Turn Experience Into Savings: A New Strategy for Tariff Optimization

The Experience Is the Product

Consumers today don’t just buy objects—they buy outcomes. A connected fitness device is only as good as its coaching app. A smart appliance delivers its real value when it’s personalized, updated, and supported. In nearly every industry, it’s the digital layer that creates loyalty, satisfaction, and long-term value.

This shift in value comes at a time when global trade dynamics are more unpredictable than ever. With a new wave of tariff escalations and retaliatory trade measures, businesses that continue valuing products as if they’re purely physical risk are overpaying and falling behind.

It’s time to align your customs strategy with the way your customers already see your products: as experiences.

How Can Businesses Benefit?

Despite the growing importance of digital features and services, most customs regimes — including U.S. Customs and Border Protection — continue to apply tariffs based on the total value of the imported item.

That’s a problem in a world where the physical product is often just a gateway to the experience.

With tariff policies shifting rapidly as global trade tensions escalate, overvaluing imports can result in inflated costs, narrower margins and unnecessary risk. But here’s the opportunity: when structured correctly, digital services that activate post-import may be excluded from dutiable value altogether.