Lisa Harrington never thought she’d be pulling the plug on her reliable Chinese supply chain. After nearly a decade of steady production and growing revenue, the founder of Purrfect Portal — a seven-figure Amazon brand known for its patented interior cat doors — made the bold decision to move 80% of her product catalog to a U.S.-based factory. The reason? Tariffs, anxiety, and an unpredictable trade landscape under former President Donald Trump’s renewed tariff policies. What might seem like an expensive logistical gamble for most e-commerce entrepreneurs has become a non-negotiable pivot for Harrington. Her business, which began with dog harnesses and evolved into a top-selling pet accessory brand, now faces a future rooted not in Alibaba connections or Chinese suppliers — but in Rhode Island, where a domestic factory will begin manufacturing the bulk of her products starting October.
For Harrington, this isn’t about cutting costs. In fact, she’s well aware it’ll cost more to produce in the U.S. But for her, the switch is about something less tangible yet more valuable: peace of mind. “I’ve had so many sleepless nights over the tariffs,” Harrington admits. “I’ve been doing this for 10 years. But I’ve never experienced anything like this — where my cost of goods could double or triple overnight based on a single political announcement. I just couldn’t handle that stress anymore.”
The mounting unpredictability — fueled by Trump’s threats to expand tariffs on all Chinese imports in early 2025 — forced Harrington to weigh the psychological and operational costs of continuing to rely on overseas factories. Monitoring the news cycle through Truth Social or The Wall Street Journal to assess the viability of her pricing strategy became an exhausting ritual. Eventually, she decided that the long-term emotional and business stability outweighed short-term production savings.
But what makes Harrington’s situation unique is not just her decision — it’s the fact that she actually could make it work. “I’m one of the few people who can actually onshore,” she said. “There are just so many people I know who can’t. They just can’t because the numbers still don’t make any sense.”
In the tightly networked world of e-commerce, Harrington is part of an exclusive community called Million Dollar Sellers. Within that circle, she says very few business owners have been able to contemplate manufacturing in the U.S., let alone pull the trigger. Much of that has to do with scale and complexity. Take Shan Shan Fu, another successful Amazon entrepreneur, who manages over 100 SKUs in the women’s fashion and accessory space. For her, shifting production out of China is not even remotely feasible.
“Our products come from different factories,” Fu explains. “To have another factory — say in Vietnam — replicate what 10 or 20 factories are already doing, and doing it at the same level of quality, would take years and cost a fortune.” And even if replication were possible, she’d face minimum order quantities (MOQs) that small or mid-sized businesses simply can’t meet without huge capital injections.
“Most factories require you to buy 2,000 units upfront. But as a small brand, you might only be able to afford 200 or 500 at a time. Scaling is gradual. And unfortunately, that model just doesn’t support an abrupt switch to a U.S. manufacturer.”
Harrington acknowledges her decision was only possible because several stars aligned. Her products — primarily plastic interior cat doors — are inherently less complicated than apparel or tech gadgets. Plastic is easier to source domestically, and she has the benefit of healthy profit margins that can absorb the cost hike. “I suspect it’s because I make plastic products. I suspect it’s because I’ve got good margins. I suspect it’s because I found a really solid factory here in the States. A lot of things just happened to align for me.”
That said, the road to reshoring production was neither easy nor cheap. It took months of sourcing, vetting, and testing to ensure the new U.S. factory could replicate her current quality and scale. And the emotional toll? Significant. “This wasn’t on my 2025 bingo card,” Harrington jokes, “but things are changing fast in the world of e-commerce.”
Her move is part of a broader, slow-moving trend where U.S.-based businesses are reconsidering their dependency on China. While some major corporations are shifting production to countries like Vietnam, India, or Mexico, very few are opting to return manufacturing to the United States — largely because of labor costs, infrastructure challenges, and production scale limitations.
But Harrington believes that if more small businesses could afford it, they would follow suit. “Everyone I talk to wants to have more control over their supply chain. But the economics just don’t allow it.” Even with Trump’s tariffs looming, most sellers are choosing to absorb the cost, adjust pricing, or reduce margins, rather than relocate.
That’s precisely why Harrington’s story stands out. In a marketplace where every penny matters and switching suppliers can feel like reinventing the wheel, she’s betting on resilience, transparency, and control over her entire operation. “It’s not just about cost,” she emphasizes. “It’s about not having your business hijacked by politics. It’s about not waking up one day and realizing your profit margins evaporated while you slept.”
With 80% of her product line soon to be made in America, Harrington is looking forward to fewer sleepless nights, less news-cycle panic, and a newfound sense of business sovereignty. “This isn’t just a manufacturing change,” she says. “It’s a mindset shift.”
In the high-stakes world of Amazon entrepreneurship, where volatility is often a daily companion, Lisa Harrington has made a bold and rare move — one that prioritizes mental clarity over margin and long-term security over short-term savings. And in today’s uncertain climate, that might just be the smartest business move of all.
