IndieCommunication: Mobile-Friendly Book Lists, Sales-Tax Lookup & More

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The IndieCommunication newsletter for August 9 includes an update on creating mobile-friendly book lists, a new sales tax lookup tool coming to IndieCommerce sites, and a tip of the week.

Mobile-Friendly Book Lists

Stack of booksCreating Drupal Views for book lists can have a bit of a steep learning curve for booksellers not familiar with the process, which has discouraged many IndieCommerce users from trying it. To make it easier for users, the IndieCommerce team has created three responsive grid view templates for book lists. Now, all store staff need to do is edit these book lists and plug them into the view. Visit IndieCommerce online for more information.

Want to give it a try? Booksellers can contact [email protected] to have these view templates enabled on their store’s IndieCommerce site.

TaxJar: A Real-Time Sales-Tax Lookup Service for IndieCommerce Sites

Glass jar of coins labeled "sales tax"Did you know that sales tax totals in a particular state can change based on the location of the purchase in that state? To increase accuracy in calculating online sales tax rates, IndieCommerce is in the process of switching sites using destination-based sales tax to a real-time tax rate lookup service.

Over the next couple of weeks, IndieCommerce staff will transition IndieCommerce sites that use destination-based sales tax over to a service called TaxJar. This new service will give customers real-time-calculated tax rates. TaxJar will be used for determining the tax rate only. Tax rules, conditions, and calculation will depend on the tax configurations on each IndieCommerce site.

This change does not affect sites using source-based sales tax. Booksellers whose IndieCommerce sites use source-based sales tax should confirm that their site is configured with the correct tax rate under Store -> Configuration -> Taxes.

An easy tax-rate lookup admin tool is available on all IndieCommerce sites at Store -> Configuration -> Taxes -> Tax Rate Lookup Tool.

The IndieCommerce team has done quite a bit of testing on this new service, but booksellers who notice anything unusual in their sales tax calculations should contact [email protected].

Tip of the Week

Cartoon man with "Tips" signFor stores that use ABA’s Authorize.net payment gateway for processing credit card orders:

1. If you would like IndieCommerce to process a refund for an order paid by credit card, note the order number and the exact amount to refund, including tax and shipping.

2. When customer orders have been shipped and are ready to be closed, mark as “completed” any credit card orders that are in the Payment Received status so that IndieCommerce can turn over the funds.


Booksellers are encouraged to send their thoughts, questions, or suggestions via e-mail to IndieCommerce staff at any time.

Past editions of IndieCommunication are available on the IndieCommerce Updates page on BookWeb.org.

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