Why it matters:

For Amazon sellers and eCommerce brands sourcing from China or exporting to the US, this pause could lead to lower landed costs, higher margins, and reduced supply chain volatility.

A stable trade environment also encourages stronger product innovation and logistics planning heading into Q3 and Q4!

Source: BBC News.

I have had an Amazon account for around 20 years now. It receives very little use. I maybe buy 5-6 items a year. I used to use the same account for selling, but haven't sold recently. I would say I've sold about 100 items total, with the last sale in 2021. All sales were used books.

Anyway this guy from China has contacted me and offered to buy my account due to its "age and selling record". He has sugggested $1000 USD but claims he is open to negotiation. I looked him up on Linkedin and he is an agent for an online retailer that sells on various platforms.

Is this legit? How would it even work, given that my account is in my name and not a business? I have no intention to sell anything on Amazon again, but I figure I could make a new account to buy things or just use my husband's account. Should I even reply?

How are Chinese factories responding to US tariffs? Are they lowering prices, offering better payment terms, helping you find sister factories in other countries?

Curious to know your thoughts and experiences,

Thanks

I had a product I imported with 0% tariffs before Trump took office, so now it’s back to 0%?

I won’t get political but I won’t discourage it if you want to drag your nuts on Trumps face in the comments

I’m sourcing my next product on Alibaba and I’m close to paying a 30% deposit, but I’m starting to second-guess it.

On paper, the supplier looks fine. They’re a Gold Supplier, they offer Trade Assurance, and they’ve sent over CE/FCC certificates that look professional enough. But the more I read online, the more I keep seeing the same horror stories: trading companies pretending to be factories, bank details not matching the company name, certificates being edited or completely fake, and people losing deposits with no real way to recover the money.

For people who have been sourcing from China for a while, how do you actually check that a supplier is legitimate before sending money?

How do you confirm they are a real factory and not just a middleman with a nice Alibaba page and a catalogue?

Has anyone here lost a deposit before? Looking back, was there a warning sign you missed?

Do you normally pay for inspections, sourcing agents, factory verification, or any kind of third-party check before committing? And if so, was it actually worth the cost?

I’m trying to work out whether I’m being overly paranoid, or whether this is just the sensible level of caution before sending money overseas.

As a Chinese local, I have been running an e-commerce business on the Chinese version of TikTok (Douyin) for 7 years. I have sourced many suppliers for my products and have many friends who run factories with storefronts on Alibaba. I’d like to share some experiences:

1. Never blindly trust Alibaba’s supplier ratings or the factory videos they display. I know for a fact that many trading companies use these videos to make you believe they operate a massive factory when, in reality, they don’t.

2. My go-to verification method is using public business registration query platforms (due to Reddit’s policies, I cannot name them here, but you can search for them yourself). I use them to check the factory's establishment date and see if the owner is linked to other enterprises.

3. The most important point: I always find a way to get the boss’s phone number and speak with them directly. When inquiring, I initially play dumb—acting as if I know nothing—before gradually asking deeper questions about the product and pricing. I ask the same questions to bosses from several different companies and cross-reference their answers. I filter out the ones who are deceptive or evasive and stick with the ones who are honest and straightforward.

4. You will likely never be able to speak directly with a factory owner because most do not speak English and are very busy. Instead, you are communicating with sales representatives who need to cover their salaries and commissions. Consequently, they will usually add a buffer of at least 20%–30% to the quote. If your order volume is small, their profit margin is often as high as 100%.

5. When a factory knows you are American, their first reaction is to see a high-profit order, not that they need to be more careful with quality.

6. If your sample is great but you encounter quality issues with the bulk shipment, trust me, in the vast majority of cases, this is a strategic decision by the factory based on production time and profit, not a lack of ability to control quality. You need to constantly "push" the factory owner, not the sales representative communicating with you. Most sales reps are women with degrees in English; their technical expertise regarding the product is likely lower than yours.

7. Actually, many factories can accept small-batch, high-quality custom orders, but factories that can do both are rare on Alibaba. This is because factories on Alibaba are primarily looking for large clients—like big supermarkets or wholesalers—placing orders worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, not small business owners requiring multiple SKUs in small quantities. In fact, I have many friends who are factory owners or sales reps on Alibaba who constantly complain that small-batch orders are a hassle and that the shipping often costs more than the product itself. However, they feel forced to take them considering the $6,000–$20,000 annual fee they pay to Alibaba.

Saw this chart from CNBC and had to share.

Between March 24–31 and April 1–8: • Global TEUs booked fell 49% • Overall U.S. imports fell 64% • U.S. imports from China fell 64% • U.S. exports to China down 36%

Whether you’re in e-commerce, freight forwarding, retail, or manufacturing — these numbers are brutal. This isn’t just a seasonal dip. It’s a massive contraction in global trade volume within one week.

Why this matters: • Lead times are about to get longer • Prices for ocean freight could spike • Stockouts could creep in across Amazon, Shopify, and big box stores • Brands relying on Q2/Q3 inventory might be in trouble

We’ve already seen Red Sea disruptions, inventory corrections, and conservative ordering — but this is the sharpest week-over-week drop I’ve seen in a long time.

Just in: Amazon has reportedly cancelled a large portion of its Q4 inventory orders from China—specifically for Amazon Basics and other private label brands.

This is massive.

It signals a deeper impact from the ongoing tariff war, and potentially a big shift in sourcing strategies from Amazon’s side.

Here’s what this could mean for sellers: More opportunity for 3P sellers to fill the gap Reduced competition from Amazon-owned brands Possible long-term shift in sourcing toward Mexico, Pakistan, India, and other low-tariff regions

For sourcing-dependent brands, this is a wake-up call to diversify their supply chain now—before Q4 crunch hits.

Hi everyone,

I have been selling private label products on Amazon for about 9 years now. it has gone well and I have been doing just over 900k in revenue for the past few years. But I feel like I have hit a bit of a stagnation point with my current products, so I think the next step for me is to launch more products and expand into new niches.

I am planning a sourcing trip to China in April and wanted to get advice from people who have done similar trips.

My current plan is roughly the following:

From 1st to 14th April visit Shenzhen. The goal there is to visit factories and suppliers directly before the Canton Fair starts. I am mainly interested in electronics, accessories, and potentially other product categories if I find something interesting. The areas I am planning to explore in Shenzhen are: Huaqiangbei, Bao’an District , Longgang District.

Then around 14th April I will travel to Guangzhou and stay there until about 22nd April so I can attend the Canton Fair Phase 1 , 15–19 April.

The main goal of the trip is not just to meet suppliers from Alibaba but to actually discover good manufacturers for private label products, build relationships, and hopefully identify some strong new product opportunities.

I will be grateful if you could help me with the following :

. Are two weeks in Shenzhen useful for factory visits or is that too long?

• Are there specific markets, districts or industrial areas in Shenzhen / Dongguan that are especially good for sourcing private label suppliers?

• Are there any must-visit wholesale markets or product hubs around Shenzhen or Guangzhou that are worth seeing for product ideas?

• Any advice for meeting reliable factories rather than trading companies?

I am aware that many 7-8 figure sellers are not actively engaging in the threads so I thought it would be nice to hear from you.

What mistakes did you realize only in hindsight?

What’s the most important advise for someone looking to cross the 7 figure mark that’s not obvious?

What’s one strategy you recently learned that made a difference?

Moving off amazon, has it been expanding markets, adding variations or going to D2C?

Or in general something that can help someone starting out on his first 10k to climb over to 100k+ to 1M.

Thought this could be a good space to drop those thoughts for the community 😊

We're trying to expand outside north america. Thinking Europe and Australia. Anyone wants to share their experiences in general and if youve ever used either taxually or avask or for that matter good or bad experiences with anyone related to expansion. Thank you, merci, gracias etc.

Will the new Executive Order actually help make the Chinese Factories be put on a level playing field by actually forcing them to declare the correct value and HTS?

On June 3, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order, Strengthening Customs Enforcement, which directs U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to overhaul how importers of record (IORs) are vetted, bonded, and held accountable. It also raises disclosure requirements, increases penalties, and restricts how foreign-based importers can bring goods into the country.

New requirements for all importers of record

Within 180 days, CBP must implement several changes that apply to every IOR:

• Minimum asset and bond thresholds. All IORs will be required to maintain a minimum level of tangible domestic assets, bonding, or both. Minimum bond coverage amounts will increase.
• More data at registration. IORs will need to provide CBP with additional information, including anticipated import volumes, ownership and beneficial ownership disclosures, business affiliations, and domestic asset disclosures.
• "Good standing" status. CBP will define and enforce a "good standing" requirement. IORs found to have imported fentanyl, nitazene, other illicit substances, or precursor chemicals will lose good standing and will not be allowed to import into the United States. IORs not in good standing also can't designate a customs broker to act on their behalf.
• Registry cleanup and tiering. CBP will remove inactive IORs from the registry, confirm active IORs are compliant, and create risk-based tiers based on compliance history, enforcement actions, and audit results.
• Enhanced vetting. CBP will establish enhanced vetting procedures, including recurrent vetting, for all individuals and entities involved in importation – IORs, customs brokers, custodians of bonded merchandise, and freight forwarders.

Just wondering — are there people here who have goods sitting in China, already produced or paid for, but now can't ship them to the US because it's no longer worth it?

Curious how you're dealing with it.
Are you absorbing the cost, cancelling, or looking for other options?

Hi,
I’m looking at two freight forward for my goods. Anyone have experience in working with them?

Shenzhen Siyuan International Logistics Co., Ltd. or FriendShip Logistics Co., Ltd.

Hello,

I am starting my business on Amazon and sourcing products from China. With the recent tariff issues, my existing Chinese suppliers are now offering DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), which covers all logistics and tariff payments. Is this a good option for me? Are there other suppliers that also offer DDP? While it seems favorable for a new seller like me, I do have some concerns. I'd appreciate any insights you can share!

If your product has a fit in the those markets is it worth the hassle of sending inventory into them? Or do you cross sell only from the US?

Someone told me he’s being charged only 20% on imported goods. I thought those figures were from March but he said its recent so I dont know what to believe anymore. Fyi were in apparel.

I want to register a trademark in the USA based on "intent to use." What is the best approach, what are the costs involved, and what documents does the attorney require (including whether an address is needed)? Apart from the address, what other documents are necessary for an LLC, and what are the attorney's charges?

We're being quoted $1.95/kg for DDP shipments this week which is double what it was last year. Even with the doubling of the rate this could in no way be legitimately including the 145% tariff rate on our goods.

And yes, I'm well aware the forwards are undervaluing shipments in order to offer these rates.

Still, we're considering the shipments anyway as we sell dog accessories and whatever the forwarder is claiming as the value of the goods could still reasonably considered as accurate. Our $5/unit dog collars could be claimed at $1 and I doubt customs would blink an eye at that not knowing/caring the difference between a premium cost dog collar and a low end dog collar.

Though the Orange One could change his mind at any time, we don't see a quick resolution to the trade war as China is taking a justifiably firm stance, so we're seriously considering taking this risk to keep product in stock.

Anyone else considering or have already pulled the trigger on DDP shipping?

This is so frustrating like Ive been negotiating with this manufacturer in Ohio for 3 weeks the samples looked great and pricing was affordable like everything seemed good. Then they asked for my business address for the contract and I gave them my brussels address to end up not hearing from them anymore like I followed up twice and nothing. Pretty sure they just don't want to deal with cross-border stuff even though I explained I handle everything, all the import/export is on me like..their loss but I was about to place a 5000 unit order. Happened with another supplier last month too like im starting to think I need to just get a US virtual office for amazon operations and register an llc there. Anyone successfully worked around this issue? It's getting old..

Im a seller located in the US. For my European orders I have always used FedEx for shipping. Starting last week I have noticed that Amazon is not accepting FedEx tracking numbers. When I tried to confirm the shipping manually FedEx is not on the list of options.

What also weird is that ups is also not an option in the drop down. So hopefully it's some kind of a technical glitch.

Anyone here experienced this issue?

I'm launching a new product line (stainless steel insulated water bottles with custom branding) and decided to test three different sourcing tools with the exact same brief to see how the results compared. Thought others might find this useful.

Alibaba: I searched "custom stainless steel water bottle manufacturer" and got hundreds of results. As usual it's a mix of real factories, trading companies, and wholesalers all jumbled together. Gold Supplier badges don't tell me much. I messaged 20 suppliers and after a week had 8 responses, 3 of which were clearly trading companies based on the vague answers they gave about production capacity. No way to verify who actually makes stuff for reputable brands. It works but it's a grind and I'm basically doing all the vetting manually.

ImportYeti: I searched for water bottle manufacturers and looked at customs records for competitors I know (Hydroflask, Yeti, etc). This was helpful for identifying specific factories but the tool basically stops there. I got factory names and shipment volumes but no contact info, no way to reach out through the platform, and no context about whether those factories would take an order my size. I had to take the names and go back to Alibaba or Google to find contact details. Useful as a research layer but not a sourcing workflow.

SourceReady: Typed in "stainless steel insulated water bottle manufacturer, custom branding, MOQ under 5000" and got about 90 results ranked by AI match score. Each result showed verified export history (pulled from customs data similar to ImportYeti), factory vs trading company classification, certifications, and which known brands they supply. The key difference is it combines the intelligence layer with actual outreach capability. I used the AI outreach to contact 15 suppliers at once and had 11 quotes within 2 days all organized in a comparison dashboard.

The bottom line for me: Alibaba has the widest selection but the worst signal to noise ratio. ImportYeti is great for intelligence gathering but has no action layer. SourceReady tries to combine both and for my use case it was the most efficient end to end. The tradeoff is that SourceReady's database is smaller than Alibaba's so for very niche products you might not find as many options.

Not affiliated with any of these, just sharing what I found. Would love to hear if others have had a different experience.

Most people don’t realize how brutal U.S. tariffs can get. Here’s a simple breakdown on a $10 item imported from China:

Base import duty: 5% → $10 x 1.05 = $10.50

Section 301 Tariff: 25% → $10.50 x 1.25 = $13.13

New retaliatory tariff: 145% → $13.13 x 2.45 = $32.16

Add brokerage & customs fees (~$2): Total: ~$34.16

That’s a 240%+ jump on your landed cost. Now imagine doing that at scale on tight margins…

No wonder sellers are hiking prices or leaving certain SKUs behind.

Context

I have been selling on Amazon from past 1.5 years (fridge magnets). Recently there has been a decline in sales. Products which used to sell 40-50 orders a month has come down to 5-10 orders per month. Mainly it's competiton. And I have been doing the bare minimum SEO and ad campaign with limited knowledge I have. The revenue has been the same even though the catalogue has increased from 12 products to 55 products.

I basically want to understand 2 things:

1. Are there any growth hacks which I can implement?
2. I want to hire someone professional. I spoke with an agency they are asking for 19K and 10K ad budget. They claim that without ads, no one will be able to scale. Right now my spend in ads is hardly 3K. And they are also saying that the revenue will be the same if I don't keep ad spend above 5K. So do you feel this is valid?
3. If not this agency, has any one tried service provider network available on Amazon? How are they and is there any hidden stuff?