U.S. tariffs have significantly driven up retail prices, research shows, with carpet and other floor coverings topping the list.
That’s according to research from the Harvard Business School Pricing Lab, which revealed that U.S. tariffs have led to markedly higher prices, with imported goods rising roughly 5% to 6.6% on average and domestic goods increasing 2.5% to 3.5% above pre-tariff trends.
Of note, the category “carpets and other floor coverings” bore the largest increase—with prices surging by as much as 54.6% for imports. By contrast, prices for clothing and accessories rose by 21.9%; and coffee & tea increased by 12.8%. Least impacted were household appliances at 5.3%. To measure the impact of the 2025 tariffs, Harvard Business School constructed daily price indices using online data from five major U.S. retailers. These prices were collected on a daily basis by PriceStats. Harvard obtained detailed information on country of origin and tariff classifications for about 350,000 goods, sourced through UPC lookups or generative AI model. It used a simple unweighted matched-model approach to build the price indices, tracking the products over time and chaining geometric averages of daily price relatives within each group.
That carpet and other flooring products finished No. 1 on the list for price hikes came as little surprise to flooring dealers, who say they have felt the weight of the tariffs since the beginning. “There is no doubt we have felt an impact from the tariffs and the war,” said Pete Rubando, president of Giant Carpet One, Scranton, Pa. “We recognized this would be an issue early on and have maintained an aggressive promotional campaign stressing affordability. This has allowed us to maintain reasonably strong retail traffic, but the price increases have affected margins.”
Several flooring retailers said tariffs have been hitting all products, which in turn has stifled business in some areas. “We certainly have seen costs and, correspondingly, our retail pricing go up significantly over the last 18 months,” said Joel Schreier, president of Home Carpet One in Chicago. “We aggressively purchased inventory of our best-selling imported carpets and imported tile before the vendors raised pricing, which has allowed us to keep our stock retail pricing more than competitive. In part, this has contributed to continued growth throughout this period. Now that the tariffs have largely been ruled to be illegal, my fear is that many of the importers will keep their pricing elevated, and I encourage all dealers to push back against this. We have seen a couple vendors back track already and a couple others trying to maintain those increases.”
In most instances, dealers have been able to navigate around the issue by raising prices or focusing on higher-end goods that continue to sell. “We’re just beginning to see price increases take hold on the carpet side, with most adjustments landing in the 5% range,” said Bruce Odette, president of Denver-based Carpet Exchange, with 17 locations. “So far, we’ve been able to use those pending increases as an opportunity to help customers move forward on quotes before higher pricing takes effect, which has softened the immediate impact. Because of that, it’s still too early to fully understand the long-term impact these increases may have on overall demand and buying behavior. At the same time, the broader issue continues to be rising energy costs. Surging gas prices are affecting nearly every part of the supply chain, from manufacturing to transportation, and that pressure continues to influence costs across all flooring categories.”
While many retailers report slower-than-normal activity, they say sales per square foot and margins continue to rise due to the continued cost of materials. “The consumer is asking for higher-quality goods in a smaller quantity for carpet meaning installation is highly skilled resulting in more pay for the labor as well as the better goods,” said Carlton Billingsley, owner of Floors and More, Benton, Ark. “For now, we will continue to see carpet volume decrease and sales per square foot increase.”
Tom Connell, owner of M&M Carpet Showroom in Houston, said it’s difficult to know the effect of increased prices to his business because his business has been up during this period of inflation. “We have seen periods where we receive multiple price increase notices in the same day or week from suppliers. From that standpoint, it has been much more challenging to keep up with and implement all the changes. It has also forced us to tighten the window that a proposal can be honored.”
While retail owners deal with the headache of fluctuating prices, most flooring consumers have managed to deal with it, according to Tom Heffner, owner of About All Floors, Douglassville, Pa. “I feel like the talk of tariffs has become noise for consumers and they’ve adjusted and accepted them,” he said. “Our retail, builder and commercial business this year has been strong. I suspect that gains in the S&P 500—and the continued rise of home values—have given homeowners/investors’ confidence to push forward with projects. We’re optimistic for the second half of 2026
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