As Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are set to take impact, Amazon is tweaking a few of the way it does enterprise — particularly the way it operates Amazon Haul, the corporate’s model of discount bin Chinese language websites like Temu and Shein.
The Info reported Tuesday that Amazon Haul choices will now embrace merchandise from well-known manufacturers like Adidas, Levi’s, and Hole which might be shipped from Amazon’s stock held in warehouses within the US. That is just about the alternative of what Haul initially promised: very (very) low-cost unbranded merchandise coming straight from producers in China. In trade for ready per week or two for packages to return from China, Amazon Haul consumers bought to load up their digital purchasing carts with clothes, equipment, house items, and extra that had been all priced beneath $20.
That baseline has gone out the window: scrolling via Haul, a brand new “Model Faves” part options merchandise from corporations that American consumers are extra aware of, like Underneath Armour, The Kids’s Place, and Vera Bradley. The beneath $20 hook additionally appears irrelevant now: in a number of seconds of shopping I discovered make-up pouches for $20.99, leggings for $27.20, and attire for $34.82. A few of these merchandise are the identical worth on Haul and they’re on traditional Amazon, which raises the query of why a client would purchase it on Haul to start with. Amazon didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The change to how Haul operates is probably going related to tariffs imposed by Trump, which can tax all imports coming into the US. However as I’ve written previously, providers like Haul are uniquely weak as a result of their tremendous low costs are depending on optimum commerce insurance policies that the majority consumers by no means consider. Particularly, Haul (in addition to Shein, Temu, AliExpress and drop delivery operations) relied on a carve out that enables packages valued beneath $800 to enter the US responsibility free. The so-called de minimis rule has been extensively used — 1.4 billion packages claimed it in 2024 — however now Trump plans to kill the exemption starting Could 2nd. That places Amazon Haul consumers on the hook for duties they in any other case could be exempt from.
Amazon’s transfer in direction of stocking its Haul part with stock already within the US avoids these new tariffs — at the least quickly. To be clear, it seems nearly all of the merchandise listed on Haul are nonetheless of the Temu selection, however starting subsequent month, consumers might be answerable for tariffs if Trump’s plan proceeds as he’s threatened it should. However by fulfilling Haul orders utilizing inventory that’s already in US warehouses, Amazon is shopping for itself a bit little bit of time. However in just some weeks, consumers’ “hauls” of low-cost issues will seemingly be much less reasonably priced.