Tariff Pain from a Data Point of View

If you’re in procurement, finance, or operations at a mid-sized ecommerce or retail company, tariffs aren’t just a political talking point - they’re a silent force eating into your profitability. And the real problem isn’t always the tariffs themselves. It’s the lag between policy changes and when your data catches up.

If any of it sounds familiar, we’d love to hear your point of view in the short survey below.

What’s Really Happening With Tariffs

• Tariffs aren’t going away - they’re just shifting. The U.S. recently delayed planned tariff hikes on Chinese goods by 90 days, pushing them to November 10, 2025 (Reuters, 2025). Temporary relief? Yes. Predictable? No.
  
  
• Earlier in 2025, a partial pause on “reciprocal” tariffs was extended, but new country-specific rates of 25–40% hit select nations on August 1, 2025 (Mohawk Global, 2025).
  
  
• The financial impact is real. A July 2025 KPMG survey found 57% of U.S. businesses have already seen a direct hit to margins, and nearly half expect to raise prices - risking customer pushback.
  

Why You’re Always Playing Catch-Up

We see the same pattern repeatedly:

1. Tariffs change.
   
2. Landed costs quietly increase.
3. SKU margins drop - unnoticed.
4. Weeks later, finance spots the dip.
5. You’re reacting instead of preventing losses.
   

The culprit? Disconnected data.

• Tariff data tracked manually.
• Cost of goods in siloed spreadsheets.
• No link between SKU data, duty rates, and margin calculations.
• Multiple “sources of truth” across teams.
  

When tariffs change and your platform doesn’t know it, neither do your dashboards - or your decisions.

3 Things You Can Do (With or Without a Data Team)

Here’s what we recommend if you want to stay proactive - without waiting on a full BI rebuild:

1. Stream updated tariff data automatically
   Use a platform that can connect directly to trusted government sources (like USTR or CBP APIs) and keep your tariff tables fresh. With a centralized environment, this data can be automatically linked to the rest of your business - no more manual updates or spreadsheet copy-paste.
   ‍
2. Link tariff data to SKU-level cost using category mapping
   Instead of hardcoding tariff rates to every SKU, build your data model to connect each product to its correct HTS or category code. That way, when duties shift - or new rates are published - you can remap tariffs across your product catalog in one step, without manually updating individual SKUs.
   A replicable setup like this makes your cost calculations accurate, scalable, and easy to maintain — even as products change or tariff rules evolve.
   ‍
3. Build reusable “what-if” models
   Instead of rebuilding your spreadsheets quarterly, set up templates that let you simulate impact: “What if duties go from 25% to 35% next quarter?” Run that scenario live, share results instantly.

Want to See What That Looks Like?

We’re hosting a 30-minute webinar where you’ll see how real teams use Keboola to:

• Connect tariff data with their internal product & supplier data
• Track SKU-level impact in real time
• Build pricing + sourcing models they can actually use
  

📅 Register here → Tariff Impact Forecasting. Even Without a Full-Time Data Team.

Final Thought

Tariffs may be out of your control. But whether your team can see them coming - and act in time - is something you can fix. Let’s make your data part of the solution.