Retailers ‘Uncharacteristically Blunt’ in Telling Customers Tariffs Will Raise Prices

Some retailers are reportedly being “uncharacteristically blunt” in sharing with customers the impact new U.S. tariffs are having on the prices of their products.

This marks a change from retailers’ traditional communication strategy when it comes to rising prices, Bloomberg reported Thursday (April 17).

Quoting marketing materials sent by retailers to their customers, the report said one company told its customers that it cannot avoid raising prices because of the tariffs and that it is “just as confused as everyone else” by the White House’s policy changes.

Another company told customers that price hikes are “unfortunately unavoidable” due to the tariffs, while another sent its customers a list of products comparing their prices before and after the tariffs, according to the report.

This report came on the same day that the CEO of Fifth Third Bancorp, the indirect parent company of Fifth Third Bank, told analysts that nearly all the business owners he spoke with said they would need to raise prices to offset tariff costs because they have limited ability to absorb these costs in margins.

“What was maybe a little bit interesting to me is that the folks that have domestic supply chains were also saying they have to move prices in the U.S. because they’re expecting that if the tariffs hold, they’re going to experience volume losses in foreign markets, and … they require a certain amount of gross margin dollars just to be able to cover overheads and run their business,” Fifth Third Chairman, CEO and President Tim Spence said during the company’s quarterly earnings call.

Priority CEO Tom Priore told PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster in an interview posted Wednesday (April 16) that small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) navigate seas of complexity, with or without tariffs and no matter the economic environment.

“From the SMB standpoint, the exposure to tariffs at the supply chain level may actually be pretty small … but the main concern and the damage to small business lies with consumer uncertainty,” Priore said.

PYMNTS reported Tuesday (April 15) that the first-quarter earnings results of three of the nation’s largest financial institutions demonstrated that the consumer remains on solid footing.