Amazon CEO Sees No Major Price Hikes For Shoppers Amid US Tariff Push

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said on Monday that he hasn't seen the prices of products on the e-commerce platform increase significantly, and the company and its sellers are implementing several strategies to mitigate the cost pressures from U.S. tariffs.

In an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, Jassy said: "We did a lot of forward buying several months ago, and then a lot of our sellers, our third party selling partners, forward deployed a lot of inventory to avoid some of the issues with the uncertainty around where tariffs are going to settle."

"And we have, so far, not seen prices appreciably go up."

The rise of prices for consumer goods has been a central focal point. As a significant percentage of goods are manufactured outside and imported into the U.S., their producers are seeing higher costs. That leaves companies to either absorb the cost and take a hit on their margins or raise prices for consumers.

Walmart (WMT), the biggest retail chain in the country, said in May it was raising prices, causing alarm among consumers and policymakers. President Donald hit back at the retailer, saying that it should make a better effort to keep the prices steady, to which Walmart said it would communicate pricing decisions more transparently.

In recent months, Dollar Tree (DLTR), Costco (COST), and Target (TGT) have announced that they will selectively hike prices.

Jassy stated that Amazon has approximately two million sellers on its marketplace. Even if some sellers pass on tariff expense to customers by raising prices, he said there will be many that won't and who will instead "take share and not increase prices."

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for Amazon was 'bullish,' unchanged from the previous day.

Separately, a Reuters report, based on data from analytics firm DataWeave, said that prices for goods made in China on Amazon's U.S. site have been rising faster than overall inflation. The analysis examined 1,400 different products of this type online.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.

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