There’s some amazing and super valuable content being produced on how to deal with tariffs. I am trying to catalog and highlight here the best I am finding. Please send me your content or share what you find so I can add it to the list!
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Increasing Pricing
Mehtab & Drew on Finance Operators
WSJ on price increases from Hermes to start up toy companies
Natasha Khan and Ruth Simon From Hermès Bags to Sally Hansen Nail Polish: The Art of Jacking Up Prices
Impact on toy industry from Retail Dive
Kaarin Moore Cold play: Toy industry faces ‘devastating’ impact from tariffs
Cutting costs
Zero based budgeting from Drew Sanocki
Cutting fat, not muscle and retaining your ability to grow from Drew Sanocki
39:57 & 43:40 9 Operators
Operators Podcast E107: Tips for Impending Doom
Leadership, Culture and Setting the Right Mindset
Stressful times require a new mindset from Drew Sanocki
Mehtab on changing culture
Mike Beckham Mowing Your Own Lawn
Being the leader you need to be by Mike Beckham
War time mindset by Sam Hill
Tariffs are on hold... Tariffs not on hold… All that’s known is… | Sam Hill
Tariffs are on hold... Tariffs not on hold… All that’s known is uncertainty. Here's what I'm doing internally and with clients to 1) Decrease paranoia, and 2) War-game best options... In times of uncertainty, I focus on controlling what I can control – preserving capital, and business fundamentals. Things like: -Triple checking budgets/cash flow -Pause all non-essential hiring and marketing initiatives -Review/cut fixed spend Fundamentals. A lot of these aren’t actually tariff-driven – you likely needed to do them long before tariffs ever went into play – but they’re tariff-triggered. The tariffs are the final straw forcing you to take action. Here’s what we’re doing in our own business: 1. Decrease Paranoia: We’ve paused all non-essential hiring and are reviewing spend/cash flow more regularly. We’ve also ramped up communication both internally, and with clients. The communication is the most important thing, so that: -Clients know we’re accessible/available -We know how they’re feeling and what they’re struggling with -We can convey that to the team Our team is in the loop. Our clients feel supported. We may not have all of the answers, but more communication helps alleviate some of the paranoia. 2. Re-evaluate Your Product Offering: Sometimes something happens that gives you reason to re-visit parts of your business model you should have looked at long ago. In our case, a key employee left. That gave me an opportunity to re-examine parts of our model I should have addressed months ago. Again, not tariff-driven, but tariff-triggered. Our advice to clients is similar. First, decrease paranoia by triple-checking your cash flow and forecasts, and pause all hiring/spend that isn’t tied to clear ROI. Then, war game scenarios and contingencies across the three heaviest impacted parts of the business: Supply Chain, Catalog, Marketing. Supply Chain | Priority number one is negotiating with current suppliers assuming the same supply chain. What are the inflection points? Two, what are potential alternatives, assuming... -Same supplier, but different chain? -New supplier, and new supply chain? Catalog | Under what conditions will you… -Allow certain items to stock out? -Reorder best-sellers, even at 20% or 30% higher cost? -Pass those costs onto the consumer slowly? Or all at once? Marketing | Consider how these price changes affect LTV, CAC, and general offering models. For example, will you... -Grandfather existing customers into the “old” price? -Reconfigure offers (ex. raise prices but decrease the floor on free shipping, increase discount percentages, etc.) I’ve written about “War Time” before. This is war time. No one knows what will happen, but know what you’re going to do when it does.
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35:02 & 56:35 & 1:06:44 on 9 Operators
Operators Podcast E107: Tips for Impending Doom
Sean Frank from Ridge (good tips across multiple classifications)
State of DTC in 2025: 10 Ways Not to Get Cooked
Ronak Shah on using crisis to change how you think and act
My own thoughts on changing culture & incentives
Culture Matched to Incentives Win Culture Matched to Incentives Win
Reducing COGS
Mehtab’s tips on reducing COGS
42:12 9 Operators
Operators Podcast E107: Tips for Impending Doom
Managing Inventory
7:26 9 Operators
Operators Podcast E107: Tips for Impending Doom
Finaloop has multiple tips across classifications including inventory
Surviving the 145% China Tariffs: A Strategic Guide for eCommerce Businesses
Supply Chain
10 Supply Chain Moves to Beat the China Tariff Surge
Tariffs will be repeat of Covid supply chain whiplash by Mike Beckham
Matt has a ton of good tariff mitigation advice that crosses classifications, so I put it here
Matthew Hertz Sent Items #185: Monday, April 21, 2025
WSJ on difficulty of re-shoring using Nike as an example
Jon Emont Why It’s So Difficult for Robots to Make Your Nike Sneakers
More tips from Lara Guevara on improving your supply chain
Lara from Supply Chain Unboxed Tariffs, Part 2: Your Next Supply Chain Moves (If You’re Playing Long-Term)
Jim Tompkins whitepaper on Reglobalization including Reshoring, NearShoring and FriendShoring.
22397439.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net
Jim Tompkins on The New Warehouse podcast
The New Warehouse A Global Logistics Strategy Rooted in Optionality
Logistics
Jon Blair and Izzy Rozenwieg from Portless
Chad Carleton has detailed bonded warehouse thread
WSJ on the CBP exam classification exam with a 21% pass rate
Esther Fung The Impossible Four-Hour Test You Need to Pass to Become a Tariff Pencil Pusher
Aaron Rubin from ShipHero video on X about shutting down loopholes exploited by Chinese sellers
Ryan Peterson from Flexport as interviewed by Sam Hill from EcomCFO. Flexport obviously sees a lot of activity, so it’s interesting to hear what they are seeing. Technical and detailed. Good stuff!
Ecom CFO Notebook
Fuse Inventory Tips including HTS codes, country of origin and duty drawbacks
Fuse Inventory Strategies for Mitigating Tariffs
Operating Crew working doc (lots of great content & too much to separately classify)
Unsupported Embed
Marketing & Advertising
1-800-D2C Agency Insights: DTC Marketing Amidst Tariff Chaos
Tariff Economics & Reaction
Ryan Petersen (Flexport) has a thread on X w/ 1.7M views (as of Apr 21)
Money & Macro on Tariff plan
Money & Macro Why Trump's tariff chaos actually makes sense (big picture)
Tanvi Ratna’s analysis of the Trump plan as articulated by Scott Bessent
WSJ on Ryan Petersen
www.wsj.com
WSJ May 8, 2025 on impacts on smaller brands and Chinese manufacturers
www.wsj.com