Tomorrow, the world of e-commerce and online marketing will be turned upside down.
What’s happening tomorrow:
The U.S. is revoking the de minimis regime.
For years, any imported parcel under $800 was exempt from tariffs and custom duties.
Chinese giants like Temu and Shein built their empires on this loophole.
They send their parcels directly from China into the US, each one usually under $800 given their extremely low prices.
De minimis is actually common practice in several countries, but the US has the highest threshold. For comparison, the Uk applies a de minimis of just £135.
From tomorrow this will change.
No more de minimis in the US.
Temu and Shein will be subject to custom duties and tariffs like anybody else.
And now tariffs are over 100%!
The effects are already visible.
Shein prices in the US are up by over 10% in just a few days.
Also, several reports indicate how Shein and Temu already retreated from Google Ads and performance marketing, dropping massively their App Store ranking.
This is a seismic shift in the industry!
Suddenly, American retailers will have much less competition.
At the same time, inflation-sensitive consumers will have to look somewhere else for cheap products. Will they switch to more expensive American products?
Let’s not forget, tariffs apply to everyone, Amazon included, which still imports bulk of its inventory from Chinese suppliers.
Interesting times to be in e-commerce!
