Global supply chains have become more resilient in recent years, but volatility remains the norm. Tariffs are now one of the biggest external forces influencing sourcing decisions, inventory planning, pricing, and cash flow. Businesses that continue relying on reactive planning risk falling behind. Those that strengthen forecasting and scenario planning can adapt more easily.
As Christian Eick, Head of Purchasing at Feuerschutz Jockel GmbH & Co. KG, explains, better planning makes it possible to respond to disruptions, including tariff-related changes, before they become costly problems:
“Netstock may not be able to clear the Suez Canal, reopen closed ports, or provide higher shipping capacity, but thanks to Netstock, we can anticipate the logistical impact and activate a Plan B early enough. I can’t even imagine how we would have gotten through this year without Netstock.”
Struggling with rising tariffs and supply chain uncertainty?
Learn how SMBs are using smarter planning, forecasting, and inventory strategies to navigate tariff volatility with confidence.
Quick insights about medium and small business tariff impacts
- In 2025, 75% of SMBs didn’t have a plan to manage tariff-impacted costs, leaving many exposed when rates shift with little warning.
- 57% were taking a “wait-and-see” approach. This is a short-term response that often costs more than proactive planning. As a result, only 21% of SMBs decided to wait and monitor the situation in 2026.
- With this shift, 82% of SMBs feel more prepared than just a year ago.
- Regularly recalculating landed cost, rather than relying on outdated ERP assumptions, is one of the fastest ways SMBs are protecting margins and finding real cost savings.
- Trade war-era volatility is pushing more businesses toward tariff engineering by adjusting sourcing, classification, or product design to legally reduce duty exposure. As a result, scenario planning becomes a core discipline.
The rules have changed for SMBs
Supply chains were once built on steady assumptions: predictable policy, reliable transport, and low variability. But those days are behind us. Governments are imposing tariffs with little warning, and policy changes, rising regulations, and compliance requirements keep piling up. Supply chain teams have far less time to evaluate sourcing strategies and adjust inventory before tariffs affect their costs.
SMBs often feel this pressure most because they typically have fewer suppliers, less purchasing leverage, and smaller trade compliance teams than larger enterprises. Much of this volatility traces back to shifting trade policy in the United States, where tariff rates and enforcement can change with little notice. It’s no surprise that many businesses are rethinking how they forecast demand, plan inventory, and respond to ongoing tariff volatility.
You can’t afford to ignore tariffs
In 2025, 75% of SMBs didn’t have a plan in place to manage the impact of tariffs. With 57% of SMBs taking a “wait-and-see” approach, many delayed action and placed their business at risk.
According to Netstock’s latest Tariff Impact Report, however, these businesses didn’t sit idle for long. In 2026, only 21% of SMBs chose to wait and continue to monitor the situation. The others chose action to protect their service levels and bottom line.
So, what does that look like in practice? The following strategies show how SMBs are turning tariff volatility into an opportunity through stronger forecasting, smarter inventory planning, and more resilient supply chain decisions.
Discover insights from Netstock’s report.
Turning the challenge into an opportunity: Tariff impact planning
While you can’t control the tariff impact on the supply chain, you can plan for it. With the right strategies and AI-powered supply and demand planning, you’ll be more prepared and proactive. You’ll also gain the flexibility needed to protect your margins and stay competitive.
1. Prepared: Equip your business with real-time insights
Preparation begins with understanding the landscape. With the right data and insights, you can anticipate potential impacts before they occur. In a tariff environment, that means understanding landed cost changes and identifying tariff-impacted SKUs. It also means evaluating supplier risk and seeing how policy shifts could affect inventory investment before they impact the business.
Real-time scenario planning is absolutely vital. Imagine running “what-if” scenarios to gauge the effects of tariff increases of 10% or 20% on your costs and margins. By doing so, you can adjust your inventory strategies proactively to shield your bottom line. For instance, Edwards Garment, a US-based uniform apparel distributor, leveraged Netstock’s “what-if” analysis to navigate supply chain disruptions.
By adjusting lead times in their planning models, they could assess the financial impact of changes and make informed decisions. This proactive approach enabled them to reduce annual write-offs by $900,000, demonstrating the power of scenario planning in mitigating supply chain-related risk and protecting margins.
“The flexibility of Netstock and how we can slice and dice the information has allowed us to gain insights and plan with more precision and ease.” – Steven Allgood, Director of Inventory Management, Edwards Garment
2. Proactive: Embrace predictive forecasting
Being proactive means leveraging predictive forecasting to stay ahead of the curve. By analyzing demand trends, you can prioritize high-margin products and minimize exposure to tariff-related losses. Use the right tools to monitor how your suppliers are performing, so you can gain better visibility into lead times, improve supplier information, and optimize your network.
One Australia-based company, Tradeware, now shares 12-month projected order forecasts with suppliers, giving them greater visibility and time to plan. This longer planning horizon helps suppliers prepare for demand, secure materials, and respond more effectively to changing costs or tariff conditions before they affect product availability. The result is stronger supplier partnerships and greater flexibility when market conditions change as a result of supply chain disruptions or even planned promotions.
“By leveraging Google trends data, we can gauge consumer interest on new products and incorporate these insights to construct accurate seasonality curves for products lacking historical data. It’s a game-changing capability.” – Nick Colebatch, Inventory and Supply Chain Analyst, Tradeware
3. Profitable: Make smart decisions to protect your margins
Profitability hinges on making informed decisions that protect your working capital. Regularly recalculating costs as tariffs change helps ensure pricing, replenishment decisions, and inventory investments are based on current rates rather than outdated ERP assumptions. In some cases, protecting margins means you need to raise prices on select SKUs; in others, smaller, targeted price increases are enough to offset rising costs without losing customers.
Balance your stock smartly to buffer against disruptions without overcommitting resources. Optimize your product mix by reducing low-turnover and low-margin SKUs, focusing instead on high-value items. By redistributing excess stock to higher demand areas, you can maintain a healthier cash flow and reduce unnecessary expenses.
Race Winning Brands used the Excess Redistribution functionality to reallocate nearly €400,000 in excess inventory across their network. A single transfer of about €50,000 led to immediate sales. By shifting stock where it was needed most, they freed up capital and gained tighter control over their inventory.
“Since moving our kitting operations to Europe and using Netstock, we’ve gained crucial visibility into our inventory – we always know what actions to take. Even when we had initial challenges with increased demand, Netstock helped us stay on top of our inventory management. It was just that easy.”
Best practices for managing inventory during tariff changes
Tariff volatility requires more disciplined, long-term planning. These practices can help SMBs respond to changing trade conditions while protecting service levels and working capital.
- Review inventory policies more frequently: Revisit reorder points, safety stock, and planning assumptions as tariff policies, supplier costs, and lead times change.
- Prioritize high-impact SKUs: Focus planning efforts on the products that contribute the most to revenue, profitability, or customer service instead of applying the same strategy across every item.
- Model multiple planning scenarios: Evaluate the impact of different tariff rates, supplier options, and demand forecasts before making sourcing or purchasing decisions. Model multiple sourcing strategies side by side to see which options hold up best under different tariff scenarios.
- Strengthen cross-functional planning: Keep procurement, finance, sales, and supply chain teams aligned so inventory, pricing, and sourcing decisions are based on the same information.
- Monitor results and adjust quickly: Track forecast accuracy, inventory levels, supplier performance, and landed costs so you can respond before small issues become costly disruptions.
Quick practical wins you can action today
- Educate your team on tariff implications
- Form a tariff response team to track and act on changes
- Run ‘what-if’ tariff scenarios on your top 5 SKUs
- Audit your supplier base for risk exposure
- Review landed cost assumptions in your ERP
- Adjust safety stock levels in high-risk tariff zones
- Keep communication open with key suppliers
- Review and update supplier and vendor contracts with tariff clauses
- Leverage AI planning solutions for smarter decision-making
AI planning solutions are your strategic partner for tariff volatility
A smarter way to manage demand and supply is with purpose-built AI solutions that offer data security. With its precision and speed, AI identifies key insights and anomalies down to the SKU level, helping you make smarter, more strategic decisions.
For example, AI can automatically flag unexpected supplier cost increases and identify products affected by changing lead times. It can also recommend replenishment adjustments before tariff-related disruptions impact inventory availability. When you invest in Netstock’s AI, you immediately gain an “always-on demand planner” on your team. It’s no bot, just a real inventory expert to help you focus on the areas that need urgent attention. Integrating AI gives you the confidence to plan proactively, adapt to change, and protect your margins.
Netstock’s AI is built for your business
Let’s talk about what you need to navigate tariff volatility
Tariff volatility may be unavoidable, but with the right planning strategy, it doesn’t have to define your business.
You don’t have to face disruption alone. Netstock is your strategic partner. Trusted by over 2,500 businesses worldwide, Netstock gives you access to a team of 100+ supply chain experts dedicated to your success. We’ll work with you to build a smarter, more resilient inventory strategy so you can stay prepared, proactive, and profitable, no matter what comes next.
