Worried about new tariffs ruining your business? What to do:

In partnership with

Monday greetings to you, brilliant entrepreneur!

It’s been a rough week for ecom sellers, with panic across trade sectors being reflected across stock markets. So, today, let’s step back a little, re-assess the situation and figure out how to forge ahead. This week, we’re discussing:

• Industry: New tariff updates and who’s affected

• Growth hack: how to switch your business model effectively

• Weekly challenge

• Trending product

(please bear with us dear European, Mexican, Australian, Canadian subscribers)

New Tariffs Are Here…Now What?

If like “RealOG” here, you sell to the US market and are sourcing products from China, you already know about the new tariffs.

(And if you need to get up to speed, the US government announced changes to U.S tariffs across the board for several countries. In addition, the De Minimis exemption will be removed from May 2nd for <$800 goods coming from China and Hong Kong. You’ll have to pay goods 30% duty or $25 charge per item on these items…$50 after June 1st)

This means that we’ll see the landing costs of goods increase by 50 - 80% overnight. A supplement that once landed for $80 might now hit $123. However, for niches with few US manufacturers, products might still be cheaper from China than made in the U.S., even with the tariffs.

Turn Ideas into Reality: Find Customizable Products Instantly!

Inspired by a product idea but want to make it uniquely yours? Struggling to find suppliers who can bring your vision to life with the highest margin? With Alibaba Lens, the AI-powered image search Chrome extension, you can instantly find customizable products at the best wholesale prices—all without switching tabs!

📸 Simply screenshot any product, and Alibaba Lens will find customizable options from over 200 million products and 1.5 million verified suppliers worldwide. No more endless supplier searches, no more generic products—create something truly your own.

Why Alibaba Lens?

✅ AI-Powered Precision: Advanced image + text search delivers fast, accurate sourcing results
✅ Brand-Ready Customization: From private labeling to unique product designs, easily source from suppliers who help build your competitive edge
✅ Seamless Integration: Go from idea to production—all within your browser

Join over 5 million smart buyers using Alibaba Lens to create high-margin, custom products and build stronger brands. Start customizing today—add Alibaba Lens to your browser for free!

Get Limited-time Free Access

If you have goods on the way, you might get hit with charges mid-shipping, so here’s what you can do now.

1. Run a landed cost analysis
   Know your true margin with new tariffs factored in. Use tools like SimplyDuty or LandedCost to model the impact.

2. Diversify your sourcing
   Look beyond China… Vietnam, Mexico, and even Australia may now offer better margins depending the product and currency swings.

3. Negotiate with suppliers
   Many Chinese factories are now used to U.S. clients asking for invoice tweaks (some more above-board than others). Ask for packaging, freight, or production discounts instead of risky “value adjustments.”

4. Explore domestic production for hero products
   If you’re getting hammered on your best-sellers, consider shifting just those to U.S. production. (Scroll down for a growth hack that shows you how.)

Growth Hack: Switch to domestic fulfilment without Breaking the Bank

Domestic production sounds great… until you see the price tag. But if you’re smart about how you transition, you can minimize the risk and tap into some big wins. From a rational perspective, this is a feasible solution because it’s tariff-free, faster turnaround“, and Made in USA” gives you more leverage with the current market forces.

• Find a US suppliers using directory services like Makers Row and ThomasNet.

• Source and ship printed products from the US with Printify

• Source from cheaper countries, pay lower tariffs and fulfill with ShipBob

Pro Tip:

Start local for just your top sellers or high-margin SKUs. Test with small-batch runs and adjust before scaling. And don’t forget to look into state incentives…some will help fund your shift to local manufacturing if you’re creating jobs.

Trend Watch: Kojic acid face wash

Kojic acid face wash is a fungi-derived compound known for brightening skin and reducing hyperpigmentation. And thanks to brands like Derma, demand is exploding.

Searches for “Derma kojic acid face wash” are up 99x in two years and even related products such as Kojic acid serums, Kojic acid soaps, Kojic acid toners are also in high demand thanks to this trend. 

You will benefit from tapping into the wider Kojic acid skincare meta trend which is shaping up to be the next big thing in beauty.

How you can cash in (Weekly Challenge) 

Develop or white-label a kojic acid product using a local supplier like Jubilee. They will develop, build, brand and fulfil your own beauty line with minimum capital costs.

Especially if you’re riding trends like skin brightening, glass skin, or melanin care this is the chance to expand within a growing niche and then use Black Crow to retain more of your first-time customers.

Turn one-time buyers into repeat customers

Black Crow predicts when your customers are most likely to repurchase if given the right nudge at the right time and automates pre-built flows to drive conversion.

Powered by a custom built AI model for your brand that personalizes product recommendations, these flows improve repeat purchase rates by 15%.

It seamlessly integrates with your existing email/SMS tech and consistently outperforms traditional setups with complicated logic that can be a burden to maintain.

Shopify brands with $2M+ in GMV get a $100 gift card just to take a demo.

Get a demo

That’s all for today, Sellify Club

Stay focused,

Ada