based company geared towards providing small- and medium-sized businesses a way to launch their own online stores.

This move may be seen as a way to increase Amazon’s chances of outperforming Shopify and BigCommerce. It failed with this attempt in 2015 when it closed Amazon Webstore.

But these two aren’t the company’s only competitors.

Is Walmart catching up with FBA?

Retail is moving online, and Walmart is getting ready to compete with Amazon’s fulfillment services.

In fact, CEO Doug McMillon said that its automated supply chain is ready to scale. They are set to spend $14 billion to improve their technology for fulfillment automation.

Walmart reported a 79% increase in online sales last month. It certainly isn’t slacking off with its move towards e-commerce. Should Amazon be worried?

New York sues Amazon

Amazon’s attorneys are never bored. The company is always facing legal concerns, and one of its newest cases involves a suit from the State of New York for COVID-19 protocols violations.

New York Attorney General Letitia James says the e-commerce giant didn’t provide enough protection for its workers in two facilities: a warehouse in Staten Island and a delivery depot in Queens.

Amazon insists that its safety measures far exceed what the law requires, but the Attorney General disagrees. The company has also fired some workers who were involved in protests against Amazon’s COVID response.

James said it sends a chilling message to other Amazon workers. (We just hope it isn’t worse than the Texas winter storm.)

Send to Amazon

If you’re tired of creating FBA Shipments, then you’d thank your stars for Send to Amazon. This new shipment creation tool saves you so much time by letting you skip a bunch of steps for sending in inventory.

Dave tested this feature and wrote a detailed article about the experience.

But first things first. . .

Before you can worry about inventory, you’ll have to figure out which products to sell in the first place. If you’re still looking for the next best seller, we’d love to talk to you.

Join us on March 10 at 10 AM (PST), and we’ll introduce you to the Cockroach Method. It sounds gross, but it also increased our gross income.

Okay, enough with the bad wordplay.

Sign up now.