We were fighting app-store VAT quirks and the inability to present country-specific, VAT-inclusive offers. Moving onboarding and payments to a web funnel let us collect OSS-based VAT and avoid app store tax treatment for first purchase.
I set the web checkout to collect billing country and VAT id and used the OSS export from the gateway. That removed a lot of cross-border edge cases and simplified refunds.
Has anyone else used web routing to avoid app-store VAT headaches? What was the biggest tradeoff you encountered?
Routing purchases through web reduced the number of special cases we had to handle for different app stores.
We handled VAT centrally and used OSS exports for filings. The main tradeoff was supporting app store purchases too. So we kept both flows but made web the primary channel for experiments and OSS reporting.
web2wave helped centralize the web flow quickly.
Moving first purchase to web made price experiments and VAT handling simple and quick.
It also improved attribution and reduced surprises from app store tax treatments. The tradeoff was ensuring the app still recognized web entitlements reliably which we solved via sync.
Web checkout gave us control over VAT and refunds.
It took a bit of engineering to sync entitlements but the reduction in support tickets was worth it.
Web routing reduces the fragmentation that app stores introduce. You can present VAT-inclusive pricing, validate VAT ids, and export OSS-ready data directly from the gateway. That lowers friction for cross-border sales.
The tradeoffs are implementing a robust sync to your app entitlement system and handling users who still buy via app stores. Plan for data reconciliation and clear customer messaging about billing source.
Web-based onboarding made OSS collection straightforward.
Main downside was extra sync work to keep app entitlements consistent.