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In March 2025, the Sino-US trade game escalated again. The United States raised its cumulative tariffs on Chinese goods from 10% to 20%. China immediately took countermeasures , imposing tariffs of 10% to 15% on U.S. agricultural products, and implementing sanctions on technology companies through the export control list and entity list. In this "head-on" tariff war, not only is the consumer anxiety of the American people rising, but cross-border sellers who mainly operate in the US market may also be directly impacted. [ Want to enter the low-competition, high-profit market? Come to eMAG, with higher customer unit prices and lower traffic costs! 3.13 Shenzhen | eMAG platform super full guide! ] Due to the cumulative effect of tariffs, American consumers are experiencing the pain of soaring prices . According to media reports, the cost of living for Americans has risen in recent months, and the prices of food, groceries and other products have increased. At the same time, Jinshi data showed that the US consumer confidence index has fallen for the second consecutive month, hitting the lowest level since July 2024. Against this backdrop, the American non-governmental organization "The People's Union USA" launched a protest called "Economic Blackout" , calling on the American people to stop shopping at large retailers and chain stores (such as Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, etc.) on February 28 and turn to local small businesses. Public reports show that the organization that held the event aims to express dissatisfaction with the current economic situation in the United States through economic means. Due to the current low consumer sentiment in the United States, the boycott event has resonated with many people on overseas social platforms. In other words, the inflation anxiety caused by the tariff war has triggered the consumption anxiety of the American people. The campaign aims to put pressure on businesses and policymakers by "stopping consumption" in order to resist the unfair economic system. After the one-day "economic shutdown" ended, major platforms released relevant data one after another. Some retailers' e-commerce traffic and store traffic were affected to a certain extent, but Amazon's sales were almost unaffected. Momentum Commerce analysis shows that Amazon's sales on February 28 increased by 1% compared with the average of the previous eight weeks. CEO John T. Shea pointed out that since Amazon's average daily sales in the US market exceeded US$1 billion, its overall business is more resilient to short-term boycotts, and the upcoming spring promotion (starting on March 25) is expected to further boost sales by 6% year-on-year. At the same time, data from Similarweb showed a decline in traffic on some e-commerce platforms . Compared with the previous week, on February 28, Target's website traffic fell 1% to 4.7 million times, and its app traffic fell 10.9% to 3.5 million times; Walmart's website traffic fell 6.5% to 11.2 million times, and its app traffic fell 2.5% to 13.6 million times. Amazon 's website and app traffic also fell 4.6% and 1.7% respectively. In contrast, Costco has gained some support from consumers during the boycott. Some consumers expressed their approval of Costco after its board of directors rejected a proposal to cut diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. On February 28, Costco's website traffic increased 8.3% to 2.9 million visits from the previous week, but app traffic fell 6.9%. Overall, the overall traffic of the top 100 e-commerce websites counted by Similarweb on February 28 was down 6% from the same period last year and down 4% from the previous week. Aria Ertefaie, chief analyst at Similarweb, pointed out that although this decline reflects the impact of the boycott, it is not an uncommon fluctuation and has a limited impact on the overall economy. However, some industry insiders have analyzed that the consumer sentiment signals conveyed by the boycott cannot be ignored. In the short term, platforms such as Amazon and Walmart that rely on high-frequency consumption may be hit again. It is worth mentioning that the "economic blackout" is not completely over. Following the protest on February 28, a new boycott has been announced for March 7, specifically targeting Amazon, which may impact the upcoming Easter shopping boom and spring promotions. It is learned that according to industry insiders, Amazon, Walmart, Target and other companies will face a new round of boycotts from March to June. Among these, there are two time points that have attracted the most attention from Amazon US sellers recently: one is the "Boycott Amazon Action" from March 7 to 14, and the other is the second round of "economic blackout" on March 28. It is understood that the Easter shopping time in the United States is usually in March or April each year, and the Easter in the United States in 2025 will be April 20. Under high prices, consumers may reduce their spending on non-essential items such as decorations and gifts, which are the core categories of the Easter promotion. According to industry sources, perhaps in order to cope with uncertainty, Amazon launched this year's Easter promotion in advance, launched a special area called "Easter Store" , and began to concentrate traffic on the promotion page through algorithm optimization. However, many Amazon US sellers said that compared with the same period last year, the order situation of their Easter products was not good, which was suspected to be because non-essential consumption was suppressed by inflation. It is also worth mentioning that the 2025 Amazon Spring Sale will be launched in North America from March 25 to 31. Many Amazon sellers selling non-essential products have also begun to worry that the "economic blackout" on March 28 will have an impact on them. However, some sellers pointed out that under the "double-edged sword" effect of the boycott, other cross-border e-commerce platforms may gain traffic spillover due to the boycott of leading platforms such as Amazon. Taking TikTok's US region as an example, many sellers selling Easter products on the platform have successfully achieved sales growth recently. Overall, this wave of boycotts will not have a big impact on products that are in urgent need, such as daily necessities and religious ritual items. In the short term, it may have a certain impact on some non-urgent products, but in the long run, the effect of the boycott is still limited. Studies have shown that similar boycotts have caused Target's sales to decline in the short term, but rebounded quickly. For Amazon and other cross-border sellers who mainly operate in the US market, the most troubling issue at the moment is still the cost issue caused by the tariff increase. [ Want to enter the low-competition, high-profit market? Come to eMAG, with higher customer unit prices and lower traffic costs! 3.13 Shenzhen | eMAG platform super complete guide! ] Have you found a suitable solution? Will you choose to raise the price? Welcome to discuss in the comment area~
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