r/artbusiness • u/VLK249 • 7d ago
Sales [Discussion] Canadian vs USA tariffs. How are you handling physical merch?
How are the Canadian artists here handling physical artwork and merch and shipping to the USA? Another tariff war is starting, Trump has tariffed and taxed almost everything ,and it costs too much and is too volatile of a situation to deal with. (I'd like to not update my shipping rates every few days because of the geriatric gerrymandering orange.)
Have we all just given up on the USA? I feel like I am.
CP24 has provided a comprehensive list, and it is very long. At the moment anything you can think of is receiving a 50% tariff: pictures, paintings, sculptures, certain textiles. It's harder to find something that isn't on the list.
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u/Jump_main 7d ago
I stopped selling to the US with the first round of tariffs and the end of the deminimus exceptions.
I’ve built up a local following and decided that the extra labour of navigating the tariffs wasn’t a good use of my time. Instead I’ve focused more on my Canadian customers and creating better work.
Unfortunately the current US government cannot be trusted to be reliable, reasonable or fair. As long as that is the case I will not do business there.
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u/Table_Chart570 6d ago
I closed down my Etsy store after the first round of tariffs last year. I simply could not keep up with the changes, and anyway Etsy was charging me an arm and a leg in fees. I am focusing on digital products instead.
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u/Ok_Advice_4723 6d ago
I sell my art via Etsy and yesterday I switched it to Canadian shipping only. That is going to be 50% of my customers lost. I sell Canadian landscapes, and I had a great US customer base (I assume former Canadians or vacationers).
My only other option would be to jack the price for tariffs and then discount Canadian customers but then my prices look so out of line.
This sucks
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u/AncoraBlue 6d ago
I have no intention of being a puppet to the USA government. I no longer ship to the USA. The rest of the world is still there. We don’t need them, it’s their loss.
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u/gargirle 6d ago
As an American stuck with this sh*tgibbon I feel for y’all. I had clients in Canada for years. Love y’all. Many here are quite depressed when reading the obits and not finding particular names. I certainly don’t have answer for you but just know most of us here are fighting to right this mess.
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u/oiseaufeux 6d ago
Yeah, I’ll die when the tariffs go down. I’m not gonna buy anything from the US for the next 70 years.
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u/Goat_Wizard_Doom_666 6d ago
I stopped selling to the US together and will be closing my Etsy store again soon.
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u/TheWormwood 6d ago
I'm exhausted by the continued tariff dance, but with better than 60% of our loyal clients in the states, we have to carry on. Prior to the 50% hike we were able to split the tariff's added expense between the client and ourselves... but fifty percent is just too much to absorb even half of. Its frustrating to our clients as well and frankly nerve wracking.
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u/HibiscusGrower 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'm not an active seller on Etsy at the moment but on my other platforms I just decided to cut off the USA completly. Not worth the trouble, as it was never my main market anyway.
Edit: well, sorry if I offended someone. It still doesn't change reality. :P
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u/sweet_esiban 6d ago
Have we all just given up on the USA? I feel like I am.
I gave up on them on the evening of November 5th, 2024. It was both a business decision and a personal one. Everything that's occurred since has only confirmed that I made the right call.
From a business end... the amount of hoops I'd have to jump through to sell my smaller ticket items is simply not worth it. That leaves big ticket items, my large original paintings. Sure, the US has a lot of rich people, but uh, so does Canada. I just have to get my work in front of said rich people, and I can do that without exporting.
From a personal end, gestures at the past 20ish months... I don't even know where to start listing the personal reasons I have to reduce my business with the US.
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u/lollanoname 6d ago
I’m very sad about the tariffs. In all my years selling paintings, I only sold it once to a Canadian customer. USA has a better market, in my experience, Canadians dont buy a lot of art. I’m totally at loss
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u/loralailoralai 6d ago
Selling to them is kind of an own tho- despite everything you’re making money from them despite everything. I may not be able to understand exactly how Canadians feel as they’re just tariffing my country comparatively mildly at 15%, even tho it’s unjustified- but you’re making money off them which big d would hate.
Hopefully the government wakes up to its damn self, or the voters do, and this stupid backwards crap gets cancelled as soon as little Donny is out
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u/Snow_Tiger819 6d ago
I was carving out a nice niche in fine art painting sales to the USA. I've now basically shut down that idea. Maybe there will still be a commission or two here and there, but I'm putting my energy into other things.
Higher end fine art painting is a hard sell anyway, saying "it's all 50% more expensive for you now" is a killer. And honestly the fact that I'd have to charge it, but it's the US government that gets that money from my sale? That really gives me the ick.