Amazon says it has no plans to list tariff-related price increases next to products on its website, refuting a report that drew criticism from the White House.
"The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products," Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle said in a statement. "This was never approved and is not going to happen."
Earlier Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt had reacted to a Punchbowl News report that claimed Amazon would display how much President Donald Trump's tariffs were adding to product prices. The report cited a person familiar with the plan.
"This is a hostile and political act by Amazon," Leavitt said. "Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest levels in 40 years?"
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Amazon Haul, launched in late 2024, is the company's low-cost store competing with platforms like Temu and Shein. While Amazon said the idea of displaying import charges was considered for Haul, the company emphasized it was never approved and would not affect the main Amazon site or any other Amazon properties.
Meanwhile, Temu, a Chinese retailer, has begun adding "import charges" to purchases in response to the tariffs.
The subtotal for a set of women's yoga pants and a power strip came out to $47.27 on Tuesday. But an additional $64.79 was added as an import charge during the checkout process.
Shein is showing consumers a banner at checkout that says, "Tariffs are included in the price you pay. You'll never have to pay extra at delivery."
The decision of a retailer to show tariff-related price increases could help it provide consumers with more transparency, according to Krista Li, a professor of marketing in the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.
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"Consumers will understand that they are paying the prices for the government's tariff trade policy," Li said. "Consumers also, at the same time, understand that the price increase is driven by policy instead of an e-commerce greed to maximize their own profit."
Li conducted a survey on consumer response to Amazon potentially displaying tariff prices and found shoppers have mixed reactions.
About half said they'd support Amazon displaying the cost of tariffs, 14% were against it, and 37% said they'd want to choose whether to view or hide the tariff costs breakdown.
Li also found that 52% of consumers said they'd seek alternative products with lower or no tariffs if they saw the tariff price breakdown on Amazon.
Listing the impact of tariffs could earn a retailer like Amazon goodwill with consumers. More than 60% said price transparency would make them trust Amazon more.
"In this competitive marketplace, being transparent and sharing information can become a competitive advantage," Li said. "That is an advantage for the platform to build trust and gain customers and for customers to make informed purchase decisions."
