Surprise Tariffs May Add Hundreds Of Dollars To Holiday Shopping Bills

Consumers who ordered holiday gifts from overseas suppliers may get a shocking surprise with their deliveries: unexpected tariffs that in some cases exceed the value of the order.

It may also be more difficult to return items during the first holiday shopping season since President Donald Trump ended the de minimis tariff exemption that allowed packages valued at less than $800 to enter the United States duty-free.

The idea when Congress approved the exemption in the 1930s was that the effort required to process these low-cost items far outweighed the customs revenue. Customs and Border Protection said it processed about 1.4 billion de minimis packages in 2024, a massive surge driven by e-commerce.

Priciest Holiday Shopping Season Yet

The 2025 holiday shopping season is expected to be the most expensive yet, and tariffs and inflation, not largesse on the part of gift givers, are significant factors, according to a Bloomberg analysis.

Consumer spending is expected to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in 2025, according to the National Retail Federation.

The de minimis tariff exemption ended in August. Large brick-and-mortar and e-commerce businesses with the cash flow to do it rushed to move as much inventory to the United States before the exemption ended.

That’s one reason prices haven’t spiked across the board, Marianne Rowden, chief executive of E-Merchants Trade Council, told Money.

But three months later, the tariffs are driving up prices on a wide variety of luxury and everyday imported goods, including clothing, electronics, home appliances, rugs, furniture, and food. In some cases, the tariffs can add hundreds of dollars to the cost of an item.

‘Cheaper To Fly To Paris’

Bonnie Hardy-Compagno told NBC News she was surprised the customs charges were more than the $431 value of the skincare products she’d ordered earlier this year from Belgium.

She expected to pay the standard 15 percent tariff; instead, the face creams and serums she’d ordered triggered a 200 percent tariff because they contained aluminum from Russia or an unknown country, along with a separate 50 percent steel tariff, NBC reported.

“I was very shocked when it showed up, and the delivery driver was like, ‘This is going to be $657 to collect your package,’” she said.

Hardy-Compagno is still trying to get the matter sorted out with UPS. She refused the order, but is still being dunned for it.

“It is chaos trying to get it resolved,” she told the network. “I’ve been calling at least once a week for two months. I have been emailing.”

In one communication, UPS sent a form asking her to disclose the quantities of aluminum in the cosmetics — “which I have no idea,” she told NBC. The product label lists the ingredients, but not the quantities.

In the latest round of correspondence, UPS sent an invoice for a $65 late fee, and had also referred the bill for the cosmetics to collections.

“At this point, I’m like, ‘It would have been cheaper for me to fly to Paris,” Hardy-Compagno said.

“The problem,” the E-Merchants Trade Council’s Rowden told Money, “is that customers may not know that they’re liable for that [cost] until the item shows up with a duty bill.”

Small Business Shipments Held Up

Although mega retailers have largely been able to absorb added fees, small businesses and independent sellers have been forced to update shipping policies and pass the fees on to customers, in some cases doubling or even tripling the purchase price.

Businesses are also being caught off guard by the tariffs, which often show up just before delivery. Buyers typically see the charge on their online account with the mail carrier or receive a text message containing a payment link.

Due to complex, unfamiliar trade regulations, small sellers inevitably make administrative errors, which can cause packages to be held up at customs, even if the payment is complete, Kyle Peacock, company principal at Peacock Tariff Consulting, told Money.

“All of a sudden, businesses that never had trouble with the import process are having their shipments held up because they didn’t do a particular thing that they were never told they had to do,” Peacock said.

Fewer Online Offerings, Exorbitant Fees

Of the estimated $1 trillion in holiday spending, about $253.4 billion will occur online, Adobe Analytics estimates.

Consumers may find fewer online offerings for specialty goods such as European yarn or tea from Japan. Some specialty businesses have stopped selling in the United States, according to Money, and others may allow purchases, but add exorbitant shipping fees.

News station KGO reported that Paul Michel, of Redwood City, California, resident ordered a part for a kitchen appliance that listed for $20.99 on eBay.

But the total in his cart was $10,020.99, with the explanation, “Due to custom policies, the buyer of this item will need to pay import fees to the shipping carrier prior to delivery.”

Michel said he might not have noticed the up-charge if he had hit the “buy it now” button. But he checked the cart first and decided not to purchase the appliance part.

“I was really freaking out — thinking there are people who will click very fast,” he told KGO.

“I don’t know why the U.S. website cannot do as the Canadian one — and just say, ‘We don’t ship here,’” Michel said.

Free Returns Are Disappearing

It used to be that free refunds were part of the transaction, a trade-off for the risk consumers take in buying clothing or shoes, for example, without first trying them on.

Now, rising inflation, the growing volume of online order and higher shipping costs caused some e-commerce retailers to revise their return policies, and consumers may have trouble getting their money back if an item doesn’t fit or needs to be returned for some other reason.

The number of U.S. retailers requiring a return fee has increased to 72 percent, up from 66 percent last year, according to a recent report from the National Retail Federation.

About a third of merchants surveyed for the report said they began charging or increasing their fees for returns due to “economic uncertainty and risk of tariffs.”

Joe & Bella, a seller of adaptive clothing for older adults and people with disabilities, manufactures all of its goods in heavily tariffed China. Customers have enjoyed the perk of free returns since the company’s beginnings in 2020, but that has changed,

Instead of increasing prices, Joe & Bella introduced an optional shipping protection service in July. For a small fee, typically between $1 and $2 per order, this service provides guaranteed shipping protection, free returns, and exchanges. Customers who don’t opt into the service are responsible for the cost of their return labels, which usually runs from $7 to $12 per package.

Co-founder Jimmy Zollo told Modern Retail the company has reduced its previous return-related costs by about 80 percent.

“We were getting crushed on returns. The cost of freight, the cost of shipping. … Nothing has gone down. Especially for businesses our size, the cost of returns and exchanges is significant, and this allows us to control that cost a little bit better,” Zollo said.

“Tariffs are causing a lot of financial pain on brands, and they’re looking for any type of lever to improve profitability,” Jess Meher, a senior vice president at Loop Returns, a company that helps brands automate and streamline the returns and exchanges process, told the outlet.

“A lot of times, if the brand decides to cover a return for a consumer, they might be at a net loss on that overall transaction,” Meher said.

• Related: What's Your Favorite, Most-Cherished Holiday Memory? Fill Out The Patch Survey

But they also risk losing customers who are taking a closer look at return policies before placing their orders.

According to a recent National Retail Federation survey:

• 82 percent said free returns are an important consideration when shopping online, up from 76 percent last year;
• 81 percent said they are reading return policies before shopping with a retailer, up from 77 percent last year; and
• 71 percent said a poor returns experience will make them less likely to shop with a retailer, up from 67 percent in 2024.

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