CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Online shoppers are experiencing sticker shock as tariffs drive up prices on popular shopping apps like Shein and Temu.
Jackie Ruiz, a veteran online shopper who frequently uses these apps for beauty products, shoes, clothes, and home items, has noticed significant price increases.
"$5 for a whole pack of lashes, and it's like a book, and it's 5 of them, and now it went up to $35," Ruiz said.
The price jumps caught Ruiz by surprise when trying to buy the same caddy rack again on Shein.
"I paid for like $2 the last time I used it, and then that went up to like $12,” Ruiz said. “I was like, oh like what's the big jump so then when I went to my cart check out, it'll usually give you like a breakdown of taxes and stuff. I just thought it was like an extra tax."
Ruiz is among many shoppers receiving notifications from Shein and similar apps that tariffs are affecting product prices.
Dr. Jason Haevilin, a finance professor at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, said it's hard to know when the tariff turmoil will go away and prices come back to normal.
"So tariffs, it's a strategy that the government uses to control imports coming from another country, and what it does, it adds, it's like a tax that it adds to it, when the product comes in the port," Haevilin said.
Haevilin said the harsh reality is that prices may not come down, especially if there's no motivation for online businesses to lower them.
"It's one of those things that we have to see how it plays out and be able to analyze it, to see if the price increase was just tariff or the seller taking advantage of that as an excuse to even increase even more," Haevilin said.
The price increases are already changing shopping habits for consumers like Ruiz.
"I'm just a little bit more hesitant on what I'm buying, trying to be a little bit more safer with my purchases,” Ruiz said. “I like to color coordinate with my kids down to like the hairstyles and the clips. I might not be able to do that anymore."
While Ruiz plans to continue shopping at Shein, she's now exploring more affordable alternatives.
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