Again within the spring, “Made in USA” grew to become considered one of Amazon’s hottest search phrases. Nervousness round tariff-induced value hikes had customers punching in patriotic queries, giving on-line retailers hope that home manufacturing might give them a aggressive edge.
However the momentum proved fleeting. New knowledge from Momentum Commerce, a retail consultancy, reveals that searches for “Made in America” merchandise have since collapsed, reverting by July 2025 to just about an identical ranges because the prior 12 months. And even at their peak, these searches barely translated into gross sales.
Based on Momentum Commerce’s evaluation, April and Might 2025 noticed search quantity for “Made in USA” and associated phrases double in comparison with the prior summer time, topping 1.7 million month-to-month queries. But the corresponding share of top-selling merchandise with U.S. origin claims of their titles by no means rose above 1.5%.
Throughout two weeks in April, the share of “Made in USA” merchandise in Amazon’s prime 100 class bestsellers ticked as much as about 1.4% earlier than falling again beneath 1%.
“There was a surge in curiosity. There was a slight surge in purchases, however that was very short-lived in each respects,” Andrew Waber, director of market analysis at Momentum Commerce, advised Fashionable Retail in an interview. The gross sales bump lasted solely a matter of weeks, and customers rapidly reverted to cheaper options, he added.
Worth over origin
That sample underscores a broader development: U.S. shoppers have gotten extra value-oriented and fewer motivated by country-of-origin cues.
Momentum Commerce discovered that common promoting costs on Amazon’s weekly prime 1,000 bestsellers have constantly declined since April, with search exercise more and more shifting towards family staples and grocery objects. “Shoppers are typically looking out extra typically on Amazon for extra family, essential-type items,” Waber mentioned. “Individuals are clearly trying to find worth.”
A brand new shopper survey from The Convention Board reinforces the purpose. Primarily based on polling of three,000 U.S. adults, the share of shoppers who mentioned “Made in USA” made them extra seemingly to purchase a product fell 18% since 2022.
For sellers, the collapse of the “Made in America” wave is a warning towards over-investing in patriotism as a advertising hook. Earlier this 12 months, many manufacturers rushed to replace their Amazon listings with American flags, tariff-free claims and even “Not Made in China” tags.
Momentum Commerce’s findings counsel these bets haven’t paid off. “Gross sales tendencies present that manufacturers can’t depend on trumpeting home origins as a significant technique to drive gross sales quantity,” the agency wrote in a report printed Aug. 18.
As an alternative, sellers ought to emphasize value competitiveness, reductions and availability, Waber mentioned. “The concept of the nation of origin of a product being a extremely huge figuring out consider how persons are spending their cash — we simply don’t see an enormous diploma of proof of that, no less than at massive scale,” he mentioned.
The fading U.S. development might even be spilling into Canada. A lot of Momentum’s shoppers are seeing Canadian Amazon progress lag behind their U.S. enterprise, typically turning unfavorable. Waber pointed to rising Canadian dissatisfaction with U.S. overseas coverage, which has spurred some Canadian shoppers to shun American merchandise, as Fashionable Retail beforehand reported.
That’s the case for Greg Shugar, who runs Beau Ties of Vermont, a Vermont-based firm that makes woven silk jacquard neckwear and equipment and sells them via each direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels, together with Amazon.com. He just lately had a longtime Canadian buyer reject a $192 CAD order as a result of a $68 responsibility that was tacked on. In the meantime, one other buyer advised Shugar he would not be shopping for from him, citing political causes. The corporate’s Canadian gross sales have dropped from 8% of its whole enterprise to lower than 1%.
Whereas “Made in USA” advertising might resonate with some U.S. customers, they may alienate Canadian shoppers, forcing American sellers to rethink how they place themselves in Canada. “Particularly in the event you’re working in an area with Canadian rivals, you very effectively ought to think about, like, ‘Hey, possibly we wish to sort of soft-pedal any sort of U.S. origins right here,’” Waber mentioned.
Regardless of a burst of curiosity in “Made in America” items, Amazon customers within the U.S. by and enormous stay pushed by value and comfort fairly than country-of-origin considerations. For Amazon sellers, the problem now could be navigating a shopper base that’s extra deal-driven than ever. Certainly, Amazon customers flocked to necessities in the course of the firm’s annual Prime Day sale, utilizing the occasion to top off on on a regular basis fundamentals like protein shakes, dish cleaning soap and paper plates, based on Numerator.
Throughout Amazon’s quarterly earnings, CEO Andy Jassy mentioned tariffs haven’t but induced “diminishing demand” or “significant” value hikes. However he cautioned that the image may shift as soon as pre-tariff stock runs out.
As such, sellers might wish to reallocate budgets towards reductions, testing new value factors and treating “Made in USA” much less as a gross sales driver and extra as a secondary differentiator.
As Waber put it, “Shoppers might have had a fleeting curiosity in, ‘Oh, hey, I wish to take a look at what American-made merchandise are on the market.’ However possibly after they came upon these merchandise weren’t particularly value aggressive, they only went with the product they had been initially going to purchase anyway.”
