What is a Merchant of Record?
When a Brand decides to sell online, several challenges have to be addressed such as managing payment processing, handling taxes and ensuring regulatory compliance. These operational aspects may divert attention from strategic activities thus hampering the business growth.
A Merchant of Record is the partner taking on the responsibility to deal with the financial, administrative and fiscal management of online orders on behalf of the Brand, acting as the official seller in Ecommerce transactions.
What does the MoR do?
Payments
It handles all transactions, including secure payment processing, financial flow control and fraud prevention. It also optimizes payment methods in order to enhance user experience and financial efficiency.
Tax compliance
It provides the automatic management of invoicing, VAT, taxes and duties, ensuring compliance with national and international regulations, and it adapts tax processes to the specific characteristics of each market in order to optimize fiscal management.
Regulatory compliance
It manages compliance with bureaucratic requirements including EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility), customs requirements, international trade regulations and logistics, ensuring global compliance.
In short, the MoR facilitates operational management thus enabling Brands to focus on growing their business.
How the Merchant of Record facilitates the Brand’s online sales.
The Merchant of Record (MoR) is important for the Brand’s Ecommerce success, as it takes on the legal and financial responsibility for any transaction made on a sales platform. This task is particularly useful for companies operating on a global basis or selling in different jurisdictions. Here are some of the main reasons:
Tax liability
The MoR takes care of calculating, filing and remitting local taxes (i.e. VAT or GST), a complex task especially when operating in multiple Countries with different tax regulations. As the party handling the final transaction, it ensures that taxes are duly paid to the relevant authorities.
Regulatory compliance
The MoR is responsible for ensuring that eCommerce activities comply with applicant regulations, thus reducing the risk of fines or litigations for the Company. Indeed, each Country has different regulations on eCommerce, transactions and consumers’ protection.
Transactions management
The MoR takes care of all aspects of payment processing, including credit card authorization processes, fraud prevention and refunds. This considerably simplifies financial management for the seller, who is no longer required to handle these aspects directly.
Risk reduction
Relying on a MoR enables eCommerce companies to reduce operational and legal risks. In the event of any legal disputes or customer complaints on a transaction, the MoR is the legal entity taking full responsibility, thus protecting the seller from potential problems.
Facilitated international expansion
When a Company wishes to expand its business to new international markets, the MoR provides a strategic advantage by handling all local regulatory requirements and therefore ensuring faster access to global markets.
Do you have any specific needs?
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Digital Commerce becomes easier.
The ultimate purpose of Calicantus is to support Brands in the process of turning digital commerce into a strategic driver of growth and value. Through an integrated model balancing insourced and outsourced activities, we provide taylor-made solutions to guarantee excellence in the management of Ecommerce operations, from logistics to customer care, up to the role of Merchant of Record (MoR).
By facilitating digital commerce, we free our customers from the operational burden it entails, and enable them to focus on the strategic growth of their Brands as well as offering purchase experiences inspiring trust and paving the way for strong and lasting relationships with their own customers.
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Insourcing & Outsourcing: the perfect balance.
In the vast universe of Ecommerce, among proprietary sites, marketplaces and international markets, one of the most delicate decisions for Brands is striking the perfect balance between insourcing e outsourcing in the management of online sales.
According to past experience, relying completely on third parties (Full Outsourcing) has often originated considerable strategic issues.
By delegating too much, several brands have lost control over their main touchpoints and, therefore, over their own service and Customer Experience.
What is the optimal approach today? The Composable Outsourcing of non-core activities has proved to be the most effective model.
This flexible approach is already consolidated in Calicantus and enables Brands to focus on their areas of strength by delegating to third parties only those activities where they do not have strong competences yet.
A focused and well managed outsourcing service may make the difference between a Company growing in a sustainable way and one losing control over its own business.
Calicantus is the operational arm between the Brand and the buyer.
As the Merchant of Record, Calicantus is the Company’s operational arm in the global market of online sales, letting the Brand full power of strategic decision-making and full ownership of users’ data in line with the GDPR.
The solution to the complexity of managing online sales in European and Extra-European Countries is choosing the right partner to handle the outsourced management of online orders from your digital touchpoints. (i.e. websites, marketplaces, etc.).
Contact usFAQs
What tools can I use for customer care?
Our multilingual team can provide support via contact form, chat, email or telephone, depending on your requirements.
What do I need to outsource some areas?
In addition to product availability, a business systems organization is required ensuring smooth communication between us, you and the end buyer.
If you are not ready, don’t worry!
We have extensive knowledge and a network of partners suited to find the solution to any problem.
What are the return policies?
As far as marketing is concerned, returns are a strategic aspect because they help reduce consumers’ distrust and reassure them in the purchasing phase. Returns must therefore be handled with great care, bearing in mind that the consumers’ code provides for the right of withdrawal to be exercised within 14 days on the part of the buyer, but does not specify if return costs should be borne by the seller. There are 3 possible solutions:
- Free return where the seller/Calicantus bears shipping costs and deals with the courier
- Paid return where the seller/Calicantus deals with the courier but shipping costs are on the buyer (they are deducted from the refund)
- Customer-paid returns
How many markets can I ship to?
Calicantus handles online sales to over 200 Countries.
Thanks to the Internet and international marketing activities it has now become easier to reach new markets.
Logistically, shipping within Italy and Europe is easy: costs are low and it only takes 1 or 2 working days for the goods to arrive.
North America is also well-served, besides providing the advantage of duty-free on imports valued at less than $ 800.
We can ship all over the world, although costs and delivery times may increase. However, should a Country prove strategic or in the event of adequate sales volumes, we could activate local logistics in the target Country thanks to our network of partners. Lastly, restrictions on specific categories of goods such as food, alcohol, pharmaceutical and flammable items, should be taken into considerations.
Can I sell without stock thanks to dropshipping?
One of the solutions we offer is dropshipping (a retail method where sellers do not stock the products they sell), which offers the following advantages:
- No warehousing costs
- No need to invest in the production or purchase of new goods
- Product inventory and storage optimization;
- Streamlining logistics processes, from packaging to shipping
Do you have any particular doubts?
Contact us, we have all the answers you need.
Case Histories
Discover the case histories that show how Brands from different sectors have overcome complex challenges and achieved significant results thanks to our innovative solutions and targeted digital strategies.
What will be the next success story?
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What else we can do for you:
For over 15 years Calicantus has been acting as Merchant of Records for Companies from different B2B and B2C sectors. Thanks to its experience, it has developed a well-structured ecosystem made of people, processes and technologies, designed to facilitate integration with pre-existing business systems.
Logistics for Ecommerce
Ecommerce Management Team
Our expert team will support you in achieving result-oriented management.
Why you should choose us...
Calicantus operates as a Merchant of Record (MoR), offering highly flexible outsourced services that can be adaptable in a composable mode, based on the level of structuring of the Brand.
Our figures prove our experience and the success achieved by the Brands we have supported.
...and who has already chosen us
Find out which Brands have entrusted us with their Digital Commerce.
