Etsy and Amazon sellers share how they sail on prices

The owners of small businesses who sell on Amazon and Etsy must decide what to do President Donald Trump’s prices rocked Global stock markets With the threat of an increase in import costs for Americans.

Business Insider spoke to three of them how they sail in the evolution of the climate.

Lisa Lane

Lisa Lane sells its Rinseroo products, a range of shower pipes to put on, outside the United States, but are made in China.

Lane, who launched the company in 2019, told Bi that it was “frustrated by the false idea that these prices will lead to more national manufacturing”.

For its small business, the displacement of the production of Shanghai, in China, in the United States is not possible.

“We do not have the infrastructure to do so, and outsourcing at the national level would be prohibitive,” said the 59 -year -old based in New York. “Our ability to make abroad allows us to offer a high quality product at an affordable price.”

Lane told Bi that her business was already faced with delays in American ports due to increased inspections.

“Recently, our last two containers have taken place for six weeks for a complete stocks inspection, creating major disruptions of the supply chain,” she said. “Port delays affect our ability to maintain adequate stock to meet demand.”

Lane said she thought this increase was linked to prices. “They check that the goods correspond to what we pretend to enter,” she added.

Lane had screened the prices that Trump that Trump announced last week on Chinese products would increase the annual production cost by $ 200,000. She said that it would come out of her results unless she increases the costs to report it.

“It’s a huge success for a business with around $ 5 million in annual income,” she said.

Trump said on Monday that he would add an additional 50% rate on Chinese imports, after China came to Trump prices saying that they would impose a rate of 34% on American goods.

Lane said on Friday that they had not planned to absorb the additional price. “We have to compensate for the cost to do business as usual,” she added.

Joanna Read

Joanna Read manufactures historic costumes for private customers, theatrical and television productions and museums. The 39-year-old man, based in Lincolnshire, England, said a quarter of his annual turnover is sales in the United States via Etsy.

With the import threshold of minimis currently at $ 800 for products shipped from the United Kingdom, she does not think there will be a direct impact on her sales.

The minimis flaw means that all the packages entering the United States valued at less than $ 800 are exempt from prices. However, President Donald Trump signed an executive decree on Wednesday which will end the escape for packages from China and Hong Kong on May 2.

Trump did not mention any other change in the escape, but the decree received bipartite support – a rarity in the midst of the comments of the negative price.

Read said that if something changed: “I would expect to see a significant slowdown in sales.”

Read said that she was concerned that confusion concerning British imports to the United States will dissuade American customers from buying from sellers like her.

“It also goes without saying that if my American customers are faced with an increase in costs elsewhere in their lives, then they are less likely to spend with me,” she said.

Looking at the long term, Read said that it focused on the growth of its British customers to compensate for potential income deficits.

“It is always a substantive concern when you are a small business, even micro, if your potential audience is shrinking,” she said. “It seems that a shame in our shared global community that things seem to become more and more island.”

Bernie Thompson

With the kind permission of Bernie Thompson

Bernie Thompson runs rainfall, a company based in Washington which designs and sells computer accessories on Amazon and their online store.

Thompson told Bi that they were preparing for the prices to have a huge impact on their business if they remain in place. “There is nowhere where this pressure goes other than raising prices,” he said.

Plugable began to move its production from China to other Asian countries almost ten years ago, partly because of the 2018 prices on Chinese products.

Thompson had thought that the majority of his production pipeline would not be affected because it would come from Vietnam, Taiwan and Thailand, but on April 2, changed. Now, with the new prices, he told Bi that he was considering taxes of more than a third of the value of his imports.

“These prices are several times greater than our net profits on these goods. These orders are commitments to our partners,” said Thompson.

Thompson said the most immediate impact was the congestion of air freight while sellers rush to obtain a stock in the United States before the prices.

The owner of the electronics said that he was trying to protect his customers and staff against the impacts of prices: “We have more than 50 full-time employees in the United States and Canada. We are a company belonging to the United States.

Thompson said he would like to be an innovator for effective and automated production in the United States, but these plans would be “years in preparation”.