Boyertown, Pa.

By Nicholas C. Isasi Your vendors probably bundle freight expenses with the cost of goods and then give little consideration to the price to ship those items to your distribution centers. Indeed, most vendors actually use freight as an additional profit center. The markup for vendor prepaid freight can reach as high as 40 percent. That's why properly managing your inbound freight expenses can make the difference between a marginally good year and a successful one for your catalog company. Inbound freight typically represents 2 to 4 percent of gross sales for consumer products companies. Yet inbound freight costs seldom appear as a