Price changes are starting to appear on Amazon Marketplace.
Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN ) CEO says shoppers are “starting to see more of this impact” as tariff-related costs start to be reflected in prices Andy Jassy told CNBC last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“This year, there will be many things on people’s minds, but the biggest concern for many of us, including one of the world’s largest retailers, is the pricing pressure on consumers caused by the Trump administration’s tariff agenda,” he said.
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Jassy told CNBC that Amazon and many third-party sellers took action early last year to limit the impact of tariffs by purchasing inventory in advance. This strategy helps keep prices low for a period of time as sellers try to cope with uncertainty about where tariffs will be settled.
“For the same reason, many of our third-party sellers do a lot of upfront preparation in our fulfillment network,” he said. As these supplies are depleted, the cost of tariffs starts to show up in prices.
“So you’re starting to see some of the tariffs seep into the prices of some goods,” Jassy said. Sellers have responded in different ways, including passing higher costs on to consumers by raising prices, or absorbing those costs to drive demand. He added that Amazon has hundreds of millions of items from about 2 million sellers.
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Jassy said Amazon is working with distribution and sales partners to keep prices as low as possible, especially during times of economic uncertainty and trade changes.
“That’s our focus,” he told CNBC. “That’s always been our focus.”
Jassy said the retail economy has limited room to absorb rising costs. “To the extent that, as you know, retail is a mid-single-digit operating margin industry, if people’s costs go up 10%, there’s not a lot of places to absorb it,” he said. “You don’t have endless options.”
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He said consumers remain resilient and continue to spend, but many are adjusting the way they shop.
