Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” Feature: Simplify Your E-commerce Business

In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, staying on top of tax regulations can be a challenging task for online retailers. Token of Trust understands the complexities involved in managing excise taxes for various products and is constantly striving to make the process easier and more efficient for merchants. We are thrilled to announce our latest…


In the fast-paced world of e-commerce, staying on top of tax regulations can be a challenging task for online retailers. Token of Trust understands the complexities involved in managing excise taxes for various products and is constantly striving to make the process easier and more efficient for merchants. We are thrilled to announce our latest innovation – the “Product Sync” feature for WooCommerce and BigCommerce. This groundbreaking addition to our Excise Tax Calculation product will streamline the tax calculation process and save valuable time for e-commerce businesses.

The Challenge of Managing Excise Taxes

Excise taxes are essential for regulating the sale of specific products in the United States, and they can vary based on product types and jurisdictions. For e-commerce retailers, accurately calculating and applying these taxes can be a cumbersome and error-prone task. Token of Trust’s Excise Tax Calculation product was designed to simplify this process, ensuring that businesses remain compliant with the law while providing customers with accurate pricing.

The Impact of Manual Product Updates

Before delving into the details of Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” feature, let’s understand the business impact of not having such a solution in place. Many businesses still rely on manual product updates, which can be time-consuming and error-prone. Here’s where the problem lies:

Clients who update their products manually, on average, miss out on collecting 10% of their total excise tax obligation. With states taxing anywhere up to 95% of the sale price, this can take a huge bite out of your margin!

Introducing Token of Trust’s “Product Sync”

Now that we’ve seen the potential financial impact of manual updates, let’s explore how Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” feature eliminates these challenges. It eliminates the need for manual data entry, spreadsheet updates, or CSV uploads to keep product information in sync with our Excise Tax Calculation product. With “Product Sync,” the process is automated and hassle-free.

How “Product Sync” Works

API Integration: We’ve built a robust API that connects your e-commerce platform, be it WooCommerce or BigCommerce, with Token of Trust’s Excise Tax Calculation product. This API allows product master data source systems to push product information directly to Token of Trust, ensuring that transactions can be processed swiftly and accurately.

WooCommerce and BigCommerce Integration: For both WooCommerce and BigCommerce users, our “Product Sync” feature provides seamless integration. The API works uniformly for both platforms, making it easy for you to select the e-commerce system of your choice as the master data source system for your product information.

Automatic Updates: When new products are added to your master data source system (either WooCommerce or BigCommerce), Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” feature recognizes these changes and updates our product database accordingly. This ensures that our Excise Tax Calculation product is always up-to-date, and excise taxes are accurately calculated based on the most recent product metadata.

Direct Product Sync: WooCommerce and BigCommerce to Token of Trust

The way we pull products from WooCommerce and BigCommerce into Token of Trust is a nuanced process. To better understand this, we use specific notation and rules for translating product information. Here’s how we achieve this synchronization:

  • SKU: We directly map the SKU from your e-commerce platform to Token of Trust, whether it’s WooCommerce or BigCommerce.
  • Vape System Type: We categorize products in your e-commerce platform into three distinct types: ‘Disposable Vapes,’ ‘E-Liquid,’ and ‘Devices.’ These categories are mapped to corresponding types in Token of Trust, such as ‘closedSingleUse,’ ‘isOpen,’ and ‘closedCartridge.’ This mapping is consistent for both WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
  • isExempt: If a product falls into one of the mapped categories in ‘Vape System Type,’ it is considered non-exempt from excise taxes; otherwise, it’s exempt. Any newly added categories are initially assumed to be exempt until they are explicitly mapped to a vapeSystemType. This rule applies to both platforms.
  • Name: The product name in Token of Trust is a concatenation of various values from your e-commerce platform, including the product name, pack count, flavor, nicotine, and size. This naming convention is consistent for WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
  • Wholesale Cost: The wholesale cost in Token of Trust is derived from the respective fields in your e-commerce platform, whether it’s WooCommerce or BigCommerce.
  • Wholesale Price, MSRP, Retail Price: These prices in Token of Trust are directly obtained from your e-commerce platform, whether it’s WooCommerce or BigCommerce.
  • Pack Quantity: We extract the first number encountered in the ‘Pack Quantity’ option in your e-commerce platform, ignoring any string values or numbers that appear after the first. This ensures that the value is a numeric representation of the pack quantity, regardless of the platform.
  • Volume in ml: Similar to pack quantity, we extract the first numeric value in the ‘Size’ option in your e-commerce platform. This value is then multiplied by the pack quantity to determine the total volume in milliliters. This ensures that the volume is accurately represented, and this rule applies to both WooCommerce and BigCommerce.
  • Has Nicotine: In Token of Trust, the presence of nicotine in a product is determined by the respective field or option in your e-commerce platform, whether it’s WooCommerce or BigCommerce. If the value is a number greater than zero or a string other than ‘no’ or ‘false,’ it is considered to contain nicotine.

Example Product and Resulting Mapping

Let’s take an example product from either WooCommerce or BigCommerce and see how it maps to Token of Trust’s product metadata. The rules and translation process remain consistent regardless of the e-commerce platform used.

Example Product and Resulting Mapping

Let’s take an example product and see how it maps to Token of Trust’s product metadata:

  • SKU: TOT0012345
  • Name: TOTpod Disposable Vape – 5000 Puffs – 5 Pack / Unicorn Sherbert (Kiwi Strawberry) / 50MG / 12ml
  • Brand: TOTpod Disposable Vape
  • Volume in ml: 60
  • Wholesale Cost: $45
  • Wholesale Price: $47.5
  • MSRP: $47.5
  • Retail Price: $47.5
  • Has Nicotine: Yes
  • Vape System Type: closedSingleUse
  • Pack Quantity: 5
  • Exempt: No

Following our rules and translations, this product would map to Token of Trust’s product metadata as shown above. This mapping ensures that excise taxes are accurately calculated based on the product’s attributes.

Expanding Capabilities

It’s important to note that excise taxes can be unique across industries, and Token of Trust’s API currently supports excise tax calculation and product sync for Vape and e-Cigarette products. However, our capabilities are rapidly expanding into other product types, so stay tuned for more updates.

Wrapping It Up

Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” feature, powered by the Token of Trust Product API, represents a significant advancement in excise tax management for e-commerce businesses. This innovative solution eliminates the need for manual data

entry and ensures that product information is always up to date, resulting in accurate excise tax calculations. Whether you’re using WooCommerce or BigCommerce, Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” feature simplifies your operations and allows you to focus on growing your e-commerce business.

Ready to Enhance Your Excise Tax Management?

To learn more about integrating Token of Trust’s “Product Sync” feature and the Product API into your e-commerce platform, visit our documentation or get in touch with our team. Embrace the future of excise tax calculation in e-commerce with Token of Trust!