Skip to main content
Nova Analytics
Back to News
Important
Operations

Shein IPO filing shows tariffs cut US sales and profit sharply

August 11, 2026
5 min
Summarize with AI
ClaudeClaudeGeminiGeminiChatGPTChatGPT
A

CEO at Nova Analytics

LinkedIn

Antoine founded Nova Analytics to empower Amazon sellers with enterprise-grade analytics. He specializes in data architecture and building scalable solutions for e-commerce businesses.

Quick Summary

  • •US revenue fell more than 3% from 2024 to 2025 and 14% year over year in Q1 2026
  • •Companywide profit fell 39%; Q1 swung to a $99 million loss from a $395 million profit
  • •Duty exposure moved from a 0% to 62.5% range up to 10% to 87.5% after de minimis ended
  • •Europe is about 35% of revenue and now faces a flat 3 euro charge per category of goods
  • •The ultra-low price floor in apparel, accessories and home is rising, which reopens price tests

Nova surfaces every Amazon fee, refund, and margin shift in your live P&L, across 21 marketplaces. See it in your data

What happened

Shein's Hong Kong listing documents put numbers on something sellers have been guessing at for a year. US revenue fell more than 3% between 2024 and 2025 and dropped 14% year over year in the first quarter. Companywide profit fell 39% over the same period, and the first quarter swung to a $99 million loss against a $395 million profit a year earlier (CNBC, August 10, 2026).

The filing attributes the drop to trade policy. Shein says it started passing the majority of additional tariff costs into US prices in May 2025, and saw a negative revenue impact for the rest of the year. The duty range it faces moved from 0% to 62.5% up to 10% to 87.5% once the de minimis exemption for parcels under $800 closed.

Why it matters for sellers

For years the low-price end of apparel, accessories and home goods was priced by companies shipping duty-free parcels straight from China. That price floor is rising, and the company that set it is now telling investors the model does not hold at the new duty rates.

Europe is the part to watch next. Europe was around 35% of Shein's 2025 revenue, and the EU replaced duty-free entry for parcels under 150 euros with a flat 3 euro charge per distinct category of goods in July. European growth had already slowed to roughly 9% in 2025 from 33% the year before, and 2% in the first quarter.

There is a second-order point here about localisation. Shein's model stayed cross-border rather than moving inventory into the destination market, which is exactly what made it exposed when the parcel rules changed (Marketplace Pulse, July 30, 2026). Sellers already holding FBA inventory in-country are on the other side of that trade.

What to change in the next 72 hours

  1. Recalculate landed cost per unit at current duty rates. If your COGS input still reflects 2025 duties, every margin number downstream is wrong.
  2. Pull competitor prices in your top five ASIN categories. If the ultra-low tier has moved up, your price test window is open now, not after Q4.
  3. Judge the test on contribution margin, not revenue. A 5% price rise that holds 90% of volume usually beats a flat price defending 100%.
  4. Check your EU exposure separately. The 3 euro per-category charge hits small-parcel economics differently from the US rules, so do not model both markets with one assumption.

How Nova helps

  • Live P&L - contribution margin per SKU with COGS, fees and refunds in one view, so a landed-cost change shows up as a margin change immediately.
  • COGS & fee tracker - 40+ Amazon fee types across 21 marketplaces, so US and EU economics stay separate instead of blended.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about this topic

Documents released for its Hong Kong listing show US revenue declined more than 3% between 2024 and 2025 and fell 14% year over year in the first quarter. Companywide profitability fell 39% between 2024 and 2025, and Shein swung to a $99 million loss in the first quarter against a $395 million profit a year earlier.
Shein says it began passing the majority of additional tariff costs into US prices from May 2025 and saw a negative revenue impact for the rest of that year. Duty rates it faces moved from a 0% to 62.5% range to a 10% to 87.5% range after the de minimis exemption for packages under $800 was closed.
Europe accounted for about 35% of Shein's 2025 revenue and the filing warns of a similar dynamic there. The European Union ended its own de minimis regime in July, replacing duty-free entry for parcels under 150 euros with a flat 3 euro charge per distinct category of goods. European growth had already slowed to about 9% in 2025 from 33% the year before, and 2% in the first quarter.
Two reasons. Competitors whose entire model was built on duty-free direct-from-China parcels are raising prices, which changes the price floor in categories where they were setting it. And the same trade changes flow into your own landed cost, so the comparison that matters is your margin at the new duty rate, not your old price ladder.
Recalculate landed cost per unit at current duty rates, then look at contribution margin by SKU rather than revenue. If competitor prices in your category are rising, a price test is worth running before assuming volume has to be defended with discounts.

Verified Sources

All information verified from official Amazon sources and trusted industry analysts as of publication date.