The Tariff Wake-Up Call: How Amazon and Walmart Sellers Can Turn Disruption Into Their Biggest Opportunity
The rules changed fast. In 2025, the U.S. eliminated the de minimis exemption for goods shipped from China and Hong Kong, meaning every package, regardless of value, became subject to tariffs and import procedures for the first time. Combined tariff rates on Chinese imports now sit at approximately 30% above standard rates for most product categories, with specific sectors like electronics, steel, and solar carrying rates that exceed 50 to 70%.
For marketplace sellers who built their businesses on Chinese-sourced goods, the math is different now. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said as much at Davos in January 2026: customers should expect higher prices, and sellers who stocked up to delay the pain have largely burned through that buffer.
But here is what the disruption narrative misses: the sellers who will look back on 2026 as a turning point are not the ones who waited for things to normalize. They are the ones who used this pressure to build a better business, one that does not depend on a single supplier, a single marketplace, or a margin structure that can be wiped out by a policy change.
This is one of those moments. And the sellers who recognize it will come out far ahead of those who do not.
What Is Actually Happening (and Why It Is Not the End)
Tariffs have not erased the marketplace opportunity. They have redistributed it.
Sellers who scramble reactively, slashing prices to protect rank and absorbing margin hits to maintain volume, will hollow out their businesses. Sellers who respond strategically are capturing the market share those panicking sellers leave behind.
According to data from SmartScout, Amazon sellers raised prices on nearly 1,000 products since mid-April 2025, with many passing on 6 to 30% increases depending on their cost exposure. That is not collapse. That is a market adjusting. The sellers who understood their numbers and moved early held their position. The ones who hesitated lost margin and ground.
The question is not whether you can outlast this environment. It is whether you are willing to make the moves that most of your competitors will not.
The Playbook That Is Working Right Now
Diversify your sourcing, seriously this time
U.S. sellers have been saying they will diversify away from China for years. Now there is no longer a reason to delay. Vietnam, India, Mexico, and Turkey are all seeing increased demand from U.S. ecommerce sellers looking to reduce tariff exposure, and supplier ecosystems in those countries are maturing rapidly to meet it.
Start with one SKU. Find an alternative manufacturer. Get samples. Run the landed cost math under current tariff rates. You do not need to overhaul everything overnight. You just need to stop being 100% exposed.
Raise prices and do it before you have to
The marketplace instinct is to never raise prices. Rank will drop. Conversion will suffer. Competitors will eat your lunch.
Here is the reality: your competitors are facing the exact same cost pressures. Many of them have already raised prices. In a broadly inflationary environment, consumer price sensitivity compresses because everything costs more, not just your product. Sellers who held the line on price during past cost squeezes consistently outperformed those who raced to the bottom. Test a modest increase. Watch your conversion rate. You may be surprised how little it moves.
Treat Walmart Marketplace as your most underutilized asset
If you are Amazon-only, the numbers make a compelling case for change.
Amazon currently has approximately 1.65 million active sellers, down 31% from 2.4 million in 2021 according to Marketplace Pulse. Walmart Marketplace has around 150,000 to 200,000 active sellers. That is not a small difference. It is a fundamentally different competitive environment. Walmart’s ecommerce sales grew 24% in Q4 of fiscal year 2026, surpassing $150 billion in annual online sales for the first time in the company’s history. It marked the 15th consecutive quarter of at least 10% year-over-year growth.
The customers are there. The growth is real. And in most categories, the competition is a fraction of what you face on Amazon. Many sellers are finding that Walmart adds meaningful revenue with significantly lower advertising spend, and it protects you from single-platform dependency, which is a risk no serious business can afford to ignore.
Getting set up on Walmart requires approval and some upfront work, but your existing product listings, images, and content give you a strong head start.
Tighten your product portfolio
Economic pressure is the perfect forcing function to make a decision many sellers have been avoiding: cutting underperformers. The SKUs that generate thin margin, tie up capital in FBA storage, and require constant advertising support just to stay visible are the ones draining you right now.
A leaner portfolio is a more profitable portfolio. Focus your advertising budget, your operational attention, and your supplier relationships on the products that actually move the needle. Let the rest go.
The Mindset Shift That Separates the Sellers Who Win
The sellers who thrive through disruption share one trait: they stop asking “how do I get back to normal?” and start asking “what does winning look like from here?“
The cost structures and competitive dynamics of 2023 are not coming back. But that is not a tragedy. It is a reset. And resets reward the prepared.
Marketplace selling has always required adaptability. It required it when organic ranking gave way to pay-to-play advertising. It required it when Amazon restructured its fee model. It required it when iOS 14 changed the digital advertising landscape overnight. Every single time, the sellers who leaned in built stronger businesses than the ones who waited.
This time is no different.
Three Costly Mistakes We Are Seeing Sellers
Make Right Now
✘ Mistake 1: Waiting for clarity before acting
Sellers keep saying “I will wait until the tariff situation stabilizes.” The tariff situation is the new normal. The sellers waiting for 2023 economics to return are losing ground every week to competitors who adapted in Q1.
What to do instead: make one move this month. Source one product from Vietnam. Raise price on one ASIN by 8%. Launch one SKU on Walmart. Forward momentum beats perfect planning.
✘ Mistake 2: Trying to absorb 30% cost increases without raising prices
We have seen sellers burn through six figures trying to hold the line on pricing while their competitors raised prices 10 to 15% and kept selling. Amazon shoppers expect higher prices in 2026. Everything costs more, not just your product.
What to do instead: test a 7 to 10% price increase on your non-bestsellers first. Watch conversion rate. If it holds (it probably will), roll it to your catalog. Your margin cannot survive 30% tariffs on 2023 pricing.
✘ Mistake 3: Launching on Walmart without understanding the differences
Walmart is not Amazon with less competition. The search algorithm rewards different signals. The customer base skews different demographics. The advertising platform has different strengths. Sellers who copy-paste their Amazon strategy to Walmart waste the first 60 days learning this the hard way.
What to do instead: treat Walmart as a distinct channel. Optimize for Walmart’s search algorithm, which weights exact keyword matches more heavily than Amazon’s. Price competitively with Walmart.com, not Amazon. Start with 3 to 5 of your best ASINs, not your entire catalog.
What Accrue Can Help You Do Next
At Accrue, we work with Amazon and Walmart sellers who are serious about building durable, profitable businesses, not just surviving the next policy shift. Whether you need a full marketplace audit, a Walmart launch strategy, or a hard look at where your margins are actually going, we help sellers make the moves that compound over time.
The disruption is real. But so is the opportunity on the other side of it.