Collecting buyers address (for tax purposes) without forcing the zip code in cart

[iddesert]

I sell non-tangible items (eBooks), so I don't need to buyers address for shipping. However, I do need it for collecting sales tax from residents of my state.

Right now when they are in the cart, they have to enter their zip code, then click "Calculate Shipping/Tax" before clicking the payment button. If they don't, it kicks them back to do it again. The whole process is not very intuitive. It's also confusing to buyers that they are entering shipping info for an ebook, and the overall wonky process certainly cuts down on sales conversions.

Is there a way to collect buyers address on the sale without forcing them to enter their zip code in the first stage of checkout?

[E-junkie_Guru]

The only way to do that would be with our Buy Now buttons, which skip the cart to take buyers directly to instant checkout for a single item.

Because of that, Buy Now buttons can't use features that depend on the cart including tax/shipping calculation, some types of discounts, and editable price, but they can still trigger collection of a shipping address during checkout if the product settings have Require buyer's shipping address enabled.

That said, if you need to keep using Add to Cart buttons for tax calculation or other reasons, you could customize the Calculate Shipping/Tax button text to say something else like "Calculate Tax" or "Set Location" or whatever you wish; that would be in your E-junkie Dashboard under Manage Cart & Shop > Cart Preferences.