Case Study: Fortune 100 Retailer avoids price hikes and halves validation time with GEP

Fortune 100 Retailer Avoids Price Hikes With Rapid Tariff Impact Intelligence for Supplier Negotiations

A Fortune 100 U.S. retailer with a China‑heavy supply base was overwhelmed by a surge of supplier price‑increase requests—more than 200 per week and over 1,800 requests affecting 1,200+ SKUs—attributed to tariffs. Without a centralized way to validate HTS classifications, duty impacts, and per‑SKU tariff costs, sourcing teams lacked the visibility and data to challenge unjustified hikes and protect margins.

GEP implemented a centralized, SKU‑level tariff repository and near‑real‑time dashboard, standardizing weekly supplier SKU/HTS data, mapping codes to duty schedules, recalculating unit costs, and automating validation workflows. The tool processed over 2,000 requests, cut validation cycle time by 50%, enabled fact‑based negotiations to reject inflated claims, prevented significant cost increases, and established a scalable, repeatable tariff‑management capability.