Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

Margins Down? Check This First

10 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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Lara Guevara warns that outdated freight costs can wreck your margins. One brand's hero SKU had a $2.40 per-unit COGS error, costing $19,000 monthly. Refresh freight and duty inputs every 60 days, especially with emergency surcharges and trans-Pacific rates up 10%.

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If your cost of goods sold hasn't been updated in the last 60 days, it's hiding a freight problem that's already affecting your margin. COGS is a calculation. If any input changes, the output changes, and right now freight inputs are changing quickly. Emergency fuel surcharges have been added, war risk insurance have been repriced, air cargo rates are up, transpacific spot rates jumped around 10% in early March, If your COGS formula still uses freight numbers from earlier this year, your margin model is wrong. I work with a brand that discovered a $2.40 per unit COGS error on their Hero SKU. At 8,000 units per month, that was $19K of missing margin every month. Pull your COGS formula for your top SKU, check the freight and duty inputs. If those numbers haven't been updated recently, update them today.