Fashion firms across the globe are feeling the aftershocks of President Donald Trump’s recent tariff announcements. In the United Kingdom, the majority of retailers say the trade policy shifts have shaken up their plans for the future.

A study conducted by ESW and Retail Economics based on answers from 200 non-food U.K. retailers (many of which are focused on exports) revealed that the majority (76 percent) are now diversifying away from the United States as an end market.

More from Sourcing Journal

The U.S. represents the biggest non-European retail market for most exporters, and larger retailers have been “radically re-drawing their global growth playbooks as protectionist trade policies upend decades-old export patterns.”

This is less true for smaller retailers, 71 percent of which said they’ve been left without a discernible path forward by the shifts in the U.S.-U.K. trade relationship. Typically less resourced than their larger counterparts, small retailers will feel the impacts of America’s new 10-percent baseline tariff deeply. That change is expected to increase average duties on non-food exports from 2.3 percent to a whopping 17.2 percent.

That’s a hard pill to swallow for any retailer, regardless of size. And if the tariffs increase beyond 22 percent in the future, more than half of all respondents said they would deem trade with the U.S. “commercially unviable.”

“U.K. retailers are undergoing a seismic shift in their export strategies,” said Jon Sheard, vice president of Northern Europe at ESW. “Retailers can no longer be overly reliant on a single trade corridor and are pivoting to new regions, including the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, where we are seeing exponential growth.”

According to the groups’ reporting, the export relationship with the Middle East and North Africa has blossomed in recent years, growing by 34 percent between 2021 and 2024. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) now represents to fastest-growing export market for U.K. retailers outside of the European Union, though non-EU countries in Western Europe have seen notable growth (15 percent), along with Asia-Pacific (6 percent).

According to CEO of Retail Economics Richard Lim, “Tariff volatility is reshaping the global retail landscape.”

Lim believes retailers can no longer rely chiefly on the U.S. as an export market, as they have in the past. “Instead, they’re evaluating new trade routes and pivoting toward high-growth regions to diversify risk and capture new demand,” he said. “Now is the time for exporters to plan and act. Future success will depend on the ability to adapt, localize, and seize emerging trade opportunities.”

Story Continues

Retailers are quickly catching on to this new reality. The report showed that 77 percent view global brand building as a strategic imperative, and two-thirds are even willing to sacrifice some profit margin in favor of export growth.

But there are significant challenges to overcome before these new international growth strategies can reach their full potential. In the near-term, the biggest hurdles include logistics costs, operational complexity and regulatory uncertainty. As they gear up for an evolution in the way that they export, many are looking for turnkey solutions that could help them handle logistics coordination, payments, taxes, customs, tariffs and fees, local marketing and positioning in front of new audiences.

U.K. retailers believe they have a distinctive advantage that will give them a leg up, though: 40 percent said that “Made in the U.K.” label00ing and messaging carries a perception of premium quality because of the country’s modernized safety and regulatory standards.