Under the Sino-US trade war, sellers suffered three major blows

72% of sellers reported an increase in the cost of importing products from China in the past 12 months.

77% of sellers said that shipping costs have increased;

51% of sellers consider sourcing products from other countries besides China;

A quarter are ready to abandon Amazon business due to increased tariffs.

On March 22, Trump signed a memorandum to impose tariffs on $60 billion worth of Chinese products.

China then retaliated by imposing tariffs on 128 US products.

In May, the two sides reached a consensus to suspend the trade war, but on June 16, the United States announced a list of additional tariffs on China, and China also restarted its anti-dumping investigation against the United States.

On July 6, the Trump administration officially imposed a 25% tariff on $34 billion worth of goods from China.

On September 18, the United States announced that it would increase the scope of Chinese goods subject to a 25% tariff to $50 billion. China also immediately announced that it would impose a 10% or 5% tariff on approximately $60 billion of U.S. goods.

On December 1, China and the United States agreed to hold a 90-day negotiation.

On May 5, Trump announced a 25% tariff on another $200 billion.

On May 13, China announced that it would impose additional tariffs ranging from 5% to 25% on $60 billion worth of U.S. goods starting June 1.

On August 1, Trump announced that starting September 1, 2019, a 10% tariff will be imposed on all remaining Chinese goods worth $300 billion.

Afterwards, the Chinese government announced a suspension of purchases of U.S. agricultural products, and on August 24 announced additional tariffs of 10% or 5% on approximately $75 billion of U.S. goods, and resumed additional tariffs on U.S. cars and their parts; and the U.S. also increased the previously imposed tariff rate on $300 billion of Chinese goods to 15% the next day, and the current 25% tariff on $250 billion of Chinese goods to 30% in countermeasures.

Jungle Scout conducted a survey of 197 Amazon sellers who source products from China. The survey results showed that due to the Sino-US trade war, 72% of sellers' procurement costs are increasing, with an average increase of 17% per unit, and some sellers said that product costs have increased by 80%.

As costs increase, sellers must make a choice in order to survive: either raise prices and pass the costs on to consumers, or lose their own profits.

Some suppliers are willing to bear part of the costs caused by tariffs, and sharing the costs helps maintain business relationships with each other.

However, if suppliers are unwilling, small and medium-sized sellers can only place small orders and reduce inventory to maintain business operations in order to reduce costs. The reduction in order volume will ultimately harm the interests of suppliers and sellers.

To solve the problem, some sellers choose to purchase products from other countries to avoid tariffs.

51% of sellers are considering purchasing products from other countries, and most sellers still consider purchasing from Asia because the product costs in Asian countries are relatively low due to labor costs and other reasons. Vietnam and India are the sellers' preferred purchasing locations, and 19% of sellers said they would consider moving manufacturing to the United States.

Although Trump's goal is to create jobs in the United States, choosing American manufacturing is not a viable option for most sellers. Some product raw materials still need to be imported, and sellers will still be hit by tariffs.

In addition to product costs, sellers’ shipping costs are also increasing. According to the survey, 77% of sellers said that the shipping costs of goods imported from China increased by an average of 17%, and some sellers even said that the costs increased by 200%.

This shows that under the pressure of tariffs, third-party freight service providers have also passed on costs to sellers.

The most significant impact of the tariffs is that 26% of sellers will choose to abandon the Amazon platform completely rather than switch suppliers or let consumers bear the additional costs.

Although other sellers can capture this group of customers, it is important to note that tariffs have left these sellers with nowhere to go, which is a devastating blow to small and medium-sized enterprises.