Retail Brew delivers the latest retail industry news and insights surrounding marketing, DTC, and e-commerce to keep leaders and decision-makers up to date.

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Retailers grapple with returns

Total returns accounted for more than $761 billion in merchandise for US retailers in 2021—nearly 20% of which occurred after the holiday shopping season, per NRF.

Retailers grapple with the financial impact of the returns process 

Maeve Allsup

Map of the US showing warehouse locations

Here’s where experts say the next warehouse hotspots will be

Long Beach and Newark aren’t likely to relinquish their status as warehouse royalty, but companies are being forced to expand their footprint further inland.

Forget last-mile, it’s supply chains’ first mile that poses the biggest challenge for companies

Despite improving technology, investments, and consumer pressure, farm level visibility is rare.

A manufacturing plant icon depicting the retail supply chain

Supply Chain

Erin Cabrey

Ever since President Donald Trump’s sweeping Liberation Day tariff announcement in April, retailers have been chained to thinking and talking about pricing. Now, they actually have to make decisions.

Between tariff policy back-and-forths, supplier negotiations, and wavering consumer demand, retailers’ pricing has been in flux. But now, the impact has 

 in consumer pricing. The consumer price index rose 0.4% in August, and 2.9% year over year, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week. Apparel prices rose 0.5% in August, with categories like women’s outerwear jumping 4.4% month over month and 5.4% YoY.

Over the last two months, retailers have shifted from watching and waiting to making choices on how tariffs will impact their pricing strategies, Jacqueline Martinez, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group and former VP of pricing and promotions at Michaels and Pier 1 Imports, told Retail Brew.

To confront tariffs and changing shopping behaviors, many retailers are seeking agility in pricing, rethinking their approach to retail fixtures like physical price tags, while others are testing the possibility of ditching discounts. While the approaches may differ, they all have their drawbacks.

For apparel retailers, most products are made overseas and imported, so they’re “ticketed” (have a price tag attached to them) with the price set in stone in said country before they arrive stateside, Martinez said. Most prices on store shelves now, therefore, were decided six to nine months ago, but decision-making now for new arrivals isn’t so clear cut.

Martinez said some retailers are looking for ways to have more flexibility with these ticketed prices to be able to change them—up or down—once they enter the US to account for changes in tariffs, their talks with suppliers, and shifting consumer behavior. That means evaluating options to ticket products in the US rather than overseas or use signage in stores to indicate price instead of on-garment ticketing, she said.

“There’s more re-ticketing discussions in those categories than I’ve seen in a long time, because people recognize that it’s still an uncertain environment, and they need to create those levers,” Martinez said.

 that Target and Walmart have allegedly been tasking their employees with removing perforated price tags from many in-store apparel items. Workers at both retailers claimed this directive was tariff-related, with one noting Target “can’t keep up with constant price changes,” though neither retailer would confirm this. Nearly a month since that story, consumers 

 TikToks sharing torn-off price tags at Target and Walmart.

These strategy shifts aren’t easy to execute, Martinez noted. Ticketing stateside rather than abroad can be an expensive move, and the use of signs can be “operationally hard,” she said. Jeff Sward, founding partner of retail merchandising consultancy Merchandising Metrics, previously told Retail Brew that the latter practice can get “messy” if products aren’t put in the right place.

“There’s lots of reasons not to, but the reasons to do it are piling up,” Martinez said.

That doesn’t mean retailers are ready to go all-in on newer tech like electronic shelf labels, which many have been slow to adopt because they can get damaged or stop working fairly easily. And store apps that allow customers to scan barcodes to see pricing haven’t seen enough consumer adoption to be a worthwhile solution yet either.

“Retailers—especially ones that care deeply about how they’re perceived on value—are going to want to make sure their customers see them as being transparent, fair, and honest about the pricing,” she said, but if “uncertainty continues for another year,” retailers may change their tune and invest more in solutions that allow for pricing agility.

Some retailers, meanwhile, are taking a bit of a different approach—leaning into selling products at full price to see how much consumers are willing to keep spending.

“We are making a full-court press and selling higher full-price sales than we have done in the past,” Harmit Singh, Levi Strauss’s EVP and chief financial and growth officer, said at the Goldman Sachs Global Retailing Conference earlier this month. Retailers like Ralph Lauren and Abercrombie & Fitch have also recently shared similar strategies, 

 have even spoken about raising prices simply due to the “pricing power” it has with consumers.

This strategy is “aspirational for a lot of retailers,” Martinez said. Retailers will have to sell through their inventory by the end of the season, so how much consumers buy will influence whether or not they eventually need to enact discounts.

“What they may intend to do right now may not be what they have to do in the season,” Martinez said. “Consumers will get a vote.”

As tariff impact hits, retailers are shifting pricing strategies

Tasked with making decisions on how they’ll handle tariff costs, many retailers are seeking more opportunities for pricing flexibility.

As tariff impact hits, retailers are shifting pricing strategies—down to the tag

Vidhi Choudhary

At Tailored Brands, the owner of men’s apparel brands like Men’s Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank, dealing with disruption has become a part of supply chain strategy.

“I’ve been in supply chain or product life cycle management for the last 30 years, and I can’t recall a time where we didn’t see disruptions happening on a more frequent basis,” Jamie Bragg, SVP and chief supply chain officer, Tailored Brands, said during a keynote session at Shoptalk Fall in Chicago.

That reality has made agility, scenario planning, and cross-functional collaboration central to Tailored Brands’s operations.

“It all starts with, ‘What’s the base plan to begin with?’” Bragg said. “Understanding that base plan is solid—whether you’re managing units or you’re managing dollars, that base plan has to be directionally correct.”

And the more cross-functional a brand reaction can be, the more effective it is going to be, Bragg advised: “Planning and sourcing and allocation and logistics and distribution all have to be on the same sheet of music.”

Tariffs, in particular, have forced the company to sharpen its response playbook. Bragg recalled how the first wave of tariffs in 2016 during the first Trump administration taught the company early on about what to do and what not to do. He said the company was highly concentrated in China at the time.

Since then, Tailored Brands—which specializes in suits, dress shirts, and business-casual wear—has diversified sourcing, evaluated trade-offs between speed and tariff exposure, and leaned on vendor partnerships to mitigate cost impacts.

“We believe in deep partnerships with our vendor base,” Bragg said. “You’re going to work with those vendors. You’re going to understand what they can do to help you control costs. You’re going to look at where you’re counter-sourced. You can understand what that looks like. You can make some trade-offs there—where you might sacrifice speed of delivery for tariff avoidance.”

Ultimately, Bragg said the company has refined its overall approach to be able to cross functionally decide next steps. He explained that everyone has a tariff number they’re trying to hit, but there are multiple levers—inventory management, vendor negotiations, country-of-origin diversification, freight planning—and all need to align in order to move in the right direction.

For Tailored Brands, tariffs are no longer a surprise. As Bragg put it: “Today, a tweet can change your quarter.”

How Tailored Brands reacts to tariffs

Its chief of supply chain said it’s important to know your base plan—whether you’re managing units or dollars—and make sure it’s directionally correct.

Andrew Adam Newman

To respond to President Donald Trump’s 

 tariffs, retailers might be tempted to cover the cost of the import tax by charging higher prices, but even considering doing so could possibly draw the White House’s ire.

 was contemplating displaying how much tariffs contributed to products’ prices, for example, Trump called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to complain. An Amazon spokesperson subsequently told CNN that the company had never considered the move for its main site and would not be implementing it for any outfits.

Similarly, when Walmart CFO John David Rainey 

 CNBC in May that the retailer might have to raise prices because of tariffs, Trump responded on social media that “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices” and should “‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING.”

Michael Klein, head of retail, travel, and hospitality product marketing for Talkdesk, disagrees.

“I sometimes shake my head when I hear from the White House that manufacturers and brands are going to ‘eat the tariffs,’ which is bullshit,” Klein told Retail Brew. “If their cost of goods is going to increase for any particular reason, and tariffs in particular, then they are going to have to find ways to” cover increasing costs by “increasing prices” or else finding “a way of making my product at a lower cost.”

There’s a new term gaining traction that may shed light on the practice of covering tariff costs 

.” It refers to companies passing along higher costs but not hiking prices conspicuously, through such 

 as introducing restocking fees when returns had been free, and either raising purchase thresholds to get free shipping or eliminating free shipping altogether.

Internet searches for “sneakflation” 

 in August, according to Google Trends, whose data goes back to 2004.

Sneakflation can apply to raising prices if it’s done incrementally rather than all at once, Klein said.

“We’re not going to see these 5%, 10% increases,” Klein said. “We’re going to see a 2% increase, then a few months later, we’re going to see another 2% increase, and before you know it, that retailer has actually…preserved their margin over the course of time.”

It’s a way some retailers have raised prices without “sticker shock,” Klein said. “They didn’t have that, ‘Oh, last week I paid $4.99 and now I have to pay $5.99.”

 in Retail Brew recently, social media users identifying as store associates at Walmart and Target have for months been tearing from hang tags the perforated portions with prices, allegedly at the behest of the management so higher prices can be affixed more subtly.

Sneakflation is one of a handful of inflation portmanteaus that have gained currency in recent inflationary years.

, the term for manufacturers reducing the size of their products, often imperceptibly, without lowering the price. The word got so much footing that Merriam-Webster 

 it to its dictionary in 2022, the same year Retail Brew 

Another neologism, “tipflation,” refers to tipping becoming not only more generous but more widespread. As we 

 in 2023, the phenomenon was fueled, at least when it comes to the generosity aspect, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, when housebound consumers gave better tips to restaurant and delivery workers who still worked in-person.

Tipflation is becoming more widespread due to the pandemic-related growth of contactless point-of-sale systems, specifically tipscreens, which shoppers are increasingly presented with in non-restaurant settings.

 that like shrinkflation was popularized by consumer advocate 

, refers to when a product stays the same size but is reformulated to be made more cheaply. Such appeared to be the case in 2022, when Smart Balance 

 its buttery spread, which went from having vegetable oils constitute 64% of the product to just 39%, and where water became the first listed (read: most plentiful) ingredient, when it had previously been the second, after vegetable oil.

Following a torrent of online backlash from consumers, Smart Balance returned to the original formulation.

Sneakflation, the relative newcomer on the scene, is a term that does not describe a new phenomenon so much as serve as an umbrella term for those other inflation portmanteaus.

Whether companies are slightly shrinking their products, skimping on ingredients, or encouraging tipping their employees instead of paying higher wages, to beleaguered consumers it can all feel sneaky.

“Sneakflation is multifaceted,” Klein said.

After both Amazon and Walmart enraged Trump for even raising the specter of linking price hikes to tariffs—not to mention wanting to avoid causing sticker shock among consumers—Klein predicts retailers will step carefully when it comes to offsetting tariffs.

“Retailers are going to be cautious,” Klein said. “They’re going to do what they can to maintain loyalty while not pissing off their customers.”

How tariffs spurred ‘sneakflation’

Loathe to raise prices, retailers pass costs along in other ways.

 spotlight Retail Brew’s readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click 

Kathleen Chan is founder and CEO of AI-powered sourcing platform Calico, backed by investors like Serena Ventures.

How would you describe your job to someone who doesn’t work in retail? 

I’m the founder of Calico, an AI-powered platform that helps consumer brands bring products to life. We take the guesswork out of sourcing and manufacturing by helping teams figure out where to produce, which factory to work with, how much it will cost, and how to get from design to finished product—faster and with fewer headaches.

One thing we can’t guess about your job from your LinkedIn profile? 

I still personally visit factories when I can. There’s no substitute for seeing how things actually get made. Some of the most insightful conversations I’ve had have been on the ground in places like Vietnam, Turkey, and Peru.

What’s your favorite project you’ve worked on?

 Helping a brand rebuild their production strategy after losing a key factory partner mid-cycle. We worked closely with them to diversify across new regions and stabilize their timelines—it was intense, but really rewarding to help them turn things around quickly.

Which emerging retail trend are you most excited about right now, and why? 

I’m excited by how sourcing is finally becoming part of the strategic conversation. It used to be treated like a back-office function, but between Covid-19, ongoing delays, and now tariffs, brands are realizing how much sourcing impacts everything—from margins to speed to product creativity. It’s driving a new wave of innovation, and it’s long overdue.

Matcha drinker! Currently very attached to this drink called a matcha drop which is a blend of matcha concentrate, water, and matcha foam!

Worst piece of advice you’ve received? 

“Stick to what you know.” That was code for “Stay in your lane”—as a female founder, and as someone coming from fashion. But my experience is exactly what gave me the perspective to build something better.

What was your favorite retail product when you were 15, and what’s your favorite retail product now? 

At 15, it was a hoodie I wore nonstop—simple, reliable, and quietly part of my identity. Now, it’s my Rains backpack. It’s well-built, thoughtful in all the right ways, and just works. I respect products that solve real problems without shouting about it.

Cutout of a woman, Kathleen Chan, Founder and CEO of Calico, displayed on a templated background.

Coworking with Kathleen Chan

She’s founder and CEO of Calico. 

Alex Vuocolo

 from the National Retail Federation and Hackett Associates’s Global Port Tracker predicts import cargo will decline through the rest of the year after hitting a near-record peak over the summer.

The drop-off comes as retailers finish stocking up for the holidays, and now face an uncertain economic climate due to tariffs.

“Retailers have stocked up as much as they can ahead of tariff increases, but the uncertainty of US trade policy is making it impossible to make the long-term plans that are critical to future business success,” NRF’s VP for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold said in a statement.

Reciprocal tariffs took effect in August, but steeper tariffs on China were delayed for another 90 days until November 10 while trade negotiations continued.

Looking back, it appears retailers front-loaded their imports to avoid higher costs. In July, US ports handled 2.36 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEU), which is up 20.1% from June and 1.8% year over year.

Now Global Port Tracker is predicting imports to decline to 2.28 million TEU in August, 2.12 million TEU in September, and eventually as low as 1.8 million TEU in January 2026, which would mark a 19.1% year over year decline.

“The trade outlook for the final months of the year is not optimistic,” Hackett Associates Founder Ben Hackett said.

Gold added tariffs will ultimately raise prices for US consumers. The industry group repeated this point in the release of its monthly Retail Monitor with CNBC, which tracks retail spending. The report found that spending continued to grow in August, as consumers stocked up on items such as school supplies in an effort to save money before tariffs kicked in and raised prices.

In August, total retail sales increased 0.5% month over month and 6.81% year over year.

Imports expected to decline significantly through 2026

The industry group is predicting a steady dropoff in imports as tariffs take effect. 

Imports expected to decline significantly through 2026: NRF

Jeena Sharma

While many retailers are hiking prices to cope with tariffs and the end of de minimis, Apothékary is taking a contrarian route: thinking about lowering prices.

Shizu Okusa, founder and CEO of the Japanese-inspired wellness brand, told Retail Brew that she’s more concerned with “consumer perception and sentiment/fragility” than with passing costs along.

“We’re, frankly, absorbing a lot of the price impact that’s happening in our supply chain,” she said. “We’re not actually planning to raise any prices, but we are changing how we merchandise.”

 $20 million in revenue by November 2024 and was on track to hit $35 million by early 2025, has leaned on bundling as its primary response to rising costs. When tariffs first hit, acquisition costs jumped 30% “overnight,” according to Okusa.

“It was pretty dramatic, and we actually ended up pulling back our marketing spend by 40% in July and August,” she said.

With a “new year, back-to-school” consumer mindset in September, Apothékary pivoted again, eliminating free shipping for orders under $99 as the brand was losing money every time someone bought a single product, Okusa said. The new threshold pushed shoppers toward buying at least three items, boosting average order value (AOV) without raising per-product prices.

“Customers weren’t net-paying more per product; they were actually paying less per product, because they were getting savings as a [result of buying more], but we were saving on both shipping costs and [being] able to pass that value downstream,” she said.

She added that since offering products in value sets and mini trios, the retailer has seen elevated interest from new customers on TikTok Shop first launched in August, with 90% of its new customers coming through the platform.

Okusa said she believes tariffs played a big role in pushing a lot of brands onto TikTok as “people were all trying to find ways to make money themselves, and becoming TikTok creators, so you saw this large shift of consumers spending more time on TikTok.”

But while bundling has proved invaluable for Apothékary, gifting is another incentive that has gone hand in hand for the brand in helping retain and acquire new customers.

“When you check out on our website…there’s various sorts of incentives to get a higher AOV, and the higher the AOV you actually unlock, you get free shipping,” Okusa said, adding that the second thing it unlocks is a free spoon.

“The free spoon is $10 in the customer’s mind, but for us, it costs us 50 cents, so we’re able to give that value to the customer,” she said, explaining that it accounts for $10 of an increase in the AOV that made up for the increase in tariff costs.

“We may actually end up being more profitable based on all the things that we’re doing,” Okusa said.

Wellness retailer Apothékary is lowering prices

Shizu Okusa, founder and CEO, told Retail Brew that bundling and offering free gifts have proven to be invaluable strategies for the brand amid a challenging trade climate.

As tariffs heat up, wellness retailer Apothékary is lowering prices

At a campaign event last August where tables were filled with grocery items, then-candidate Donald Trump promised to 

 food prices “starting on Day One,” but more than 

 days into his second term, food prices are up all over the place.

The average price of a regular cup of coffee was up 2.9% year over year in August, to $3.52, according to new restaurant data from Toast, a digital technology platform used by about 148,000 restaurant locations. Cold brew prices rose even higher, up 4.6% YoY in August, with a median price of $5.47.

A hindrance to coffee prices coming down anytime soon may be—you’ll never guess!—Trump’s tariffs. Brazil, which accounted for 35% of US unroasted coffee imports in 2023, 

; Colombia, which accounts for 27% of coffee imports, is subject to a 

Other menu items that in August saw YoY median price increases, according to Toast:

 evaluated an August 26 cabinet meeting where Trump said that prices of “groceries are down” and “energy is way down” and ruled the statement “half-true.”

Citing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’s consumer price index of the period between December 2024 and July 2025, Politifact noted that the price of eggs, which had previously shot up because of a bird-flu outbreak, had fallen by about 13%. The price of bread fell by 3.2% and vegetables by 0.7%, according to the data.

But overall, food and beverage prices rose 1.5% over the period, Poltifact reported, including ground beef (up 11.6%), coffee (up 11.3%), sugar and sweets (up 3.7%), and bacon (up 2.9%).

Americans are not just concerned about grocery prices but 

 from the Associated Press and the University of Chicago’s NORC, a nonpartisan research institute.

Among US adults, 53% said the cost of groceries were “a major source of stress” and 33% said they were “a minor source,” according to a survey conducted in July. Only 14% responded that grocery prices were not a source of stress.

It’s worst, naturally, for poor Americans, with 64% of those with household incomes under $30,000 saying groceries are a “major” stressor.

Change purse with a receipt coming out of it