“How price increases are adding up at Shein”, 25 July 2025

On May 2, the Trump administration ended the U.S. duty-free access for low-value shipments from China and Hong Kong, which had exploded in number in recent years.

Those shipments, often from popular overseas retailers like Shein and Temu, are now subject to tariffs, currently around 30%. Nearly two months since the exemption vanished, American consumers have started to feel the impact as prices begin to rise.

To see how much prices have changed, Reuters tracked the prices of nearly 200 items on Shein’s U.S.-facing website from April 24, the day before Shein announced its first price increases, to July 22. The data shows one example of how the U.S.’s new trade policies are passing costs onto consumers.

Shein did not respond to a request for comment.

(…)

Reuters tracked the price of 70 of the lowest cost apparel items listed on Shein’s U.S.-facing website in girl’s, boy’s, men’s and baby categories on April 24, one day before Shein’s price adjustments went into effect to accommodate new tariff rules starting May 2, which at the time exposed these packages to steep tariffs of up to 145%.

(…)

Economists analyzed data on millions of shipments to the U.S. from three global carriers and found that people living in lower-income and minority U.S. zip codes spend relatively more on such shipments than those living in higher-income areas. “Removing the de minimis exemption for Chinese imports is likely to raise their prices for consumers, particularly for lower-income consumers,” said Amit Khandelwal, a professor of global affairs and economics at Yale University and one of the authors of the report. The pain will also be felt more by minority Americans, with a higher cost per person in dollar terms in zip codes with 5% white households than in areas that are 95% white, the economists found.