Why Skyrocketing Import Costs Are Hammering Amazon Sellers (And You)
This is just the beginning of the pricing surge.
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Tyler Rodriguez, an Amazon third-party seller based in Florida, has seen his import costs from China triple since the start of the pandemic. He’s had to bump prices for the toys he sells on the site by 10 to 15%. And he’s among the lucky ones.
Rodriguez is part of a growing segment of the U.S. economy getting crushed by rising import costs from China. Before the pandemic, Amazon sellers and their fellow U.S. retailers could import a 40-foot container from China for approximately $2,000. Now, that same container runs as much as $15,000. And Rodriguez, who still hasn’t seen the brunt of the pricing surge, is bracing for what’s to come.
“It started getting crazy,” Rodriguez told me. “I don’t know what the upper limit could be.”
The shipping cost surge is most acutely hitting Amazon’s third-party sellers — who operate on thin margins and often compete with Amazon itself — but it’s also shocking the rest of the import-reliant U.S. economy. To account for the greater costs, companies like Rodriguez’s are raising…
