Mast General Store Turns to Avalara and Celerant to Scale Ecommerce Business

SEATTLE, Aug. 22, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Avalara, a leading provider of tax compliance automation software for businesses of all sizes, today announced that Mast General Store is leveraging its integration with retail software provider Celerant to solve for tax requirements triggered by omnichannel retail sales. Mast General Store , a family-owned retailer selling general goods and outdoor apparel, turned to Avalara  and Celerant  to enable its multichannel operations and address economic nexus requirements as the business expands into new jurisdictions.

Mast General Store has used Celerant's point-of-sale software and ecommerce solutions since 2008. However, like many retailers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mast General Store found itself needing to pivot to an ecommerce-first model while also contending with personnel capacity restrictions in their stores and distribution centers. As a result, Mast General Store implemented Celerant's Stratus ecommerce  solution to enable "Best Store Fulfillment," an automated tool to fulfill orders from individual stores. This solution allowed Mast General Store to expedite its fulfillment process from a previous average of 3–5 days to same-day shipping for most orders.

At the same time, the business found itself up against another barrier to growth: economic nexus. Economic nexus laws impose tax collection obligations on businesses based on a certain level of economic activity within a state. Because each state defines economic nexus thresholds differently, businesses must be able to keep track of when they trigger new tax obligations by reaching a certain amount of sales and/or number of sales transactions in another state.

Mast General Store turned to Avalara AvaTax  and Avalara Returns, to address economic nexus requirements in 14 states and filing tax returns for 11 states. All of Mast General Store's website sales are processed through AvaTax, so even if it's selling into a state where it currently doesn't meet the economic nexus threshold, the business can easily forecast upcoming obligations as sales increase and potentially trigger nexus in other states. Additionally, Mast General Store is able to handle events like sales tax holidays and sudden tax changes with ease because AvaTax is updated at regular intervals to reflect changing rates and rules in the 13,000+ U.S. sales and use tax jurisdictions.

"We've kept our eye on nexus obligations for a while, and as our website sales started to pick up using Celerant, we reached out to Avalara to make sure taxes didn't stand in the way of our growth," said David Cliett, Vice President of Operations at Mast General Store."Our accounting department was very pleased because working with Avalara, we're able to devote more time to other important finance tasks, and we're able to avoid having to face the learning curve it takes to learn to file across more states."

With Avalara and Celerant, Mast General Store has been able to serve customers more efficiently through an omnichannel model, while reducing the compliance risk associated with selling through new channels and into new jurisdictions.

"As retailers like Mast General Store expand their online presence and grow across channels, we want to make sure complex tax rates and rules don't stop them from reaching customers in new locations," said Liz Armbruester, EVP, Customer and Compliance Operations at Avalara. "With Avalara, Mast General Store is realizing worry-free and reliable tax calculation and filing as it expands to reach new customers. Thanks to Avalara's partnership with Celerant, Mast General Store has been able to scale their operations and automate their tax compliance requirements through an easy-to-use integration."

"Having worked with Mast General Store for over 15 years, we've had the opportunity to help their business evolve, as we've significantly evolved as a company as well," said Zeke Hamdani, Director of Web Services at Celerant."Oftentimes, retailers evaluate the 'best-in-breed' versus the 'all-in-one' approach. Mast is the perfect example of how leveraging a single retail technology partner — across all channels — can streamline your business."

To learn more about the partnership between Avalara and Celerant, click here .

About Avalara

Avalara makes tax compliance faster, easier, more accurate, and more reliable for 30,000+ business and government customers in over 90 countries. Tax compliance automation software solutions from Avalara leverage 1,200+ signed partner integrations across leading ecommerce, ERP, and other billing systems to power tax calculations, document management, tax return filing, and tax content access. Visit avalara.com  to improve your compliance journey.

About Celerant

Celerant Technology is an innovative retail software provider enabling retailers to expand their businesses past their physical storefronts' and into the online world. Rated as the #1 retail software provider year after year by the RIS LeaderBoard, Celerant supports retailers with an all-in-one system; point of sale, inventory management, promotions and loyalty rewards, ecommerce, mobile apps, vendor integrations, marketplace integrations, integrated email marketing and more. To learn more, subscribe to our blog- http://www.celerant.com/blog .

About Mast General Store

The Mast General Store's original location is in Valle Crucis, North Carolina built in 1883. It is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as one of the best remaining examples of its type. The store houses an official United States Post Office and offers nickel coffee that you can sip, on cold days, around the potbellied stove. Being a true General Store, Mast General Stores stock over 400 brand names in categories ranging from hard-to-find home goods, the latest outdoor gear, fashion apparel, footwear, toys from yesteryear and local & regional favorites. Each location has an extensive knife shop and more than 500 varieties of old-fashioned candy by the pound. Mast General Store has eleven store locations. The Original Store and Annex (just 2/10th of a mile down the road) in Valle Crucis, NC - Asheville, NC - Boone, NC - Columbia, SC - Greenville, SC - Hendersonville, NC - Knoxville, TN - Roanoke, VA - Waynesville, NC - Winston-Salem, NC. Mast General Store's home office is Valle Crucis, NC. Visit mastgeneralstore.com  for more information.

SOURCE Avalara, Inc.