By Luna Sun
Ahead of Amazon鈥檚 annual Prime Day sales event, Chinese sellers are already walking a tightrope as they try to strike a balance between staying competitive and adjusting to Washington鈥檚 tariffs.
Gloria Gu, an Amazon seller based in Zhejiang province, said her outlook for this year鈥檚 summer event 鈥 extended this year to a record four days, July 8-11 鈥 was 鈥渘ot optimistic鈥.
Her company mainly sells household consumables 鈥 low-margin products that are highly price-sensitive. 鈥淒epending on the item, prices have gone up by 10 to 20 per cent,鈥 she said, while the minimum discount requirement for Prime Day deals on Amazon鈥檚 platform is 20 per cent, the same as in previous years.
鈥淲e pass part of that on to consumers, but we also eat up some ourselves and ask our suppliers to share the burden,鈥 she explained. But raising prices too much is not an option in Amazon鈥檚 hyper-competitive environment, she added.
鈥淭he market is still extremely cutthroat; we really can鈥檛 hike prices too much,鈥 she said, noting that the platform鈥檚 own fees were also climbing.
With a US tariff deadline approaching on July 9 鈥 marking the end to President Donald Trump鈥檚 90-day pause on his 鈥渞eciprocal tariffs鈥 for most countries, excluding China 鈥 and with Amazon kicking off one of its biggest sales events of the year just a day earlier, many price-sensitive American consumers are waiting to see if they will be the ones hit hardest, as inflation and overall cost-of-living concerns are front of mind.
Morgan Gard, a Midwestern Amazon shopper, said she was seeing clear signs of volatility and an 鈥渙verall increase in prices鈥.
She expected sellers on Amazon to increase prices to compensate for tariffs, thereby fuelling price fluctuations in products, no matter where they come from.
But it also 鈥渄epends, in the moment, on the product鈥, Gard said, noting that a fan she bought last week for US$26, made by a Chinese company, now costs US$37. But a US$9.99 shirt dropped in price to US$8.49.
They just know that their grocery bills are going up, and that鈥檚 not OK
Morgan Gard, Amazon shopper
She added that she was more concerned with overall inflation, and that most consumers probably did not know why prices are rising.
鈥淭hey just know that their grocery bills are going up, and that鈥檚 not OK,鈥 she said.
New York-based Annabelle Zhou has seen a noticeable increase in grocery prices on Amazon, but small changes on small items, 鈥渕aybe just a dollar or two here and there, are not enough to change how I shop鈥.
For her go-to Chinese planner brand, Moterm, the price has crept up from US$45 to US$46.99. 鈥淗onestly, that鈥檚 still a small change compared with the overall price,鈥 she said.
Americans continue to grapple with the broader weight of inflation, which remains stubbornly above the US Federal Reserve鈥檚 2 per cent comfort zone, driven in part by food, housing costs and tariff effects, though inflation in the US cooled from around the 3 per cent mark in early 2025 to 2.4 per cent in May.
Tariffs are also complicating the Fed鈥檚 path forward just as price pressures have begun to ease.
With tariff deadlines for America鈥檚 trade partners fast approaching, raising uncertainty for cross-border e-commerce, Fed Chair Jerome Powell told the media on Tuesday that rate cuts had been postponed due to inflation from new tariffs.
Prices for made-in-China goods sold on Amazon have also been rising slightly faster than overall inflation, according to an exclusive Reuters report. The median price of a basket of more than 1,400 such products sold to US buyers was found to have gone up by 2.6 per cent between January and mid-June, outpacing the US inflation rate for core goods.
The analysis showed that price increases for those goods began accelerating in May, signalling that Trump鈥檚 tariffs were 鈥渟tarting to filter through to consumers鈥, Reuters reported.
The shift to online shopping may also be cushioning some of the tariff impact 鈥 particularly for platforms like Amazon, said Wang Dan, director of Eurasia Group鈥檚 China team.
鈥淢any US bricks-and-mortar retailers, such as Walmart and Target, are being hit much harder by tariffs,鈥 she said. 鈥淏ut Amazon鈥檚 online supply chains remain largely intact. A lot of products from China that you can鈥檛 find in physical stores are still available online.鈥
She added that this could push more seasonal shopping 鈥 such as Black Friday demand 鈥 towards digital channels, ultimately benefiting Amazon and its Prime ecosystem.