Black Friday is, for many companies, one of the best sales periods of the whole year. At the same time, the increase in demand brings particular challenges, including with regard to tax management. Certain problems end up disrupting the operation or even causing greater impacts on the business, such as fines and fines.

Hugo Ramos, CEO of Oobj, national reference in solutions for Electronic Tax Documents (DF-e) and other digital tax demands. “Every year, we noticed some common mistakes that affect companies of all segments, both in e-commerce and in physical stores. Being prepared to face these situations can prevent them from escalating to larger problems”, he explains.

Thus, the professional selected the main tax setbacks that can affect companies on Black Friday 2024, and what to do to reduce the associated risks.

1. Duplicity of invoices

Whether due to SEFAZ connection or processing problems or even internal instability in the company's system, it is possible that the generation of repeated tax documents occurs.

“When there is duplication, the fiscal closure is different from the financial closure, which causes undue tax collections. In addition, if the tax courier does not identify this error in authorized invoices, the generation of notes by the ERP will be incorrect, resulting in fines and penalties for non-payment of taxes or for omission of” data, Hugo details.

To avoid the headache, it is worth counting on a specialized tax system that can control the duplicity of notes and verify the existence of repeated data, to then cancel invalid documents.In addition, it is also important to ensure the audit of authorized electronic tax documents, to be sure that the financial and fiscal closure will be done without errors. Thus, the obligation to issue notes will be consistent and the risk of a reduced indictment.

In addition, another direct impact of duplicity is on inventory control.With an incorrect inventory, the company may face tax and logistical problems such as wrong orders, delivery delays and improper purchase planning.

2. Impossibility of communication with Sefaz

Communication failures between the tax system and SEFAZ are a problem in themselves, as they can increase the authorization time of invoice issuance and closing of each sale.In a cascade effect, customers who are in the cashier queue need to wait longer to be served, which is especially complicated in Black Friday season.

To prevent this from happening, it is important to monitor the availability of SEFAZ, which is automated by certain tax management systems. Many also have a functionality that spontaneously identifies the times when it is necessary to enter or exit contingency mode, in which the issuance is not immediate: the customer receives a note that is not yet valid until communication with SEFAZ is reestablished.

“With the appropriate tool, contingency issuance is automatically activated whenever necessary. Upon reestablishment of communication with SEFAZ, the tax messaging software must be able to reprocess, resend, identify duplicates and request authorization of all tax coupons issued in this” format, points out the CEO.

3. Issuance in contingency

Despite solving one problem, the issuance in contingency can generate others. With the high volume of notes it can be difficult to manage the number of documents issued and rejected. Thus, the company may miss the deadline to send to SEFAZ.  

For example, the customer may consult the note on SEFAZ and not find it, because the access key has not yet been validated. Consequently, the consumer has the possibility then to trigger PROCON. Therefore, to avoid risks like this, it is necessary to pay attention during the reshipment after the contingency, to identify the rejected notes.

“Once again, this is a feature facilitated by the cutting-edge tax management systems. It is also worth saving the XML of all notes, including those issued in contingency, to record the sale and attempt to issue”, suggests Hugo.

4. Wrong NCM on invoice 

The Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM) aims to control and identify the tax of products. Incorrect NCM data in the completion of the note may result in rejection of the issuance and authorization of the issue with the wrong code, leading to taxes paid incorrectly. If an error is found in the code, the Tax Authorities checks the latest entries and charges the difference in rate, with fines and interest.

Therefore, it is essential to update the cadastral base of the NCM codes that the company uses in its daily life. If the NCM is non-existent, the invoice will also encounter problems and will be rejected. Therefore, it is necessary to be within the classifications of the goods to avoid this type of failure. 

“In situations like this, if the merchant receives a product with the incorrect NCM code, he must pass the correct code to his supplier, to avoid the” tax assessment, concludes Ramos.

Above all, it is important to note that with the significant increase in sales in BF it is very important that the system is resilient or that it can process high volumetry quickly. This is essential to ensure efficient operation and sales success. During this period, the volume of transactions increases exponentially, requiring the system to be able to handle this demand without compromising performance or causing interruptions. Thus avoiding delays in deliveries, queues in the cashier and of course, customer dissatisfaction.

The rapid adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) in companies is redefining processes, enabling innovations and driving automation. According to a recent study by Bloomberg Intelligence, the growth rate of AI in the next decade should be 42% a year 4 nearly doubling its reach. However, the success of these solutions depends on careful management of the data that feeds these models. This is where cybersecurity comes in, a vital element for protecting privacy and information integrity.

Generative AI goes beyond traditional artificial intelligence models, which only classify or predict behaviors, because it creates new content such as texts, images and codes. This innovation capacity opens new possibilities in several sectors, but requires a careful approach to the use and security of data and this is recognized by people who use technology on a daily basis. According to the research of the Developer Survey 2024 of Stack OverFlow, one of the main challenges (31.5%) of working with AI is not having right policies to mitigate security risks.   

In this sense, the Technical Product Manager John Batista, responsible for the Zup StackSpot AI platform, explains that to mitigate these risks, companies must implement strict security measures, given that cybercrime is increasingly sophisticated and by 2025 can cost 10.5 trillion dollars, according to Cyber Security Almanac. 

“ Ensuring that AI models operate securely and ethically requires a multi-faceted approach that combines robust encryption, effective data governance, strict privacy practices, and strict access controls during model training.If we make a cutout for companies that create technology, having a security-trained AI-driven software development assistant can support the team to ensure that code follows safe coding best practices.This, for example, is a predictive vulnerability identification mechanism. Increasingly, the way is to think of a joint strategy that considers innovation, security, and data protection as an essential tripod for the application of this type of technology.

Regarding the legislation, Henrique Flores, co-founder of Contractor and leader of the development of CK Reader, IA of the startup, explains that while we await legislation to better regulate the use of Generative AI, it is up to technology professionals to ensure the application of good encryption practices, data anonymization and governance policies of t.i. that can ensure the balance of the commercial interests of the parties, transparency in algorithm training mechanisms and ethical use in the manipulation of data”. 

While recognizing that innovating with emerging technologies, such as Generative Artificial Intelligence, is a unique opportunity for transformation, Giovanna Rossi, CPO of Rethink, technology consultancy, design and strategy, reinforces that it cannot be denied that it is accompanied by significant risks, such as the exposure of sensitive information and the possibility of sophisticated cyber attacks. “As responsible for the area of digital products, I see how fundamental it is for leadership to prioritize a strategic approach in the use of AI to mitigate such risks. We have a responsibility to shape this technology in an ethical and safe way, ensuring that its impact is positive and sustainable for all”, says the executive. 

Brazil has a high volume of data circulating on the internet and an accelerated digitization process. Regarding brand protection, Diego Daminelli, CEO of BrandMonitor, a pioneer and expert in combating unfair competition in the digital environment, warns that the Brazilian security infrastructure is still moving slowly, making the country one of the biggest targets of cyberattacks in the world, with a greater sophistication of attacks by criminals. “Safety culture is still a topic little valued by several companies, which do not use AI but outdated technologies, which can leave them vulnerable to attacks and are not able to monitor the digital presence of the brand in its entire range.

The expert gives the example of phishing, big problem for segments such as retail and service provision. “Adverts are served on digital platforms using the entire identity of a brand and promising impractical discounts. This ad leads to a page that mimics the official layout of the company, but with a different address. On this page products or services are offered at an extremely low price, inducing the customer to purchase”.

A global trend in retail and advertising, retail media marketing has been gaining popularity in Brazil, with several initiatives announced by retailers from around the country. The country should end 2024 in the lead of investment growth in the modality, estimated at 42.3% more than double the global average, which is forecast for 20.3%, according to data from consultancy Emarketer.  

Retail media has two well-known actors - retailers and advertisers - but publishers & news sites on the open Internet & PUBLishers & publishers are also willing to benefit from retail media.Like retailers, publishers have a lot of primary user data, but they differentiate themselves by reaching customers at the top of the funnel.  

For portals, the strategy constitutes new sources of revenue through “commerce media” (trading media), while for brands it represents new media inventories, from off-site activations to shopping ads or affiliate marketing. Users, in turn, experience enhanced shopping experiences that allow them to discover and buy items more easily while browsing the open Internet. 

FAVORABLE SCENARIO 

According to the “A Large Degragmentation”, conducted by Criteo with more than 1,000 professionals, including advertisers, agencies, retailers and publishers, from nine countries including Brazil 83% publishers said they were open to incorporating product offerings into their web pages as a way to leverage investments with retail media ads, and 69% of them consider obtaining revenues through retail media as a priority (between high or moderate) for the next year and a half (12 to 18 months).   

An example of such a successful partnership was announced in the US in April by electronics retailer Best Buy with the CNET content portal ithraditional publication on technology trends, known for reviews and analysis of products and services. According to the two companies, the agreement includes content curation and the publication of recommendations on the website, application and physical stores of the network.  

“The incorporation of retail media by content and news portals enables a new configuration of the purchase journey, in which all phases of discovery, research and conversion (ARE grouped into a single complete journey”, explains Tiago Cardoso, Managing Director for Latin America at Criteo. 

To operate in this market, publishers need to activate their primary data sets and seek new long-term partnerships with brands, agencies or” retailers.  

However, there is still a lot of work to be done: half (50%) of the publishers interviewed consider the formation of long-term partnerships with advertisers and retailers as a priority. Almost one third (28%), however, pointed out to lack opportunities for expanding ties with ad buyers, while one in five (20%) publishers revealed to feel a lack of establishing direct relationships with advertisers. 

The good news for publishers, according to the survey, is that one-third of retailers (31%) and brands (34%) globally considered forming new partnerships a much more important marketing goal in 2024 compared to 2023.  

As retail media matures, publishers emerge as valuable players in this ecosystem.The strategy allows them to earn new revenue from off-site activations for audiences matching their primary data, while the possibility for new ad formats attracts brands and agencies seeking opportunities as they scale up their initiatives in the area.