So…how about those tariffs, huh?
A few months back we discussed a few ways to navigate the tariffs to mitigate potential impacts to your business.
Click Here to read that article…
One of the things we highlighted was a focus on US based warehouses/shipping origins so we could key in on products that were already here in this country. No need to worry about import taxes if they’re already here, right?
Unfortunately, the conversation is starting to shift because of how long and aggressive this situation has become. Some warehouses are starting to run thin on products while others still have plenty of stock. In the event that you’re forced to utilize products from a warehouse that needs to raise prices due to restock issues, you’ll want to respond accordingly.
But what does that entail?
DSers to the rescue! Many of you are probably using DSers to import products from Ali Express. They’ve written a very handy guide that will walk you through the best practices for dealing with potential price changes from your suppliers during this era of the tariff.
Now, although this guide is directed towards DSers customers, there’s still a lot of handy information for anyone using Ali Express in general. Whether you’re manually importing products to a website or using a separate import service, the points made here are 100% valid. For example, the need to pay attention to costs; shipping, base cost, import taxes that may be separate or included within other costs. This is just a good strategy to begin with, tariffs aside.
You can setup pricing, shipping, taxes, etc about a million different ways on your website – The end goal is to make a profit.
For example, you may have a product from your supplier, that costs $1 at it’s base, $2 to ship, and $3 to import. That’s $6 cost to you. You present it for $9.99, free shipping, no tax and you’re coming out ahead, right? It’s an oversimplification, sure, but the point stands. You need to pay attention to the costs associated with your products to ensure that you’re not going to lose money at the end of the day.
DSers also does a great job of pointing their customers towards the best features (within their importer tool) to help with price management.
They offer the automated price adjustment tool for paid members and basic, manual management tools for everyone. If you are a DSers customer, you’ll absolutely want to get familiar with the tools available to you. It’s important that you know how to manage your prices in the event that your suppliers are forced to raise prices.
On that note…pay attention to your notifications in DSers.
This article also talks about a new features on the horizon within DSers – The “Tariff Not Included” tag on some products is especially interesting to me. These will be products that don’t specifically feature an import tax. That’s a relief. One less thing we need to worry about when pricing and managing our products down the line. They’ll also introduce a batch update feature for quick and easy bulk editing for their price rules. As someone who’s used to managing products via spreadsheet, I can promise you that this will be an extremely handy tool!
If you’re worried about the whole tariff situation or you’re worries about the best ways to manage your product catalog in the event that pricing changes may occur, please check out the article below.
Check out the DSers piece HERE