Key Takeaways

  • Gina Rosen, who runs Seasons Jewelry, finds her "fully landed" cost for imported wholesale jewelry is roughly three times the manufacturer's price, factoring in ocean freight, trucking, and licensing.
  • Moving manufacturing onshore isn't a silver bullet; US producers quoted Gina prices that would double her retail price points (already under $35) and still send items offshore for specialized finishing.
  • Import tariffs didn't just rise; they became additive, causing Gina's net tariff for jewelry to jump from an average of 10-12% to a staggering 48.5% last year.
  • The tariff shock also forced an immediate cash crunch: freight forwarders stopped offering 30-day payment terms, demanding wire transfers for customs duties as soon as product hits port.

Landed Cost Is 3X Manufacturer Price. It's Not Just Freight.

Gina Rosen spent two decades in corporate IT before acquiring Seasons Jewelry, a wholesale business built on importing. What she quickly learned about global supply chains could rewrite your pricing models: the sticker price from your manufacturer is a fraction of your actual cost. Rosen calls it the "fully landed" cost, and for her business, it's roughly three times what she pays the factory.

“Fully landed is not just my cost to manufacture,” Rosen explains, “but it includes getting the product to our warehouse.” This isn't just a simple shipping fee. It covers ocean or air freight (a trade-off between speed and cost), trucking from the port to her facility, and even licensing fees for collegiate products. It's every penny that moves a product from a factory floor overseas to her shelves, ready for sale. If you're only tracking the factory invoice and a basic freight bill, you're missing a huge chunk of reality. Rosen’s experience highlights a critical blind spot for many founders: the hidden, accumulating costs that inflate your true unit economics.

US Manufacturing Won't Fix It. Tariffs Just Got Worse.

When global supply chains feel unpredictable, the siren song of "Made in America" is loud. But for Gina Rosen, the numbers just don't add up. She explored US manufacturing for Seasons Jewelry, hoping to stabilize her costs and lead times. The reality was a brutal dose of economic gravity. For her retail price points, which "don't exceed $35," a US manufacturer told her the cost would "probably double." Imagine a product you wholesale for $13 now costing you $13 to produce. Rosen recounts the conversation: a bestselling piece that costs her $3.50 from her offshore manufacturer would cost her $13 to make in the US.

The problem isn't just labor or materials. It's specialized processes. Even the US manufacturer she spoke with admitted they “send items offshore for different finishings and then bring them back on.” The infrastructure for certain crafts simply isn't available or competitive domestically.

Then came the tariff bomb. Last year, the US tariffs on imported jewelry became additive to existing duties. “Our net tariff went from 10-12% to 48.5%,” Rosen reveals. This wasn't a slight increase; it was a near-quadrupling of import taxes. On top of that, freight forwarders — the companies managing the actual import process — eliminated credit terms. They "stopped offering terms," meaning that “as soon as your product hits port, you have to wire the customs and duties fees” immediately, instead of having 30 days. This shift creates a sudden, massive cash flow requirement that can cripple unprepared importers.