Author: Helen Thomas

One of the most basic tools retail brands use to understand their position in the market is point-of-sale data. From the very first time a shopper put your product in their cart to the national sales you may have right now, POS data gives you a clear picture of when and where your products are scanned for purchase, as well as your competitors.

When you have these data insights in hand, brands can identify new shopping trends, opportunities for growth, competitive threats, and more, and use that insight to build an intelligent strategy for where and how to invest at retail.

Clients can open a POS report and get a deeper understanding of not just where and when products are sold, but what field activities and in-store conditions are influencing those sales, they’re able to use POS data to inform their retail execution strategy as well.

From optimizing store position and display execution to improving partnerships with retail managers, companies are using point-of-sale data to radically improve execution in the store to drive sales velocity.

How To Use POS Data For Intelligent Retail Execution

There’s a number of different ways you can use your POS Data to execute your retail strategies.

• Allows you to accurately track promotions and results
• Opportunity to recruit retail partners to invest in your promotions
• Respond to noncompliance faster for more effective promotions
• More effectively plan which stores your field team should visit to have the biggest impact on sales.

Let’s take a look at 3 effective ways to use your POS Data now.

(1) Optimize Inventory And Stock Levels

We find this utterly fascinating, but it’s estimated that nearly 50 percent of small businesses don’t track inventory manually or with some type of software? That’s wild, right? If you’re not tracking your inventory, we can guarantee your inventory is wrong. You have to invest into the technology and resources, period.

Based on a 2018 survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF), shrink, or loss of inventory related to theft, shoplifting, error, or fraud, is reducing the bottom line by $46.8 billion across the retail industry.

Wow! $46.8 billion and 2019 will likely be bigger.

With the right POS data, your business doesn’t have to be part of that statistic. Rather, your company can be in full control of your inventory and ahead of the game as it pertains to key business decisions that can help you thrive in 2020.

The majority of modern POS systems allow you to conduct the following actions to help you manage for stock. These include but are not limited to:

• Inventory counts
• Check stock levels at different stores
• Transfer stock
• Manage returns, etc.
• Automated reorder points

When you have your POS to help you stay on top of stock levels, it’s easier to track your items through every step of the way. It’ll allow you make better decisions when forecasting, purchasing, ordering, marketing and advertising.

Most importantly, the POS data you receive will help you ensure that your stock levels are optimized. Automated reorder points, stock transfers, inventory counts and other key features enable you to always have the right products at the right time. Right products at the right time, you know how important that is.

(2) Product And Customer Insights

Your POS data can provide you with plenty of product-specific insights also. Let’s take a quick look at which are most important.

• Product Affinity (Items Bought Together): With this data in hand, we can show them to customers during the checkout process or during the shopping campaign.
• Order History: We’re always looking for most data to build customer profiles. Having the ability to track customer’s purchases is huge, allowing you to follow up with relative content, marketing and promotions.
• Sales By Product: We always need to know product sales data. There’s a number of trends we can get insights on that allow us to make appropriate decisions on individual products.
• Refunds, Returns And Exchanges: We get to find out which items are being returned, what customers are buying in their place, and even who’s a serial returner.

If you’re a retailer, Product Affinity is huge for your company to take advantage of every sales opportunity. This allows us to make relevant recommendations to our customers. By doing so, we can greatly increase our (AOV) average order value per customer.

We love the fact that you can create customer profiles with your POS Data.

There’s so many ways to leverage POS to help your company build relationships, expectations and a great experience every time they shop.

(3) Making The Right Staffing Decisions

You don’t hear a lot of people talking about it, but you can use your POS data to learn about employee performance.

This can help you in many ways;

• Learn Who’s Over Performing
• Learn Who’s Under Performing
• Learn Who Deserves A Promotion
• Learn Who Deserves A New Title
• Learn Who’s Most Effective Or Not Effective
• Learn Who Needs Training
• See How New Employees Are Performing

While we like to focus a lot on “sales,” you should consider everything employees bring to the table.

This staff-specific data can also inform staffing decisions. Anticipating extra foot traffic for an upcoming busy season or campaign? Schedule your best employees. Noticing trends for busy days or even times? Again, get your top performers on the roster.

But you can dig deeper into your POS data, beyond simply sales. You can look at time periods when you generate a lot or minimal sales and consider your staff to sales ratio. Do you have enough people on the floor to help all of your customers at any given time? It’s important to stay on top of this, especially considering that 6% of all possible sales are lost because of lack of service.

Are You Using Your POS Data To Grow?

It’s not just enough to have POS Data, you need to have the ability to collect it and analyze it.

Going through your POS Data can be a headache, we already hear you.

This is where Accelerated Analytics® can help you.

Our POS reporting allows you to easily analyze your POS Data. Accelerated Analytics® is a comprehensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution for collecting, analyzing, and reporting on retail EDI 852, POS, and supply chain data. Accelerated Analytics includes rich web-based analytics and mobile access so that business users can focus on responding faster, optimizing assortments and increasing sales.

We’d love to show you the POS reports we can help you create. Schedule a demo here or reach out to us directly at 941-746-2073.

Supply chain sustainability (SCS) is a holistic view of supply chain processes, logistics and technologies that addresses the environmental, social, economic and legal aspects of every supply chain’s components.

There’s a number of different factors that could affect SCS, this could include but is not limited too;

• Emissions
• Waste
• Carbon Footprint
• Labor Violations
• Air Pollution
• Health Of Workers
• Safety Of Workers

SCS is based on the principle that socially responsible products and practices should be a priority for every company. While this ensures we’re taking steps that are good for the planet and all of us that live here, it’s also great for building positive brand awareness, minimizing environmental impact and improving long-term profitability.

An organization’s supply chain integrates both inputs and outputs. It outlines the process of producing and delivering consumer goods. Focusing on the supply chain is one key pillar of achieving business sustainability as it covers a range of areas for improvement. This could include a number of different things, such as;

• Policies And Regulations
• Exploration
• Mining
• Processing
• Refining And Recycling
• Purification
• Manufacturing
• Shipping

Historically speaking, the supply chain was simply all about logistics and knowing when and where goods were moving. However, supply chain trends have been changing continuously over the decade with the rise of the digital supply chain and accompanying visibility and analytics tools that can provide companies the ability to gather data about each component in the supply chain and how it performs.

The growing transparency has enhanced the concept of using responsible sources and it has encouraged supply chain partners to develop and share best practices for green operations and logistics. When we look at supply chain predictions for 2020, one of the top 10 factors is green logistics. Supply chain efficiency is all about having that ability to monitor every component of your supply chain, which leads to the opportunities to improve and adapt as needed.

In bigger companies, the task of focusing on supply chain sustainability can take on different job titles, such as a sustainability officer or a supply chain analyst. While everything falls under supply chain management, the task at hand would be to focus on implementing and developing processes that support sustainability. The job can also involve other elements of the supply chain, such as qualifying new suppliers, quality performance targets, delivery targets or supplier relationships.

The big question business owners need to ask, how can we improve our supply chain sustainability?

How to Improve Supply Chain Sustainability

Companies should take the following measures in order to achieve a more sustainable supply chain:

• Using Supply Chain Management Tools And Technology – You have endless options as it pertains to new technology for your supply chain. If you’re not using them, you’re not moving forward.
• Use Resources That Are Available To You – There’s a wide range of organizations out there that have resources you can access to learn how to help your business hit your environmental goals. These include but are not limited to World Wildlife Fund, The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board or The Sustainability Consortium.
• Identify Where Your Supply Chain Needs Improved – This is why we preach technology, analytics and data. Without these, it’s going to be near impossible to evaluate where your supply chain needs improved.
• Get Clarity On Your Goals – You have goals you want to achieve. You have to build a plan and put that plan in action to achieve the goals you’re aiming for. Pay close attention to government regulations, even recommendations from other professionals.
• Finding Sustainable Partners – If sustainability is a key component of your company, we’d recommend building relationships with other companies that have sustainability at the core of their mission.
• Always Be Accountable – You want to make sure you’re accountable throughout the whole process. rocesses that can be put in place to ensure liability are routine audits, implementation of sustainability programs and teams, software tools that track impact and customer-facing goals and progress reports.

2020 is here and one of the industries that have seen unparalleled levels of change is supply chains. While the foundational measures still apply, such as quality, productivity, and service , we’re seeing supply chain trends that are focused on digital transformation. Is it a sign of things to come?

You already know how important supply chain management is. Now, it’s time to discuss how you can make it better.

The thriving digital economy has opened up opportunities in every level of the supply chain. Companies are searching for ways to hit their business goals and stay ahead of the competition, they understand that the digital modern world is changing the game.  Implementing these advanced supply chain capabilities can allow you to be more efficient and effective with your current business processes. We’re even seeing new business models that translate directly to business performance that is tangible and measurable.

What does 2020 have in store for the supply chain industry? What about beyond? Here’s what we feel are the top 10 supply chain predictions for 2020.

Prediction 1: Automated Supplier And Spend Data Analysis

At the end of 2020, more than 50 percent of all large manufacturers will have automated supplier and spend data analysis, which can result in a 15 percent procurement in productivity gained.

Prediction 2: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Within the next 2 years, nearly half of all manufacturing supply chains will have adopted supply chain resiliency and artificial intelligence (AI), which can result in a big 15 percent boost to productivity.

Prediction 3: Warehouse Robotics

By the year 2023, 2 out of 3 warehouses will be using robots and situational data to optimize storage, which is expected to increase capacity by more than 20 percent. This will also cut order processing time by at least 50 percent.

Prediction 4: Blockchains

By the year 2023, over 25 percent of OEMs will be utilizing blockchain to source spare parts, which is believed to increase accuracy of usable parts by a whopping 60 percent. This can also lower expedite costs by more than 40 percent.

Prediction 5: Micro-Applications

Supply chain micro-applications will account for nearly 33 percent of all new technology investments in retail and manufacturing by the year 2023.

Prediction 6: Process Automation

By 2022, firms will dedicate around 33 percent of their logistics business process outsourcing services budget to process automation, focusing on order, inventory and shipment tracking.

Prediction 7: Flexible Warehousing

By 2022, the amount of companies that will be offering flexible warehousing options will increase by over 50 percent. This is going to help address seasonal demand and has the ability to lower fixed overhead costs by 20 percent.

Prediction 8: AI-Infused Automation

By 2023, 60% of G2000 manufacturers will invest in AI-infused robotic process automation to automate tasks through increased productivity and address supply chain skills deficit.

Prediction 9: Customized Supply Chains

Within the next 4 years, 3/4 of all consumer-facing companies will have developed the ability to customize at scale within their supply chains, which could result in a 2–3 percentage point increase in market share.

Prediction 10: APR-Powered Trade

By 2024, for transparency and efficiency, 40% of customs agencies will join private blockchain and API-powered trade platform ecosystems to achieve a 50% increase in cross-border compliance.

Invest In Technology

One of the most effective investments you can make in your supply chain is technology. We’re seeing a ton of amazing features that are allowing companies to customize their entire supply chain. Every business owner has to continuously think about the future of their company and the technology race is on. If a piece of technology can improve your efficiency and effectiveness, you’d better consider adding it to your supply chain.

We’re not talking about investing in technology just to do it. Rather, we’re talking about tech, tools and features that allow you to solve business problems and leverage business opportunities. If you’re not a technology company, you should be looking for a technology partner that can help you get optimized around the right technology.

If you don’t know exactly where you should focus, you need to evaluate your whole supply chain. Where can time be saved? Where can money be saved? Where can be more efficient? If you’re not collecting data and analytics to guide your decisions, get it implemented ASAP.

Both manufacturers and retailers are re-thinking and re-imagining their products, services and processes because of the new capabilities that a digitally optimized supply chain can offer. Having the technology is great but technology alone is not going to make your supply chain successful. Business owners must continue to innovate and create value from their investments in solving real business problems and enabling new offerings to customers.

We feel it’s fair to say, the supply chain industry is going through an important transformational period.

Most companies already know that supply chain efficiency is key for long-term success. Over the last few years, this sector has seen massive growth. If you’re not staying current, you’re risking being left behind or worse, getting passed by your competition.

Let’s take a closer look at the biggest supply chain management trends we feel are going to take over 2020.

(AI) Artificial Intelligence And (ML) Machine Learning

There’s no question about it, technology is driving the growth of supply chains. Even better, there’s no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. Companies see this opportunity and they’re investing more in technology to increase efficiency.

There’s also major challenges and concerns ahead, especially with threats like cybersecurity. The good news, AI can be used as a shield to guard your company against the threat. AI will continue to grow from strength to strength as processes become more advanced and commonplace in the market.

Green Logistics

As more companies focus their attention on green logistics and sustainability, it’s becoming more important for companies to understand how they can implement strategies that are environmental friendly.

Green logistics has one priority goal, minimizing environmental damage through transportation and resource intensive processes. This will include;

• Inventory Management
• Warehousing
• Distribution
• Procurement
• Order Fulfillment

Data And Analytics

Supply chain companies know data is the key to massive growth. Big data will give you all the insights you need to make education based decisions. If you’re utilizing your data in the right way, it’s going to give companies the opportunity to better understand their customers and gather vital business intelligence from it.

We discuss this all the time with retailers, your POS data can transform your company if you’re collecting that data, analyzing that data and making decisions based on it. When you have the opportunity to learn more about your customers and what they want, the sky is the limit.

No matter what direction supply chains take in 2020, it remains key that companies in the supply chain space remain flexible and operate with a lean approach in order to achieve sustained success. The new decade will bring lots of change and the companies that are willing to adapt will be the ones that stand to benefit the most.

A realized gain results from selling an asset at a price higher than the original purchase price. It occurs when an asset is sold at a level that would exceed its book value cost.

While an asset may be carried on a balance sheet at a level above cost, any gains while the asset is still being held are considered “unrealized” as the asset is only being valued at fair market value. If you’re selling an asset that results in a loss, this is referred to as a realized loss.

How Do Realized Gains Work?

• Realized gains and unrealized gains differ in a number of different ways. An unrealized gain usually refers to a gain reported on a company’s financial statements and will appreciate the value of the specified asset on a company’s books.
• Unrealized gains are typically not taxed. They add to an asset’s originally reported book value at the time of purchase and can occur on all types of assets and investments held by a company.

The assets are included in the company’s balance sheet, even so, they could be reported with or without the unrealized gains. Unrealized gains for an asset can be used to determine a selling price since these gains are added to the asset’s book valuation.

An asset’s value, held on the company’s books, most often includes the total unrealized gain for which it has received and appreciated above its originally booked price. However, unrealized gains may sometimes be off-balance sheet accruals allowing the asset to remain at book value until a sale.

Realized Gains And Unrealized Gains

While realized gains are actualized, an unrealized gain is a potential profit that exists on paper, which is the result of an investment. It is an increase in the value of an asset that has not been sold for cash yet, like a stock position that has increased in value but still remains open. A gain won’t become realized until that position is sold for a profit.

When unrealized gains present, it usually means an investor believes the investment has room for higher future gains. If it was the opposite, he/she would sell now and recognize the current gain. Unrealized gains can come about because holding an investment for an extended time period lowers the tax burden of the gain.

If an investor holds a stock for longer than one year, his tax rate is reduced to the long-term capital gains tax. If an investor wants to move the capital gains tax burden to another tax year, he can sell the stock in January of the proceeding year versus selling in the current year.

Investors should also note the distinction between realized gains and realized income. Realized income refers to income that you have earned and received, such as income from wages or a salary as well as income from interest or dividend payments.

*Accelerated Analytics publishes resources like this to provide insights to different analytical metrics, data points and formulas. POS Analytics. Please be aware, this doesn’t mean that our product will this metric, data point or formula. To learn exactly what our reporting covers, please feel free to schedule a demo or give us a call. Thanks for understanding.

Purchase price can be referred to a number of different things depending on the “context” of the conversation. With that in mind, here’s how we’re categorizing it.

The purchase price is the price someone pays for something, which could be a service, product or investment. The specific purchase price is important because that’s the base for calculating whether the purchase is a gain or loss. Purchase prices would include commission and sales charges paid for an investment, the weighted average cost being used for multiple purchases of the same security.

Purchase Price Explained

If we’re using an “investor” example, it would be something like this;

An investor buys 100 shares of XYZ stock on 4 different dates over a 5 year period, including 100 shares purchased at a market price of $40, $60, $80 and $100 per share. In order to determine the cost basis of the purchases, the investor would need to calculate the weighted average cost, this would be the total dollar amount of the purchases divided by the number of shares purchased.

(Total Amount Of Purchases) Divided (Shares Purchased)

With each having 100 shares, the dollar amounts of XYZ stock purchases would be $4,000, $6,000, $8,000 and $10,000 or a total of $28,000, the purchase total is divided by 400 shares, which equals a total of $70 per share.

If this investor would add a stock position, he/she can calculate a new weighted average price. They would need to add the dollar amount of the new purchases and the additional shares into the equation. This formula can be adjusted for stock sales, such as the investor only selling a portion of holdings. With commission costs added, the weighted average cost might approximate $72 per share.

The Differences Between Realized and Unrealized Gains

Investors have to be familiar with the purchase price as its used to calculate gains or losses for tax purposes. This activity is reported on Schedule D of IRS form 1040. An investor reports a realized gain if he or she sells some or all of his or her investment holdings. If he or she sells no securities, the investor has an unrealized gain or loss, which would not be reported for tax purposes.

Let’s end this with one more example. A investor sells 100 shares of XYZXYZ stock at a sale price of $90 per share and uses the weighted average cost of $72 to calculate a realized gain of $28 per share. The investor would report the number of shares, along with the weighted average cost and the sale price per share on a Schedule D form. The total realized gain of $2,800 would be classified as long term because the investor held the shares for over one year. The $2,800 long-term capital gain is offset by any capital losses, and the net gain is taxable using capital gains tax rates.

*Accelerated Analytics publishes resources like this to provide insights to different analytical metrics, data points and formulas. POS Analytics. Please be aware, this doesn’t mean that our product will this metric, data point or formula. To learn exactly what our reporting covers, please feel free to schedule a demo or give us a call. Thanks for understanding.

Operating expenses refers to expenditures that a business incurs due to activities that aren’t directly related with the production of goods or services. Often abbreviated as OPEX, operating expenses include rent, equipment, inventory costs, marketing, payroll, insurance, step costs, and funds allocated for research and development.

Understanding Operating Expense

Let’s take a quick look at a few operating expenses and how each would be categorized below.

Compensation Related Operating Expenses

• Compensation and related payroll tax expenses, only for non-production employees
• Sales commissions (though this could be interpreted as a variable cost, placing it into cost of goods sold)
• Benefits for non-production employees
• Pension plan contributions, this would be for non-production employees

Office Related Operating Expenses

• Accounting expenses
• Legal fees
• Office supplies
• Utility costs
• Insurance costs
• Property taxes
• Depreciation of fixed assets, only non-production areas
• Repair costs for non-production facilities
• Rent costs for non-production facilities
• Sales and marketing-related operating expenses

Advertising And Marketing Costs

• Direct mailing costs
• Entertainment costs
• Sales material costs (sales script, brochures, etc.)
• Travel costs

Important: Finance-related costs may be excluded from the operating expenses definition, on the grounds that they are not generated by the ongoing operations of a business. If these costs were to be included, examples would include auditor fees, bank fees, debt placement costs, and interest expense.

The definition of operating expenses is sometimes expanded to include the cost of goods sold, thereby encompassing every operational aspect of a business. If so, the following costs are also examples of operating expenses:

• Freight in & freight out
• Direct materials
• Direct labor
• Benefits for production personnel
• Utility costs for production facilities
• Rent of production facilities
• Property taxes on production facilities
• Compensation for production personnel
• Depreciation of production equipment and facilities
• Repair of production equipment and facilities

*Accelerated Analytics publishes resources like this to provide insights to different analytical metrics, data points and formulas. POS Analytics. Please be aware, this doesn’t mean that our product will this metric, data point or formula. To learn exactly what our reporting covers, please feel free to schedule a demo or give us a call. Thanks for understanding.

Buying, making and storing inventory all cost your business money. The good news, the majority of your inventory-related expenses are deductible when it’s time to file your taxes. If you have the scenario where you can’t sell all of your inventory, you may be able to generate some additional deductions out of it by selling it at a low price or giving it away.

Let’s look at a few options you may have.

Closing inventory, also referred to as ending inventory, refers to the amount of inventory a business has left on the shelves and in stock at the end of the accounting year. Closing inventory is counted in 2 different ways:

• To reflect the physical amount of products left in stock
• To reflect the monetary value of products left in stock

In these 2 cases, you’ll either have a number of units or dollars left to reflect.

Ending inventory is the value of the stock or product that remains at the end of an accounting period.

The ending inventory refers to the final value of products held by a company at the end of a financial period such as the accounting year.

Ending inventory is determined by the value of the beginning inventory, plus purchases less the cost of goods sold.

Estimating Closing Inventory

Now, if you can’t count inventory on hand at the end of an accounting period or you can assign values to products, there’s a few things you can do. There’s a wide range of situations that can cause this, like too much shipping activity at the end of the month to do a count. If your staff is pressed for time or you just don’t have anyone available, there are two methods you can use to estimate the closing inventory.

3 Methods To Calculate Closing Inventory

(1) The Gross Profit Method

To calculate closing inventory by the gross profit method, use these 3 steps:

1. Add the cost of beginning inventory plus the cost of purchases during the time frame = the cost of goods available for sale.
2. Multiply the expected gross profit percentage by sales during the time period = the estimated cost of goods sold.
3. Subtract the number from Step 1 minus the number from Step 2 = ending inventory.

(2) The Retail Inventory Method

This approach is popular among retailers to calculate closing inventory.  It’s a little different from above, here’s the 4 steps to follow:

1. Calculate Cost-To-Retail Percentage: Cost divided by retail price.
2. Calculate Cost Of Goods Available For Sale: Cost of beginning inventory plus cost of purchases.
3. Calculate Cost Of Sales During The Period: Sales x cost-to-retail percentage.
4. Calculate Ending Inventory: Cost of goods available for sale minus cost of sales during the period.

(3) Physical Counting Method

If you need an accurate count of closing inventory, rather than an estimate, physically counting is the safest way to go. If you have the time and manpower, the simplest way to calculate ending inventory is the following 5 steps:

1. Count the quantity of unsold products on the store’s shelves and stockroom.
2. Determine the cost of each individual unit.
3. Multiply the cost by the number of products.
4. If you have different prices for products, you will need to multiply separately, then add all the amounts together.
5. This will give you a dollar amount for your ending inventory.

How Ending Inventory Is Used

Your ending inventory will always be based on the market value or the lowest value of the goods that your company possesses. The cost of purchases made for the inventory is added to the value of the stock at the beginning of the selected period.

The market value of goods created or distributed by a company is generally higher than the associated costs. Despite that, it can change if the goods become outdated and experience depreciation and/or become obsolete.

In this case, the market value can fall below the cost of production for the goods, this would create a loss in asset value.

Why Ending Inventory Is Important

It’s a good idea to keep track of your inventory over the entirety of the fiscal year, but ending inventory is particularly important to calculate. Not only in order to ensure your actual stocks match with your sales and purchases over the course of the the accounting period, but also because this is often required in the case of an audit.

Whether your ending inventory matches with your financial transactions can indicate how well your business has stuck to its budget and can be useful for determining whether there are any glaring problems with production costs.

It is also important to a business because ending inventory carries over to the new accounting period. An inaccurate measure of stock value would then continue to have financial implications into the new accounting period.

Distribution Cost, also called distribution expenses, are costs that are incurred to deliver your product from the production unit to the end user (your customer).

Examples Of Distribution Cost

Distribution costs can refer to a number of different expenses, such as;

• Costs of handling
• Costs of shipping
• Costs of packing
• Costs of distribution employees
• Costs of freight
• Costs of storage

If your distributor will be the one shipping a product to a retailer and that retailer sells it to the end user, all the individual distribution expenses at each stage would be included in the total distribution cost. In some cases, manufacturers will have a production unit at one place and product pick up is forwarded to another place. Any cost for moving the product from production to the pick up point is also added to the total distribution cost.

There’s other types of expenses that can be defined as distributions costs. A good example to use is handling cost, these costs can include;

• Production place
• Sales point
• Storehouse
• Packing costs
• Managerial costs
• Freight

Freight cost is usually the most important component of distribution costs. If the product is manufactured and sold in same country, freight cost usually refers to the “Trucking” or such transport fare to deliver the product.

If a product is sold internationally, it may include Air Freight, Less than container load (LCL), Day-Definite LCL or Full container load (FCL). In cases where products are transported by air, the cost would be higher and if it is transported through LCL, the cost would be lower but you also have to think about transit time. The transit time for LCL is longer and the transit time for moving by air is smaller.

When you’re determining distribution costs, you need a comparative analysis between product demand and transport cost. If a product is urgently needed and the shipper is losing sales due to it,  that’s going to be a scenario where we would likely pay the additional expenses so we’re not worrying about stock outs.

If it costs $10,000 to ship your products, but you’d lose out on $40,000 in sales if you didn’t, which is the greater expense? Empty shelves, right? When you’re thinking about distribution expenses, you have to weigh out everything and come up with the best game plan for your current situations.