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Lead story

Tariffs moved again. Check every Q4 quote with imported goods.

Three things for a distributor to know. Already in effect: imports from 60 countries pay an extra 10% or 12.5% under a US tariff law called Section 301, and most catalogs do not say where a product is made. Since August 22 a 50% tariff applies to many Canadian goods, and Canada hit back on September 8 with its own 15% to 50% duties on US goods, including clothing. On September 16 the Fed raised rates for the first time since 2023, so buying inventory early to beat tariffs now costs more in interest too. Next date: September 29, when some Canadian tariffs become import bans.

PPAI, Federal Reserve, Counselor · 5 min readEvery date, rate and what to re-quote →

By the numbers. What changed, and what it costs.

60Countries whose goods now pay an extra 10% or 12.5% at the US border. Most catalogs do not show country of origin.
3.75 to 4%The Fed's interest rate after the September 16 increase, on a 12 to 0 vote. All but two members expect another rise this year.
50%Canada's top counter-tariff on US goods since September 8, on a list that includes clothing and apparel.

Five things to know

What moved between Aug 21 to Sep 20.

Holiday retail will pass $1 trillion for the first time. Half of the growth is price.

Two forecasts landed in one week. Bain expects November and December retail sales to grow 4.5% to $1.016 trillion, with online up 9% and stores up 2.5%; it says inflation accounts for more than half of the increase. Deloitte puts the season at $1.70 to $1.71 trillion, up 4.0% to 4.8%. Bain's growth categories are clothing, accessories and general merchandise. Flat: home goods, electronics, food.

Takeaway Use 4% to 5% as the number in every Q4 budget conversation. Then quote apparel and accessories, the categories that are growing, instead of volume trinkets.

Retail Dive, Deloitte · Sep 10

A $30 Owala bottle sold out at Target in hours. The product was not new. The print was.

Owala's Pokémon FreeSip bottles launched September 16 as a Target exclusive at $29.99, five designs in 16 and 30 ounce sizes, and were completely sold out online the same day. Same month, Starbucks put out a ten-item Peanuts collection: a $39.95 Snoopy glass cup with a limit of two per customer, and crewnecks and hats that only loyalty members can buy.

Takeaway Neither company invented a product. They licensed a print, capped the quantity and set a date. Pitch one client a numbered, limited drinkware run tied to an anniversary or sales kickoff, and quote the flip-lid bottle style the market is chasing.

NBC News, Today · Sep 16

Starbucks tiers its merch by loyalty level. That is how a recognition program should work.

The Peanuts collection is priced in steps: a $14.95 pin set and $16.95 charm for anyone, $29.95 to $39.95 mugs, tumblers and totes in stores, then $69.95 to $79.95 crewnecks and hoodies for Rewards members only and a corduroy hat for Reserve members only. The glass cup, limit two, resells for around $200.

Takeaway Draft a three-step gift ladder for one client this week: mug, tumbler, embroidered crewneck. Use the retail prices above as the perceived value, and tie each step to a milestone.

Today, Seattle Times · Sep 15

commonsku's new automation chases stalled orders for you. Its AI agents are not here until Q4.

commonsku is the platform many distributors run quotes and orders on. Two weeks after it launched the Automation Engine, 95 distributors had turned it on and it had created more than 3,000 follow-up tasks for orders that sat too long. The AI agents it has talked about are still promised for Q4, and only on the two higher-priced plans.

Takeaway commonsku says an average project takes 41 days from first presentation to invoice. Time yours. If you are slower, the problem is follow-up, not selling.

commonsku · Sep 17

Syncore just fixed the three places distributor orders go wrong.

Facilisgroup shipped a Syncore update on September 1 aimed at the messy middle of an order. A new Organizations Dashboard shows an account's sales, rankings, contact activity and receivables in one place. Product Search shows image, price and live inventory up front and ranks Preferred Supplier products first, where the margin is. And a guided Product Wizard captures every colour, decoration method and location before a quote goes out, so suppliers stop calling to clarify.

Takeaway Cleaner orders are the cheapest margin there is. If you are on Syncore, put the Product Wizard in front of every rep this week and watch the supplier clarification emails drop.

Facilisgroup · Sep 1

What to sell now

Five programs that remove a buyer's risk. Reported is what the source says. The move is our read.

HR programs

A welcome kit for new hires, sold to the head of hiring

An Adobe survey of more than 1,000 US workers who started a job in the last two years, reported by HR Dive, found new hires get 13 onboarding documents in week one and spend about 12 hours reading them. 44% kept half or less of it, and more than one in five questioned their decision to join because of how onboarding went. Separately, distributor Social Imprints says most 'pre-boarding' kits cost $35 to $75 and ship within 72 hours of a signed offer.

The move HR is hearing that onboarding is paperwork, not welcome. A box is the easy human counterweight. Build a one-page first-day kit, three to five items at one price per head, and send it to the HR contact at your top 20 accounts with the 13-documents number as the opener.

HR Dive
Events

Live customization at the booth, proven at Lollapalooza

Comfort Colors, the Gildan brand, was Lollapalooza's official printwear supplier this year. Its studio ran a photo booth that matched each guest to a shade and a 'shade wall' that unlocked prizes, including custom airbrushed T-shirts, hats and bags made on the spot. Gildan's brand marketing director said lines wrapped around the studio all weekend, in the rain.

The move The biggest blank maker in the industry is spending its own money to make Comfort Colors a name people ask for. Charge for it. Add an on-site airbrush or heat-press option to your next event or trade show proposal, and plan the line on purpose: the wait is when reps talk.

Gildan
Q4 program

Full-colour calendars at the price of one colour

Koozie Group, a large supplier, installed a new digital press at its calendar plant in Minnesota. Full-colour printing is now standard at no extra charge on its desk pads, executive calendars and contractor calendars. All 75 styles now have guaranteed stock, and the minimum order size went down.

The move Sell it as a year of weekly exposure that costs a fraction of a cent per view, using full-colour art the client already owns. Because minimums dropped, small offices and branch locations can order too.

PPAI PromoWire
Retail brands

Hydro Flask, Yeti fall colours and the $10 licensed upcharge

Gemline, a promo supplier, added 83 Hydro Flask products: bottles, tumblers, mugs, coolers and food containers. At retail, Yeti's September line-up shows what people pay for a print: the same 26-ounce Rambler is $40 in a fall colour and $60 with a college logo, and the 20-ounce tumbler is $35 plain and $50 with a team. Yeti also pushed six new fall colours and a $160 tote.

The move Clients ask for the brands their staff already carry. Hydro Flask through Gemline means one purchase order and normal promo terms. And the retail market has already set the price of a logo on a bottle at $10 to $20 extra. Quote a fall-colour refresh now, before holiday stock tightens.

Food Republic
Gifting

Let the recipient choose the gift, with no platform fee

HIRSCH, a top-15 supplier, launched Gratigy, a free online tool where a distributor sets up a 'redemption store'. The client's employees or customers go to the store and pick their own gift. Only redemption stores are available at launch. HIRSCH says a store takes under ten minutes to set up with no technical work; that is the company's own claim.

The move Some clients say no to a single gift because sizes and tastes vary. Offer a store where each person picks. The software fee that used to make this too expensive for small groups is now zero.

PPAI PromoWire

Margin and sourcing rules

Five rules for the quarter, each led by the number that changed.

60 countries

Give every quote an expiry date, a country of origin and an option B.

Any quote with goods from the 60 affected countries or from Canada should say when the price expires and which country you assumed the goods come from. There is no single tariff rate to look up per product, so the assumption has to be written down. Then show what changes in cost and delivery if the goods come from somewhere else, so the client chooses and you are not the one stuck with a surprise.

PPAI tracker →
$134.7B

Tariff refunds: the next window opens October 6. Check you are eligible before you count on it.

Earlier in 2026 the Supreme Court struck down tariffs imposed under an emergency-powers law called IEEPA, and importers who paid them can get the money back. By September 11, US Customs had processed about $134.7 billion in refunds. From October 6 a third round covers older, closed entries, but only for importers whose importer-of-record number was on file with Customs by July 30. Refunds arrive by bank transfer 60 to 90 days after the claim is accepted. If a supplier paid those tariffs on your goods in 2025, ask whether any of it reaches your price. Most will not offer it unless asked.

Supply Chain Dive →
$2.50

Holiday shipping fees start September 27. Put them in every Q4 kit quote now.

UPS peak fees begin September 27 and run to January 16, with the heaviest period November 22 to December 26: $0.50 to $2.50 extra per residential package and $8.75 to $11.90 for anything needing extra handling, up 6% to 25% on last year. USPS raises Priority Mail and Ground Advantage prices about 6% from October 4 to January 17. UPS expects its US volume to jump 24% from Q3 to Q4.

Supply Chain Dive →
$7,712

Do not promise pre-Thanksgiving delivery on anything not already on the water.

A 40-foot container from Shanghai to Los Angeles cost $7,712 in the week of September 17, up 5%; to New York, $10,394, up 7%. Carriers cancelled nine transpacific sailings for the following week ahead of China's Golden Week holiday on October 1, and Drewry expects rates to rise again. The Port of Los Angeles just had its busiest three months ever, so the dock is fine; the squeeze is on the ocean leg.

Drewry World Container Index →
$3M

Claim your JDS credit before you quote awards.

JDS Industries, a supplier of awards and sublimation blanks, is giving more than $3 million back to customers whose purchases were affected by tariffs. It comes as a credit on your JDS account for future orders. Check your account and use it before you price Q4 recognition programs.

GRAPHICS PRO →

Workflow upgrades

Three things a small team can switch on this month, none of them promo-specific.

Upgrade 01

Ask Gemini what you invoiced a client last year, from inside the email you are writing.

On September 15 Google connected Gemini in Gmail, Docs and Sheets to QuickBooks, HubSpot, Salesforce and Mailchimp. It is included on the Business Standard and Business Plus plans and switched on by default, so there is nothing to buy. A rep drafting a follow-up can pull the account's order history without opening another tab. A week earlier Google added drafting a recap email straight from meeting notes.

Google Workspace →
Upgrade 02

If you pay for HubSpot, turn on the mobile notetaker for one rep this week.

HubSpot's fall release adds a CRM that updates itself from calls, emails and meetings, a mobile notetaker, and an assistant that drafts outreach and reports from a plain-English request. HubSpot claims a customer now goes from quote to signature in under 15 minutes. The real fix here is the oldest problem in a distributorship: reps never log the call.

HubSpot →
Upgrade 03

Give your art person a free tool that turns a flat client logo into layers.

Canva's Affinity 3.3, released September 15, stays free on Mac and Windows. It adds a feature that breaks a flattened image into editable layers, batch photo import, scripting for repeat tasks and a natural-language editing assistant. Affinity has seven million downloads and does most of what Illustrator and Photoshop do for artwork cleanup and mockups.

heise online →

Five tests for next week

Small, measurable, one week each. Pick one a day.

Monday's test is the one with money on it: the quotes exposed to the new duties. Source: PPAI.
Test 01

Monday

Check every open apparel and hard-goods quote for country of origin, tariff exposure, an expiry date and a second sourcing option.

The tariff explainer →
Test 02

Tuesday

Send one welcome-kit idea to three heads of hiring, opening with the 13-documents number. Track whether they talk about new hires backing out, not about the product.

HR Dive on onboarding overload →
Test 03

Wednesday

Add one page to an event proposal that says what guests will make or do at the booth, how you will count it, and who follows up.

Gildan on live customization at Lollapalooza →
Test 04

Thursday

Ask three suppliers, in writing, whether tariff refunds, tariff credits or holiday freight changes reach your price. Start with JDS.

The JDS tariff credit →
Test 05

Friday

Time ten quotes from request to first usable option. Draft five with AI, check all ten by hand, and compare.

Gemini connectors for QuickBooks and HubSpot →

Each takes an hour or less and tells you something you can act on by Friday.

In brief

Everything else worth a minute. Each item links out.

Entertainment

Movie studios now order about 5,000 promo pieces per film instead of 30,000 or more, and want them in two weeks

members.asicentral.com · Sep 5

Longer reads

The numbers behind the month, with a source on every line.

Promo software in September. What commonsku, Syncore and ASI actually shipped, and what is still just a promise.

6 min · Sep 17

The September tariff changes, in plain English. What changed, what it costs, and what to re-quote.

4 min · Sep 17

Promo by the numbers. The figures you can safely quote to a client, and the ones that will get you caught.

5 min · Sep 17

Merch worth stealing. Twelve campaigns from this month and the simple trick behind each one.

5 min · Sep 17

Deals and money. Who bought whom this month, what the public companies reported, and what it means for your bids.

3 min · Sep 17