Mere days after news first broke that Shein would be raising prices in response to tariffs, customers are now beginning to see the difference.
Fast-fashion giant Shein Group Ltd. raised U.S. prices of its products from dresses to kitchenware ahead of imminent tariffs on small parcels, in an early sign of the potential effect of the trade war on American consumers. Most of the hikes in U.S. prices came on Friday, with markups significantly higher in some categories than others, according to data compiled by Bloomberg News. The average price for the top 100 products in the beauty and health category increased by 51% from Thursday, with several of the items more than doubling in price. For home and kitchen products and toys, the average jump was more than 30%, led by a massive 377% increase in the price of a 10-piece set of kitchen towels. For women’s clothing, the rise was 8%.
E-commerce platforms like Shein and Temu face a 120% tariff due to the U.S. ending the “de minimis” exemption for small packages from China and Hong Kong. Washington will also increase the per-postal-item fee to $100 after May 2nd, and even higher after June 1st.
As recently as April 21st, Trump said, “There is virtually no inflation” because of falling energy and grocery prices. Yet Shein’s price hike reflects efforts to pass import costs onto US consumers.
Prices rose about 10% for Shein in the U.S. from April 24th to 26th, Bloomberg data shows, while U.K. prices stayed mostly unchanged.
