The Reality of Passing Through Tariff Costs

Small businesses facing higher tariff costs are often left with two difficult options: absorb the costs themselves or pass them on to consumers. 

Preliminary results from the new We Pay the Tariffs survey show that more than 80% of small businesses have raised their prices because of tariffs.

One company with 11 employees explained why they had no other option:

• “80% of our products are imported and our margins are tenuous enough that we cannot absorb much of the price. We've had to raise prices, and stop importing many products altogether because we couldn't work with those costs.”

Another business described the impact that higher prices have had on customer demand:

• “We have had to pass on price increases to our customers at this tumultuous, inflationary period. It has hurt sales, especially for our company… where well over half of the items in our portfolio are imported.”

Those that absorbed most of the tariff burden to avoid price hikes on customers paid a steep cost.

As one business with 30 employees explained:

• “We ended up eating 80-90% of the tariff and lost money for the 2025 year.”

Another business owner described the financial sacrifices required to keep prices stable:

• “I chose to absorb the costs of the tariffs all of 2025, not raising prices until this year. I liquidated nearly $100k of my 401k, delayed the plan to begin printing in house instead of China, and also delayed expansion of new product offerings. Our growth rate for the last 4 years prior was over 20% per year. Last year we were flat.”

These are the types of experiences we seek to capture in our new survey – with the end goal of publishing a major tariff report. The more responses received, the more robust our results will be. 

Please add your experience by answering now and/or sharing this link with others that might be willing to respond. 

Take the Survey