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By Elisabeth Buchwald, CNN

(CNN) — If your next Amazon order seems more expensive, President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs may be partially to blame, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Tuesday.

Like many retailers, Amazon and its vast network of third-party sellers loaded up on inventory ahead of Trump’s tariff rollout last spring. But that supply ran out by the fall, Jassy said in a CNBC interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“So you start to see some of the tariffs creep into some of the prices, some of the items,” he said. “Some sellers are deciding that they’re passing on those higher costs to consumers in the form of higher prices, some are deciding that they’ll absorb it to drive demand and some are doing something in between.”

The comments are a stark shift from last June, when Jassy said in a CNBC interview that the company had not seen “prices appreciably go up.” That was after Amazon drew the direct ire of Trump and members of his administration following reports that the e-commerce giant planned to display how tariffs were impacting prices.

After Trump spoke with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos at the time, a company spokesperson told CNN the move “was never a consideration for the main Amazon.” It was only being considered for certain products on its spinoff site, Haul, which sells items below $30, the company said.

On Tuesday, though, Jassy said: “We’re going to do everything we can to work with our selling partners to make prices as low as possible for consumers, but you don’t have endless options.”

The White House didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

Amazon isn’t the only retailer warning of higher prices because of tariffs. Walmart, Target and Home Depot and many other companies have publicly said tariffs are making products more expensive. And while overall consumer inflation was modest last year, many businesses surveyed by the Federal Reserve in its latest Beige Book, a collection of anecdotes, warned they’re planning bigger price hikes this year.

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Most brands approach QR Code safety as a trust challenge. The assumption is that consumers hesitate to scan QR Codes because they are wary of scams and do not trust QR Codes.

Uniqode’s consumer survey suggests a different reality. Nearly 60% of respondents say they feel confident scanning QR Codes, and 26% say their trust in QR Codes has actually increased over the past year. Only 14% have come across a QR Code phishing (or quishing) attempt firsthand. This shows that for most people, scanning is already a familiar behavior.

What shapes that behavior is consistency. QR Codes that load quickly, lead where expected, and continue to work over time reinforce confidence. Experiences that break expectations weaken confidence.

For brands, this reframes the challenge. QR Code trust isn’t won through security messaging or scan-time assurances. It’s built through the reliability of every touchpoint already in front of the customer.

Where QR Code Trust Breaks Down

Trust in QR Codes is earned one scan at a time. Each experience either proves they work or suggests they don’t.

The data shows where that trust falls apart. In Uniqode’s consumer survey. 36% of consumers encountered QR Codes that do not scan properly. 29% came across expired or dead links. 27% hit slow-loading or broken destinations.

These failures occur in everyday moments. A QR Code on packaging. A menu at a restaurant. A sign in a store. When the experience breaks at these touchpoints, it leaves a lasting impression.

Over time, those impressions compound. A scan that fails once can be dismissed. Repeated failures reshape expectations. Scanning becomes optional rather than automatic.

This erosion in trust is driven less by security incidents and more by neglect.

QR Codes placed in physical environments often outlive the campaigns they support. As links expire or destinations age, these codes continue to surface, shaping customer expectations. Every neglected QR Code becomes a silent signal, telling customers what to expect when they scan the next time.

What Your Customers Are Evaluating When They Scan

Customers evaluate QR Codes quickly before they scan. These judgments are based on patterns learned from prior interactions. Understanding these five patterns helps you design QR Code experiences that meet customer expectations.

1. Placement

QR Codes tend to live in predictable places, ranging from product packaging and menus to store windows and tickets. When a QR Code appears in a location that matches its purpose, it feels normal to your customers.

However, the moment placement becomes an afterthought, for example, a sticker layered over another sign or placed in a location where scanning feels disconnected from intent, friction appears. Customers pause because the Read more

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In 2025, retail brands faced rising customer expectations, ongoing tariff challenges, geopolitical instability, and omnichannel complexity. These challenges sparked new conversations and a closer look at global supply chains. A recent WSI | Kase survey found that 94% of retail supply chain leaders agree that recent tariff increases have accelerated supply chain decision-making, illustrating the pressure to implement agile adjustments, including geographical changes.

A network rethink, not a single location

Brands making distribution and fulfillment changes in 2026 must shift away from the concept of “one big warehouse,” and instead move toward flexible and resilient networks that embrace multiple nodes, micro-fulfillment, and in the longer term, possible nearshoring or reshoring. Put simply, location matters more than ever. In fact, 89% of retail supply chain leaders believe that proximity builds brand equity, enhancing trust and customer experiences.

Location directly impacts revenue and long-term resilience as well, making location strategy a board-level decision. Where a brand’s inventory sits determines delivery speed, shipping expense, service consistency, and how quickly a brand can respond to demand shifts or disruptions.

That means network decisions influence growth, risk exposure, and competitive advantage, making fulfillment location a strategic choice.

The 2026 reality: Why location matters more than ever

Although for many consumers cost is as important (if not more so) than speed, the expectation for fast delivery is still there. A recent article by McKinsey & Company found that average parcel delivery speed has accelerated by about 40 % since 2020, going from 6.6 days to 4.2 days.

In some markets, particularly in urban areas, delivery expectations are higher. Customers want 1– to 2-day delivery, and at times same-day and even ultra-fast, within a few hours.

Along with customer needs, demand is fragmented across DTC, marketplaces, retail replenishment, and emerging social commerce channels, each with different service-level, packaging, and shipping requirements. Efficiency depends on where inventory is positioned and how well brands can support channels without duplicating stock or inflating costs.

At the same time, rising transportation and real estate costs and labor constraints make poorly placed inventory expensive to move and harder to scale. Location and well-placed nodes become