What impact does all this have on e-commerce retailers who serve the US market? It seems they are stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The world of online retailing can be volatile at the best of times –  customer behaviours, seasonality, social media trends as well as wider political factors – all constantly drive changes in demand and can be highly unpredictable.

However, retailers targeting US markets have rarely seen the level of change and uncertainty experienced this week, following the Trump tariff announcements!

Is the US market valuable to your business? What is your strategy in light of these significant changes and huge uncertainties?

We understand there are big decisions retailers are having to consider (and decide whether to act on) with little solid base to work from.

• Do they pass the immediate financial impact of the tariffs onto their US customers by hiking prices and risking loss of sales, or will they (can they) absorb these costs for a period?
• How will they deal with the uncertainties of what may happen in 90 days time? Do they look to change strategy now in preparation – or wait to see what happens? Can they afford to wait to implement or do they try to hedge their bets?
• What are the alternative strategies available -short term and medium term that reduce risk and increase stability?

We understand that its not as simple as moving manufacturing capacity/sourcing into the US in the short/medium term, that’s just not possible – and we have yet to see how this will play out over the longer term in terms of comparative cost and quality considerations, assuming it is feasible at all.

Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place!

Retailers are, of course, not strangers to being agile and adaptable – seeking alternative strategies in the face of moving obstacles and competition. In the e-commerce world, their fulfilment partner needs to be as experienced and adaptable as they are – so that they can deliver, despite the uncertainties. Pro FS are here to help our clients do just that.

We’ve seen a number of the companies we work with start to consider repositioning themselves away from further growth of their US customer base and towards other jurisdictions, looking to divert marketing spend towards the UK and alternative international markets, for stability and to hedge against higher tariffs being reinstated.

We also hear of retailers looking at strategies such as relocating ‘value added’ services to their products in lower tariff jurisdictions, such as the UK, to mitigate tariff impacts.

As a UK fulfilment partner, we are seeing increased volume processing in the UK right now – at short notice and with less predictability than usual – and we’re rising to that challenge.  

Our business is set up to deal with change and flexing requirements, in line with our clients’ needs and their customers demand. From our investment in state-of-the-art warehousing – designed with efficiency and scalability in mind – to our fusion of robotic innovation with human pragmatism and experience, the Pro FS facility is specifically designed to thrive in times like this – as are our team!

We are confident we can deliver for you, when and if you need us – just get in touch and start a conversation.