Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

This Number Drives Everything

30 Apr 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:00

Lara Guevara breaks down landed cost per unit, the metric that determines whether brands can price correctly and negotiate with suppliers. Most companies only track product cost and miss inbound freight, duties, tariffs, customs fees, and warehousing. Chinese tariffs now sit around 30%, making accurate landed cost calculations urgent.

Chapters

Here's the number you need before you make any decision this year: landed cost per unit. Not product cost, the landed cost. Here is what that actually includes: product cost from the supplier, inbound freight, duties and tariff, customs and brokerage fees, inspection fees, freight forwarding, dry age to the warehouse, and any work done once it arrives. Most brands are only calculating the first one, maybe two. Right now, with tariffs on Chinese goods sitting at 30% after the 90-day deal, and nobody knows what happens after, your landed cost is a moving target. And if you don't know your real number, you cannot price correctly, you cannot negotiate correctly, and you cannot decide whether to hold inventory or or cut it. Rebuild your landed cost this week, every line item, and tomorrow the specific tariff math that is catching brands off guard right now.