[SEATTLE] Amazon.com has cancelled orders for multiple products made in China and other Asian countries, according to a document reviewed by Bloomberg and sources familiar with the matter, suggesting the company is reducing its exposure to tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
The orders for beach chairs, scooters, air conditioners and other merchandise from multiple Amazon vendors were halted after Trump’s Apr 2 announcement that he planned to levy tariffs on more than 180 countries and territories, including China, Vietnam and Thailand, the sources said. The timing of the cancellations, which had no warning, led the vendors to suspect it was a response to tariffs.
An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment. The company identified international trade disputes as a risk factor in its annual report released in February. “China-based suppliers provide significant portions of our components and finished goods,” the company said.
It’s unclear how widespread the cancellations are and how many types of merchandise they affect.
One vendor who has been selling beach chairs made in China to Amazon for more than a decade received an e-mail from the company last week that said it was cancelling some purchase orders it placed “in error” and instructed the vendor not to ship them. The e-mail, which was reviewed by Bloomberg, did not mention tariffs.
The vendor said the US$500,000 wholesale order was nixed after the chairs had already been manufactured, leaving this person on the hook to pay the factory and find other buyers. The vendor, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from Amazon, said the company had never cancelled one of its orders in such as manner.
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Scott Miller, a former Amazon vendor manager who now works as an e-commerce consultant, said Amazon cancelled orders for merchandise made in China and other Asian countries from several of his clients. The cancellations came without warning, he said, and could force vendors to renegotiate terms with the e-commerce company.
“Amazon really holds all of the cards,” said Miller, founder and CEO of pdPlus in Minneapolis. “The only real recourse vendors have is to either sell this inventory in other countries at lower margins or try to work with other retailers.”
The beach chair vendor and Miller said Amazon cancelled “direct import orders”, a process in which Amazon buys inventory wholesale in the country in which it is made and ships the products to its warehouses in the United States. Amazon serves as the importer of record for the orders, which means it pays tariffs when the products reach US ports.
Amazon has been importing items this way for years as a way to reduce costs since Amazon can often use bulk shipping rates to import items at lower costs than vendors. Cancelling those orders puts the tariff exposure back on vendors if they import merchandise to the US by other means.
Items Amazon buys directly from vendors account for about 40 per cent of the products sold on its website. The rest of the company’s sales are made by independent merchants who essentially rent digital shelf space from Amazon, paying the company commissions and fees for logistics and advertising.
Trump’s tariffs have rattled global markets. Many businesses are raising prices, stoking fears of a recession. On Tuesday, Robert W Baird & Co reduced its 2025 revenue forecast for Amazon, citing the effects of tariffs in a research note. The company’s shares have fallen about 21 per cent this year, compared with the S&P 500’s 15 per cent slump. BLOOMBERG
