By Mark Seavy  

After nearly a year of tariff-related costs, a more stable market is emerging at retail—albeit at higher prices. 

Moving forward, there appears to be little chance that consumer and wholesale prices will retreat to pre-tariff levels, licensing executives said. In fact, some will only continue to increase. 

But with many suppliers moving to shift production outside of China, the industry appears better prepared for tariff-related changes. For example, dinnerware company Portmeirion has shifted some manufacturing of its Spode collection with the “Christmas Tree” pattern (dinner and salad plates, cups, and saucers) back to its Stoke-on-Trent, U.K. plant.  

Ty Inc., meanwhile, increased the wholesale price for its entry-level Beanie Babies to $3 on January 1 (up by 50 cents) for an item that sells for $6.99, said Laura Lsiedlecki, an Account Executive at Ty. The larger size Beanie Buddies (13-21 inches) and Jumbo Beanie Boos (16-18 inches) had their prices increased 15-20%, she said.  

And Bioworld Merchandising increased its wholesale prices by 8-12% last year, which resulted in retail prices rising 6-12%, said Kyle Corcoran, VP of Omni Channel Sales at Bioworld. 

“We don’t like tariffs, but at least we can plan for them now and everybody is in the same boat,” said Christopher Martin, National Sales Manager at Picnic Time, which shifted some production of its professional sports-licensed cutting boards to suppliers in Mexico and production of its barware to India to offset some tariff-related costs. “We worked hard with our supply chain and leaned on our factories as much as we could, negotiated and tightened everything. But there was no way around it [increasing prices]. We cannot be doing this for free.”  

Indeed, Hasbro—which has been reducing its reliance on factories in China for several years—expects tariff-related cost to hit $60 million this year, up from $40 million in 2025, CFO Gina Goetter told analysts in a conference call. Hasbro has worked to offset tariffs with “supply chain productivity” and has experienced a “normalized retail order pattern” compared with a year ago when some retailers halted shipments, Goetter said.  

Even companies like cutting board supplier JK Adams, which makes most products at its plant in the U.S., has seen price increases for freight and cardboard used for packaging, said Sharon Rishell, National Sales Manager at JK Adams. 

“Retailers are being cautious and are ordering exactly what they need and there isn’t a lot of fluff,” said Rishell, whose company also produces private label goods for Williams-Sonoma and is increasing wholesale prices less than 10% on four to five items this year.  

Many suppliers see this year as an opportunity to get a firm handle on tariff-related costs and aim to have a more balanced business between price and volume by 2027.  

The Hershey Co., for example, is forecasting some wholesale prices to increase 10%, but is trying to develop “unique packages” at “affordable price points,” CEO Kirk Tanner told analysts. And while the U.S. households with the highest income are absorbing the higher prices and driving demand, pennies are being pinched for consumers below that level, Tanner said.  

And a new report from The Budget Lab at Yale anticipates that some categories could be hit harder than others by tariffs this year, including apparel, leather goods like shoes and handbags, electronics, and motor vehicles. Those higher prices could translate into hundreds or even thousands of dollars in added annual costs for households (depending on income), as tariffs are largely passed on to consumers.  

“We have tried to hold prices, but there is only so much you can do before you have to pass through an increase,” said Matthew Katz, Director of Licensing and Senior Brand Manager at FOCO, which manufactures most of its sports-related novelty items, like bobbleheads, in China and recently signed a new licensing agreement with ESPN.