Packages ride on a conveyor belt during Cyber Monday, one of the company’s busiest days at an Amazon fulfillment center on December 2, 2024 in Orlando, Florida.
Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo | Getty Images
Amazon is reaching out to third-party merchants, who account for the majority of products the company sells, to gauge how President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs are affecting their businesses.
Members of Amazon’s seller relations team began contacting some U.S. merchants last week, according to an email viewed by CNBC. The email asks how the “current U.S. tariff situation” has impacted sellers’ sourcing and pricing strategies, logistics operations, and plans to ship goods into Amazon warehouses.
“I wanted to open a discussion about the current U.S. tariff situation and how it’s affecting our businesses on Amazon, particularly in terms of logistics,” the email says. “As of April 2025, we’re still dealing with the repercussions of various tariff policies, and I believe it’s crucial for us that you share current experiences and strategies.”
Representatives from Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the email, which was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal. Industry publication Modern Retail covered the email on Monday.
Companies of all sizes are digesting the impact of Trump’s new tariffs. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order imposing a far-reaching plan, but within days he reversed course and dropped country-specific tariffs down to a universal 10% rate for all trade partners except China, which faces tariffs of 145%, including a fentanyl-related levy imposed in February and March. Stock and bond markets have fluctuated wildly in the past two weeks.
The levies on goods from China could be particularly burdensome for the millions of businesses that rely on Amazon’s third-party marketplace and source many of their products from the world’s second-largest economy. Third-party sellers now account for about 60% of all products sold on Amazon’s website.
Some Amazon sellers told CNBC they plan to hold steady on prices for as long as they can to remain competitive, but that the added cost of the tariffs could ultimately put them out of business if they remain in place.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said last week that some sellers may end up passing the cost of tariffs onto consumers in the form of higher prices.
“I understand why, I mean, depending on which country you’re in, you don’t have 50% extra margin that you can play with,” Jassy said Thursday in an interview with CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
The tariffs have affected other parts of Amazon’s retail business. Last week, the company began to cancel some direct import orders for products sourced by vendors in China, consultants told CNBC. Some vendors of home goods and kitchen accessory items had products ready for pickup by Amazon at shipping ports, only to learn that their orders were canceled.
Amazon shares are down 18% so far this year, while the Nasdaq has fallen 13%.
