Mauvais navigates US tariffs

With new US tariffs hitting retailers, British fashion brand MAUVAIS has been able to keep trading compliantly and soften the cost impact thanks to a rapid integration delivered by leading iPaas provider Patchworks and its partner Cogent2.

To minimise the effect, MAUVAIS used its US entity and adopted a transfer pricing model, advised by US tax lawyers. This allows goods to be sold to the US subsidiary at a lower transfer price before being sold to American customers, so duties are charged on the lower value.

But making that work in practice required new system integrations. Jordan Jones, CEO of MAUVAIS, even put out a LinkedIn call at the beginning of August asking if anyone could connect Shopify and Mintsoft within 14 days to support the model.

Patchworks answered the call, and its partner Cogent2 delivered the integration in only 14 days. As a result, MAUVAIS went live in the US in time for tariff day, with compliant invoices and pricing in place.

Jordan Jones, CEO of Mauvais, said: “We needed a solution quickly to keep selling in the US under the new tariff rules. Thanks to Patchworks and Cogent2, we were live within 14 days and trading compliantly. The impact hasn’t gone away – our polos and trousers have risen from $65 to $75 – but it’s far less than it could have been. Many retailers won’t be able to move this fast.”