Why free-shipping thresholds likely rise before Black Friday: 3 signals

USPS, UPS and FedEx all repriced holiday parcel delivery within five weeks, closing the cheap lane retailers used to absorb past surcharge cycles. Signals point to at least three top-50 US online retailers raising a published free-shipping threshold, or gating it behind membership, before Black Friday on November 27, 2026.

USTR textile quota lands September 1: apparel duty tied to US cotton

textile tariff quota

USTR may implement textile and apparel tariff-rate quotas for Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia no earlier than September 1, with qualifying volume tied to each economy’s purchases of US cotton and textile inputs. No implementing notice has been published, leaving importers pricing autumn orders against the flat 10% Section 301 forced-labor rate.

Walmart pours $2.9bn tariff refund into price cuts: comps hit 6-year low

Walmart tariff refunds fund price rollbacks across US store aisles

Walmart said it received close to $2.9 billion in IEEPA tariff refunds during its fiscal second quarter and channelled the money into more than 11,000 price rollbacks. The windfall lifted operating income 28.8%, yet the shares fell about 9% as US comparable sales slowed to their weakest pace in roughly six years.