Retail companies spanning from the luxury sector to lower-value goods are using a tariff arbitrage strategy within their supply chains to lower tariff bills and keep costs down for consumers.

The business model, called B2B2C (business-to-business-to-consumer), is changing the way retailers handle orders placed by consumers on a company's website. Typically, an item purchased online is directly sold to the consumer. But with President Trump's trade war hitting the retail sector hard and hitting many manufacturing hubs where retailers source goods with high tariffs, this type of transaction is now more often being handled through a middleman company that acts as a merchant of record, acting on behalf of the retailer as a U.S. entity. ESW and Global-e are companies that act as a merchant

See Full Page