Tariffs Causing Retailers to Raise Prices

A lot of retailers say they are raising prices in the face of the Trump administration’s import tariff increases (some in force, some still pending) and have also been making efforts to inform consumers that such taxes are behind the increases. Those are among the major findings of a just-released survey of 500 retail ecommerce merchants by fraud-protection provider Signifyd.

“It isn’t surprising that retailers are taking dramatic action in the face of some pretty dramatic tariffs that have been implemented and proposed,” said Signifyd Head of Storytelling Mike Cassidy, who is overseeing the poll for Signifyd. “What surprised me was the big number of retailers — often in the 70-plus-percent range — that are significantly adjusting critical operations and strategies this early in the game.”

Key findings in the survey include:

• 76% of respondents said their businesses had increased the price of goods they sell to mitigate the cost of the new and expected tariffs. On average, the survey shows, retailers are passing along 51% of the cost of Trump’s import taxes.
• 75% reduced the number or size of discounts and promotions to lower costs
• 73% directly communicated to customers the cost of tariffs
• 72% substituted U.S.-sourced inventory for inventory subject to tariffs
• 71% switched suppliers from higher tariff to lower tariff countries
• 71% accelerated imports from countries subject to tariffs
• 71% limited inventory/number of SKUs they sell that are subject to tariff
• 67% added a specific line item at checkout detailing the additional tariff costs involved in a purchase
• 63% instituted a hiring freeze
• 61% Moved production from one country to another
• 58% closed physical stores or otherwise reduced their business’s physical footprint
• 55% laid off employees.

The survey, conducted between May 27 and June 2, had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4.38%. Click here for more results from the poll.