Recently, Plimus has been tracking some interesting discussions coming from the Capitol. Last week, the Subcommittee on Courts, Commercial and Administrative Law held a hearing regarding a new digital commerce proposed legislation. The bill, “Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2011,” would define limits on taxes for virtual goods and services on the Internet. According to Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, this proposed legislation is designed to “promote neutrality, simplicity and fairness in the taxation of digital goods and services.”

If approved, this bill would not release the customer’s information; all personal identification details would remain with the vendor and his or her processing platform.

To date, this bill has been getting some traction from legislators who argue that this taxation will create a fairer and more universal tax system for digital goods.

So how will this proposed bill impact the digital economy?  Currently there is no law identifying which vendor taxes the customer. Without this legislation there is a significant chance that vendors could double the taxation for buyers without their knowledge of this extra expense. Think about this example: you’re traveling for business in Boston, flying home to Chicago and looking to purchase for download a song from the iTunes store, (Apple is headquartered in California). With this scenario, there are three potential states that could collect tax from the seller? Currently there is no clear answer.

It’s important to note that this conversation has been going on for year… and we seem to be no closer to a resolution today than we were back then. Given the huge growth of the e-commerce market and specifically digital commerce, it will be nice to have some concrete answers and rules of practice.

We’ll continue to monitor any developments on this legislature and share our insights. What are your thoughts? Do you support the bill? It sure will be interesting to see how this one plays out.

As in life, a defining characteristic of successful online merchants today is not what they know but who they know.  In an era of connected e-Commerce, vendors must strategically leverage their customer relationships and capitalize on the social Web. Merchants should influence and extend direct relationships with consumers, indirect relationships via partner list holders as well as relationships through social recommendations, in order to monetize this burgeoning sales channel.

The time is now.  Even the most powerful retailers understand the need to connect via social media. Last week, we saw proof of this with Wal-Mart’s acquisition of Kosmix, a social media platform that organizes social network content.

Wal-Mart has tremendous reach, operating more than 9,000 retail units in 15 countries and hosting nine e-Commerce businesses worldwide. The company recognized the undeniable impact of social networks on the shopping experience and is developing a social presence to support the growth of its online customer base and their social footprints.

The next generation of e-Commerce will be consumer-driven. It will be about creating an integrated experience that leverages all the ways consumers shop, including traditional brick and mortar stores and the Internet. With its purchase of Kosmix, Wal-Mart is making a statement that all businesses, even the most successful organizations, must cater to the online world and the growth of the social Web.

Plimus understands how important it is for online merchants to modify their business models in order to leverage the social Web. We need to put increased value on the connectedness of the online world and move beyond traditional online storefronts.

I predict we’ll see lots more companies following the lead of Wal-Mart. What brand do you think will be next?

Not sure if you caught it, but last week we announced the availability of Version 1.29, the latest update to the Plimus e-Business Platform.  This new version, which is automatically available to all Plimus vendors and affiliates, will continue to build upon the enhanced payment experience Plimus offers all its customers. As you may know, previous versions of the Plimus platform introduced “single-click” purchasing and flexible dynamic subscriptions to support the evolving business models ushered in by the social Web. Version 1.29 will focus on the incremental sales conversion capabilities that also have a large impact on sales.

Simply put, Version 1.29 builds upon Plimus’ promise to deliver unmatched flexibility and conversion to its merchants by:

• Offering enhancements around entering and processing credit card information
• Adding vendor parameters and flexibility for transaction processing
• Creating new fee structures for mobile commerce solutions

Promises mean nothing without results though, right?  One Hour Translation is one example of a vendor that relies on Plimus as its e-Business and Payments Platform. As the Web’s leading professional translation service, One Hour Translation provides 24/7, high-quality, human translation services to thousands of business customers with more than 10,000 translators worldwide. That’s a tall order! By using “single-click” and other sales conversion system features, One Hour Translation has seen dramatic improvements in sales to its existing customers, including a 20 percent revenue increase, an 11 percent decrease in shopping cart abandonment, an average time-to-purchase of just 19 seconds and a dramatic reduction in the amount of support time dealing with post billing issues.

According to Lior Libman, Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Business Development of One Hour Translation, Plimus takes care of all of the company’s e-Commerce needs, allowing the One Hour Translation team to “focus solely on improving its core professional translation business.”