Well, I went after an ice cube and found an iceberg.

I had that bunch of questions on shopping carts, and then I selected a bunch of carts to throw the questions at.

By the end of the first day, I had added 10 more questions and 2 more carts. By the end of the week, I had 27 more questions and 3 more carts. I also had a bottle of wine and an attitude problem.

And then Sunday I learned about the advertising tax. As I understand it, some states intend to classify blog/website publishers as sales hubs for the merchants who pay them commissions through affiliate programs.

Apparently, the states think this will bring in a lot of otherwise-lost tax revenue. I think they’ll be disappointed when merchants drop those affiliates like hot rocks and nobody gets paid.

I’m not being pessimistic. It’s already happened in New York…200 merchants abandoned their affiliates, so I hear. And, as an affiliate, I’ve signed documents swearing on all that is holy that I’m not a resident of an advertising tax state.

See, I avoided being directly affected by this law because my state, Maryland, didn’t pass it. Yet I’m up to the neck in it anyway. And why?

Shopping carts.

Because tax handling was one of my original questions. And after a tweet from @tzaddi, complex Canadian taxes became another one. And with this advertising tax comes more questions for folks in the US.

Because it smells like merchants will need to pay sales tax on transactions that come from advertising tax (AT) states, not just their resident state. So if you’ve got affiliates, you may need a customizable cart to manage that. Or a cart service provider who’s on top of their game. And maybe a bookkeeper. Or you can cut off your AT state affiliates and just skip it.

So.

Customizable tax handling is looking like a Deal Breaker…one of those features that make your shopping cart decision for you. When you need a particular feature bad enough, whichever cart has it is the one you choose, and you hope other features you want come with it.

When you read the Guide, you’ll see there’s a good bit of that. Oh, and—

• If you don’t have the technical skills, or technical confidence, to copy/paste shopping cart code into your website or blog, then that’s likely your Deal Breaker. Almost all carts require a little codework. If you want your choice of shopping carts, you’ll need to get some skills, some guts, or some help.

• If you want a shopping cart plugin for your WordPress site, then you have a handful of choices. But if you want robust features, there are only a few carts to choose from. And if you want a WP cart plugin that’s robust, well-supported, and free…? Welllll, you may not get all three. You may have to pick two.

And so it goes.

I’m overwhelmed, frustrated, grumpy, and out of wine. I’m also searching, reading, learning, and dropping by Trader Joe’s for another bottle. Or four.

Because there are more questions and more carts, which means there are also more answers. I’ll look for them this week, until hell or high water.

Or until I run out of wine.

Whichever comes first.

Photo credit: Gianni D.