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.

Retail Brew

Katishi Maake

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Desktop computer with shipping boxes and money

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

Alex Vuocolo

The US Department of Transportation last month announced new restrictions on non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits and driver’s licences. This is 

 in the Trump administration’s effort to crack down on non-citizen truck drivers, which DOT claims are creating an “imminent hazard on America’s roadways.”

The new restriction requires non-citizens to get an employment-based visa and a mandatory federal immigration status check, and DOT cites “an ongoing nationwide audit” by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) that “uncovered a catastrophic pattern of states issuing licenses illegally to foreign drivers.”

“Licenses to operate a massive, 80,000-pound truck are being issued to dangerous foreign drivers—often times illegally,” US Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy said in a statement. “This is a direct threat to the safety of every family on the road, and I won’t stand for it.”

In addition to the findings, the agency said it was responding to a “recent series of horrific, fatal crashes caused by non-domiciled drivers” like the August crash in Florida that killed three and led to charges of vehicular manslaughter for the driver, an immigrant from India who has pleaded not guilty; Duffy announced a FMCSA investigation into that accident not long after it occurred.

While the DOT announcement has garnered support from some within the trucking industry, the extent and urgency of the danger is debatable. FMCSA found just five fatal crashes involving non-domiciled CDL holders since January; there were 5,904 large trucks and buses involved in fatal crashes in 2021, the most recent full year for which there is publicly available data from the agency.

A potential loss of freight capacity could raise shipping costs for customers such as retailers if enforced—but that’s a big if, according to Mike Hosted, VP of sales and marketing at ATBS, a business services firm serving trucking companies.

Hosted said he’s met with major trucking companies and has so far heard very little buzz about the potential impact of this rule.

Major trucking firm JB Hunt expressed a similar sentiment over the summer, after DOT 

 to enforce English proficiency among truckers in May.

“While we could only guess the impact this might have on industry capacity for JB Hunt, we do not expect to see material impact,” COO Nicholas Hobbs told shareholders over the summer.

DOT is also stressing that the restrictions won’t impact US shipping.

“This is not going to impact the flow of goods at all,” Duffy said in a statement to Retail Brew. “We have a lot of drivers who are US citizens—who are ready, willing, and able to take these loads. We don’t need non-domiciled CDL drivers to carry loads in America.”

However, removing a significant portion of non-domiciled drivers from the road would likely have an impact on shipping rates, according to Hosted. For context, the industry is also experiencing a 

The FMCSA estimates there are nearly 200,000 non-domiciled CDL holders, or approximately 5% of the 3.8 million active interstate drivers in 2024. If all these drivers are taken off the road over the next two years, as the agency predicts, Hosted said he would expect rates to go up between 2%–5% assuming the market is roughly at equilibrium now.

In this scenario, he added, retailers would likely feel the impact.

“If we shrink the amount of capacity and the number of drivers, there is the likelihood that when [retailers] go to negotiate new contracts, they’re going to have to pay a higher rate because of the supply and demand equilibrium being shifted,” he said.

New restrictions on non-domiciled CDL holders and applicants could raise rates

The Trump administration’s latest effort to get non-citizen truck drivers off the road could impact rates, but so far there has been limited enforcement. 

New restrictions on non-domiciled CDL holders and applicants could raise rates for retailers

Andrew Adam Newman

More than 3 out of 4 store managers (76%) report they have seen more out-of-stocks or empty shelves since President Trump started rolling out his tariffs in April, according to a new 

Half of those store managers say that HQ has informed them tariffs will drive prices up at their stores, while 47% say their leadership has told them to expect delays or reduced inventory, and 26% have been told to reduce their workforces or cut hours.

The report “reveals how tariffs and a rocky economy translate to empty shelves, frustrated customers, and overburdened staff,” states its introduction. “The data underscores how inventory issues, exacerbated by tariffs and economic uncertainty, ripple outward to shape customer experience, daily store operations, and sales.”

Just over half (51%) of store managers report they’ve reduced their workforce in the last six months, and that may be taking a toll on the shopper experience. Among tasks that have been delayed or skipped because of staff shortages, 47% said that’s the case with restocking shelves, 37% said that’s the case with cleaning and organizing, and 34% said so with assisting customers.

The survey was conducted by Censuswide and polled 500 middle and senior managers in the US in the latter half of July.

The scales will drop from nobody’s eyes when we remind you that surveys, even when their methodology and results are sound, often illuminate a problem for which the brand that conducts the survey is selling a solution. To wit: GreyOrange’s software manages in-store and warehouse inventory as well as workforces.

 Walmart, The Home Depot, and Best Buy have said that tariffs have either resulted in them raising prices or made it a likelihood.

More than 3 in 4 store managers report more empty shelves since tariffs

Half have reduced staff in the last six months, per GreyOrange.

More than 3 in 4 store managers report more empty shelves since tariffs hit 

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.

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. 

 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.