We hear the word OVERHEAD all the time in the business world, but as a consumer (soon to be prosumer!) why should it mean anything to us?  Overhead is a term that refers to the ongoing expense to operate a business.  These expenses include: rent, heat/electricity, employee wages, property taxes, advertising, insurance, repairs, supplies etc.  The tragedy for you and me when we hear the word overhead is that all those extra expenses get passed on to us via the increase in the price of the product or service. For example, some Wal-mart retailers spend thirty-thousand dollars a month for snow removal in their parking lots alone.  Now let’s get real, who do you think is going to be picking up the tab on that one, the Walton family or you and I? “PRICE CHECK!” Some of the most inefficient, overhead-ridden businesses are the retail stores that you shop at every week! So what should you do about it?

Distribution has come a long ways and with the explosion of e commerce many companies have given up on the old ‘brick-and-mortar’ retail store and have gone straight online. Many large distribution companies have automated-online systems which prepare orders for shipping in less than a minute from the time you hit “add-to-cart”.  Now compare that to how long it takes you to: 1. Walk around all the aisle 2. Find the products you want 3. Ring everything up at the register and 4. Load everything in your car.  E commerce has allowed companies to optimize their distribution and logistics, which in-turn leads to lower prices on products and services.  If you want to stop paying for snow removal and non-productive employee wages, then I suggest you join millions of others who are sick of paying for unreasonable overhead costs and buy online!

Check out this link on the Perks of an Online Business