Featured Stories
Profitable from Day One : How a Bootstrapped SaaS Found a Successful Exit
“My key priority was securing a buyer capable of both shaping a long-term strategic vision for DropFunnels and seamlessly transitioning ownership. The team at FE International had already identified the perfect buyer within their extensive network, ensuring a perfect match for the company’s future growth. ”
Access our latest Market Reports
UK Treasury Amends Cryptocurrency Laws: Newsletter December 8, 2017
The U.K. treasury announced they would be amending anti-money laundering laws to require bitcoin and other cryptocurrency investors to reveal their identities. Online investing platforms will vet each investor and report suspicious persons to the U.K. authorities in an attempt to limit crime facilitated by crypto-investing. Critics of current bitcoin operations, from Goldman Sachs to JP Morgan execs, are in agreement with the U.K. Treasury’s decision, purporting that allowing investor anonymity can lead to crime, fraud, and breaches in counter-terrorism financial legislation. This follows last week’s order from a San Francisco judge mandating Coinbase to release investor information to the IRS to avoid tax fraud on crypto-investments.
Black Friday Sees Record-Breaking Sales: Newsletter December 1, 2017
This year’s Black Friday saw record-breaking U.S. online sales of $5.03 billion. This record was short lived, however, with reported Cyber Monday sales of $6.59 billion, taking the total for Nov 1 – 27 to $50 billion, up 16.8% YoY. Analysts now believe this may be the first year where online sales during the holiday period break the $100 billion mark in the U.S. China’s Alibaba still holds the e-commerce record for one day of sales during China’s “Singles Day”, at $25.4 billion. Interestingly, the YoY growth in smartphone sales outpaced overall growth levels, hitting $1.59 billion, a 32.2% YoY increase.
FCC Will Only Consider Legal Arguments in Favor of Net Neutrality: Newsletter November 24, 2017
Net neutrality is a big discussion topic this week. At FE International, we feel strongly about keeping net neutrality in place in the US. If you do too, we would encourage you to write in and express legal considerations for not getting rid of net neutrality. The FCC announced this week that despite receiving a record-breaking number of letters from internet users they will only consider letters detailing legal reasoning in favor of keeping net neutrality, and will not take into account letters which merely include opinions on why net neutrality should remain in effect.
Amazon Adjusts Tax Code for Third-Party Sellers: Newsletter November 17, 2017
Amazon has announced this week that beginning January 1, third party merchants will be required to collect sales tax on products purchased by consumers in Washington. Currently, due to a loophole in legislation, tax collection on third-party Amazon sales are left to the seller’s discretion. Now, Amazon will be managing the collection of sales tax on products sold by third-party merchants to customers in Washington, with other states expected to follow closely behind this precedent set by Amazon’s home state. E-commerce owners who sell on Amazon will want to reevaluate their cost structure to ensure that a raise in prices due to sales taxes will not deter their current customer base.
QuickBooks Capital Loans to Small Businesses: Newsletter November 10, 2017
Intuit announced their new initiative, QuickBooks Capital, a small business lending service powered by artificial intelligence technology. QuickBooks Capital is a response to the struggle many small businesses face of getting approved for loans due to a short financial history. With 26 billion data points to inform their algorithm, the program combs through a small business’s financial data to determine the probability that future cash flow will be sufficient to repay a loan. Small businesses can apply for loans up to $35,000 for now, backed by QuickBooks itself, and should expect low rates according to the head of QuickBooks Capital, Rania Succar.
Trump Administration Releases New Tax Plan: Newsletter November 3, 2017
Yesterday, the Trump administration released their proposed tax reform bill. It contains several proposed changes to the current tax legislation, with the key points for business owners being that the tax brackets will be simplified from 7 to 4 income groups, standard deductions are nearly doubled and corporate tax is cut from 35% to 20%. Though the tax plan does not address all points that have been suggested by GOP legislators, the proposal would help small business owners significantly, as they would see their tax rate cut nearly in half. Kevin Brady, author of the bill and Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, hopes to get the bill passed through the House by Thanksgiving, though the bill as it currently stands will likely be edited over the weekend before it faces a scheduled markup by the Ways and Means Committee on Monday. Read below for more details on the proposed bill.
FE International Acquires iAcquisitions: Newsletter October 27, 2017
We are thrilled to announce that FE International has successfully completed the acquisition of iAcquisitions, a leading privately held e-commerce mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisory firm.
Kohl’s to Accept Amazon Returns at 10 Stores: Newsletter October 20, 2017
Kohl’s has announced a partnership with Amazon in a new initiative allowing customers to return Amazon purchases in 10 of their stores in Chicago and LA. Not to be outdone by Walmart’s announcement last week that they would be accepting returns for online purchases in-store, Amazon is once again leveraging its colossal sales engine to create new partnerships to combat the existing offline distribution Walmart has. This one comes right before the holidays, and will likely be a leading indicator of whether consumers value the ability to return items in store, and whether this will drive more in-person purchases for Kohl’s, a reputed holiday retail giant.
Amazon Third-Party Merchants Required to Add Sales Tax: Newsletter October 13, 2017
Following the end of the sales tax amnesty, many of Amazon’s third-party merchants will be required to add sales tax to their products. Recently, states are cracking down on Amazon merchants, mandating the addition of sales taxes to previously untaxed products to combat an e-commerce nexus precedent set 25 years ago. These new requirements come right before the busiest shopping season of the year, so with these new stringent sales tax requirements, e-commerce owners who sell through Amazon will want to ensure they comply with new regulations.
