The global supply chain is undergoing a seismic shift. For U.S. importers, the traditional playbook of sourcing from Asia is being rewritten by rising tariffs, fluctuating transportation costs, and persistent geopolitical friction. Relying on fragmented data, scattered emails, and isolated systems is no longer just inefficient; it is a critical vulnerability. As tariffs squeeze margins and unpredictability becomes the norm, companies urgently need real-time visibility to identify disruptions early and optimize their logistics.
To thrive in this complex environment, businesses need technology that unifies their operations. Enter Shippabo, a U.S.-based supply chain technology company that provides end-to-end visibility and actionable insights for global shippers. Today, we sit down with Nina Luu, founder and CEO of Shippabo. Drawing from her extensive background in retail supply chains and private labeling, Nina discusses how tariffs are altering trade strategies, why centralized data is critical, and how importers can build more resilient supply chains.
Q: You started Shippabo after experiencing the friction of managing international freight firsthand. How are the current tariff challenges amplifying the operational pain points you initially set out to solve?
Nina Luu: The core industry problem is still there — for many importers, data is scattered across factories, forwarders, and brokers — the new tariffs have just raised the cost of not solving it. Duty miscalculations used to be a rounding error – but the recent changes stacking duties can now swing a large shipment from profitable to a loss.
We see this fundamentally changing how importers are managing their shipments – review cycles covering classification, sourcing mix, routing are happening much more frequently – and the value of shipping data and insights has skyrocketed.
As a result, we’re working ever more closely with our customers – and exploring how to leverage many of our current and upcoming technologies – including Shippabo AI – to help understand how to mitigate for unforeseen variances and surprise tariff costs.
Q: With rising tariffs reshaping the cost of doing business, how are U.S. importers adjusting their sourcing and manufacturing strategies in Asia?
Nina Luu: Many of our customers explored diversifying beyond a single country of origin – but it’s a multi-year shift, not a quick fix. New factories mean new qualification, tooling, and compliance work. Landed cost is increasingly an up-front factor in choosing a factory, rather than just something calculated after the PO lands. We also see more companies building shorter supplier commitments or dual-sourcing specifically to stay flexible if rates move again.
To support our customers, Shippabo has been growing and actively opening offices in Asia for several years – complementing our China and Vietnam offices, we’ll soon add a team in Thailand. In addition to saving our customers money, having teams on the ground has proven essential to maintaining a strong supply backbone.
Q: Managing risk is harder when data is siloed between factories, freight forwarders, and customs brokers. How does centralizing this information help companies navigate sudden tariff changes and supply chain disruptions?
Nina Luu: The real risk in a tariff change isn't really the rule itself — it's the lag before someone notices a shipment is affected. Centralizing data with platforms like ours removes that lag.
Maintaining a shared view across supplier, forwarder, and brokers also avoids the “three partial pictures” problem, where each party sees only their piece and nobody has the complete picture. And by the way – that problem is magnified immensely between countries and timezones.
Using a data-driven platform like Shippabo to check a new rule against everything currently in production or in transit — not just new bookings — turns that scramble into a ten-minute check. As part of this, our customers make use of our Platform’s SKU-level visibility feature, since duty exposure often varies within a single shipment.
Q: We hear a lot about artificial intelligence and predictive planning in logistics. How are these advanced technologies actively helping shippers minimize import duties and control transportation costs?
Nina Luu: We believe that much of the near-term value of AI will be efficiently surfacing decision-grade information from a data set that changes constantly. The AI tools we're delivering this year will let customers see the business effects of their choices – lanes, manufacturers, port pairs and so on — and understand the landed-cost and margin effects of each choice. This provides insights as to what to maintain and what to change – dramatically reducing the risk of discovering transportation cost overruns in a variance report a quarter later.
On duties, I'd separate two things that often get conflated. Duty is a legal determination — classification, valuation, country of origin — and no AI model gets to decide it. What we’ve seen AI do well is flag where the same SKU has been classified inconsistently across entries, or where drawback is being left on the table, and then a licensed broker validates it. We offer a range of customs services and duty drawback options for exactly that reason.
Q: Beyond just surviving trade volatility, how can companies use real-time supply chain visibility as a competitive advantage to actually grow their business?
Nina Luu: Once accurate tracking ceases being purely a firefighting method, it becomes a great planning tool – helping companies understand their true landed cost and measurable reliability. This translates to making better sourcing and pricing calls than their competitors – enabling them to make confident commitments that provide a customer-facing advantage.
In our own experience at Shippabo, we’ve proven that the speed of re-planning around a disruption has become just as much a competitive edge as avoiding the disruption in the first place. Our Platform and data have become the key enablers of that advantage we bring daily to our customers.
Q: For U.S. importers feeling overwhelmed by the current trade landscape, what is one immediate step they can take today to build a more resilient supply chain?
Nina Luu: I’d say to ensure you have one current, accurate, shared view of where each shipment and SKU actually stands today — its origin, classification, in-transit status, duty exposure and so on — before trying to determine a more permanent strategy.
This is the core capacity you should look for in any online toolset – and it’s the core view that we provide our customers as part of the Shippabo Platform. With this in-hand, you have a basis for reliable immediate action, strategic planning discussion, and ultimately a pathway to increased margins.
The pressure on U.S. importers is undeniable, but so is the opportunity for transformation. As tariffs and market conditions remain volatile, the businesses that succeed will be those that discard outdated, manual processes in favor of integrated technology. By breaking down data silos and embracing end-to-end visibility, companies can turn their supply chains from cost centers into strategic assets that drive growth.
Looking ahead, the complexity of global trade will only intensify. Shippers must prioritize agility, leveraging predictive intelligence and collaborative platforms to stay ahead of disruptions. Innovators like Shippabo are leading this charge, proving that with the right technology and clearer data, businesses can navigate the shifting currents of international logistics with confidence and control.
To learn more visit https://www.shippabo.com/
