According to www.thescxchange.com, 82% of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are passing new tariff costs directly to customers — a central component of newly developed ‘tariff toolkits’ designed to manage ongoing trade disruption.
Swift Operational Adaptation
California-based Netstock, a provider of supply chain planning solutions, reports that SMBs have rapidly evolved their tariff response strategies over the past year. Ara Ohanian, CEO of Netstock, stated:
“This time last year, nearly half of SMBs had never implemented a tariff strategy. Today, the vast majority not only have one in place, but are layering multiple approaches at once. The agility these businesses have shown is remarkable.” — Ara Ohanian, CEO of Netstock
He added that SMBs have “doubled down on the use of data and analytics,” shifting from evaluation to execution of resilience-building strategies — even with lean teams and limited resources.
Multi-Strategy Mitigation in Practice
The survey reveals widespread adoption of coordinated tactics:
- 82% pass tariff costs to customers — with 92% doing so via direct price increases
- One in three (33%) have changed suppliers in the past year, citing tariffs as a direct reason
- Nearly 60% now deploy two or more mitigation strategies simultaneously, including safety stock adjustments, scenario planning, supplier diversification, and pricing levers
- 72% identify cost-related challenges as their top concern
- 73% have extended their inventory planning time horizons — a departure from earlier reactive, short-cycle planning
- More than half report greater tariff impact than 12 months ago, with effects now visible across multiple business functions
- Nearly half face tariff impacts from two or more sourcing regions at once
Strategic Shift From Absorption to Action
A notable pivot occurred between survey cycles: in last year’s survey, 44% of SMBs were absorbing tariff costs internally to avoid stock-outs and retain customers. That approach has now “largely run its course,” according to Netstock. The shift reflects tightening margins and escalating geopolitical pressure — factors that have pushed SMBs toward proactive, analytics-informed decision-making rather than stopgap measures.
Practitioner Implications
For global supply chain professionals, this signals a maturing of tariff response capabilities among SMB trading partners and vendors. As more SMBs integrate scenario planning, supplier diversification, and dynamic pricing into daily operations, procurement teams must assess not just cost and lead time, but also partners’ tariff agility and data infrastructure maturity. Concurrently, finance and logistics leaders should anticipate increased cross-regional complexity — especially where dual-sourcing exposure (e.g., China + Vietnam or Mexico) requires synchronized customs, compliance, and working capital planning. Industry-wide, the trend mirrors broader moves by larger enterprises: Walmart and Target have publicly disclosed multi-year nearshoring expansions, while Flexport launched a tariff impact dashboard for clients in early 2025 — confirming that tariff responsiveness is now a baseline operational capability, not an exception.
Source: www.thescxchange.com
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
