Amazon.com Inc. has canceled orders for a number of merchandise made in China and different Asian international locations, in accordance with a doc reviewed by Bloomberg and folks aware of the matter, suggesting the corporate is decreasing its publicity to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
The orders for seashore chairs, scooters, air conditioners and different merchandise from a number of Amazon distributors had been halted after Trump’s April 2 announcement that he deliberate to levy tariffs on greater than 180 international locations and territories, together with China, Vietnam and Thailand, the individuals mentioned. The timing of the cancellations, which had no warning, led the distributors to suspect it was a response to tariffs.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to remark. The corporate recognized worldwide commerce disputes as a threat think about its annual report launched in February. “China-based suppliers present vital parts of our elements and completed items,” the corporate mentioned.
It’s unclear how widespread the cancellations are and what number of forms of merchandise they have an effect on.
One vendor who has been promoting seashore chairs made in China to Amazon for greater than a decade obtained an e-mail from the corporate final week that mentioned it was canceling some buy orders it positioned “in error“ and instructed the seller to not ship them. The e-mail, which was reviewed by Bloomberg, didn’t point out tariffs.
The seller mentioned the $500,000 wholesale order was nixed after the chairs had already been manufactured, leaving this particular person on the hook to pay the manufacturing facility and discover different patrons. The seller, who spoke on situation of anonymity for concern of retaliation from Amazon, mentioned the corporate had by no means canceled one in every of its orders in comparable to method.
Scott Miller, a former Amazon vendor supervisor who now works as an e-commerce advisor, mentioned Amazon canceled orders for merchandise made in China and different Asian international locations from a number of of his shoppers. The cancellations got here with out warning, he mentioned, and will pressure distributors to renegotiate phrases with the e-commerce firm.
“Amazon actually holds all the playing cards,” mentioned Miller, founder and CEO of pdPlus in Minneapolis. “The one actual recourse distributors have is to both promote this stock in different international locations at decrease margins or attempt to work with different retailers.”
The seashore chair vendor and Miller mentioned Amazon cancelled “direct import orders,” a course of by which Amazon buys stock wholesale within the nation by which it’s made and ships the merchandise to its warehouses in america. Amazon serves because the importer of document for the orders, which implies it pays tariffs when the merchandise attain US ports.
Amazon has been importing objects this manner for years as a option to scale back prices since Amazon can usually use bulk delivery charges to import objects at decrease prices than distributors. Canceling these orders places the tariff publicity again on distributors in the event that they import merchandise to the US by different means.
Gadgets Amazon buys immediately from distributors account for about 40% of the merchandise offered on its web site. The remainder of the corporate’s gross sales are made by impartial retailers who primarily lease digital shelf area from Amazon, paying the corporate commissions and charges for logistics and promoting.
Trump’s tariffs have rattled international markets. Many companies are elevating costs, stoking fears of a recession. On Tuesday, Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. decreased its 2025 income forecast for Amazon, citing the consequences of tariffs in a analysis notice. The corporate’s shares have fallen about 21% this 12 months, in contrast with the S&P 500’s 15% hunch.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
