How automation, compliance, and strategy protect retail margins in a complex economy.
STORIS recently partnered with Avalara, a leader in tax compliance automation, for an in-depth conversation exploring one of the most pressing challenges in home furnishings retail today: understanding how taxes vs tariffs impact profitability.
Hosted by Greg Strosnider, Senior Enterprise Account Executive at STORIS, and Christine Martin, Senior Solutions Consultant at Avalara, the discussion unpacks how omnichannel retail, fluctuating import duties, and evolving tax regulations create new operational complexities for furniture and appliance retailers.
“Tariffs raise landed cost at receipt; taxes affect after-tax cash flow,” Strosnider explained. “Treating them as the same thing is a costly mistake for merchandising teams managing today’s supply chain realities.”
Why This Discussion Matters
As retailers expand online and across state lines, economic nexus laws and jurisdictional rate variations have made tax management increasingly intricate. Martin shared real-world examples of how manual tax updates across multiple systems and marketplaces can lead to costly errors—or even audits.
The conversation highlights the growing importance of automation in tax calculation, filing, and exemption management, especially for midsize retailers balancing limited resources with high compliance risk. Both speakers emphasize that technology not only streamlines operations but also safeguards executives and CFOs from legal exposure when acting as tax collection agents for the state.
Tariffs and Margin Resilience
The discussion also dives into the “boomerang effect” of tariffs—rapid rate shifts that can swing landed costs dramatically. With much of U.S. furniture manufacturing still dependent on imports from China and Vietnam, these changes hit retailers’ SKU-level margins directly.
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Strosnider and Martin discuss how strategic pricing, landed cost tracking, and automation tools allow businesses to respond quickly to shifting duty rates without eroding profitability. Transparency—whether through itemized surcharges or intelligent cost reporting—emerges as a key practice for maintaining customer trust while protecting contribution margin.
Beyond Taxes vs Tariffs
The speakers conclude with a broader view of compliance, touching on new fees such as retail delivery charges and recycling surcharges emerging in several U.S. states. Retailers, they stress, must stay informed and agile as these policies evolve to ensure full regulatory compliance without compromising operational efficiency.
Watch the Full Conversation
The full recording, “Taxes vs. Tariffs: How to Protect Contribution in Practice,” is also available directly on our YouTube page.
This session forms part of STORIS’ ongoing “Taxes vs. Tariffs” campaign—a three-month educational series helping retailers understand where taxes aid cash flow, where tariffs increase landed cost, and how software can act as the operational lever that protects profit from both. Access the first in our Taxes vs. Tariffs series, exploring how these factors impact key areas of retail—beginning with Merchandising.
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