Price ceilings are calculated using a fixed or dynamic value which is applied globally, at the inventory group level, or at the item level.
Before we look at dynamic and fixed price ceilings and where you can set them up, let's review the terms we use when we talk about price ceilings.
Amazon target price
Before making any pricing calculations, Monsoon Marketplace first identifies an Amazon competitive offer listing (or average of competitive offer listings) according to the settings in your default, custom, or Buy Box pricing strategy. This competitive offer listing is used as your target price.
If your pricing strategy is set up to price at the average of competitive offer listings, the average of competitive offer listings is used as your target price.
Amazon default shipping rate
Amazon collects a shipping fee from a buyer that is then passed on to you as a credit to help cover your shipping costs. Monsoon uses this default rate (a per item shipping rate + any per pound rate) when calculating an item's price.
Competitive offer listing
Monsoon Marketplace uses Amazon's Subscriptions API notifications to provide fast, competitive repricing anytime one of the 20 lowest offers for an item you sell changes price.
A competitive offer listing is one that matches the criteria you've set up in your pricing strategy and is not sold by one of your ignored competitors. The competitive offer that's used to price your item is selected from the 20 lowest offers in an Amazon notification.
Read more about offer listings in the Amazon Help article The Offer Listing Page.
Condition
Monsoon Marketplace supports the following Amazon condition groups: New, Used (Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable), Collectible (Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable), and Refurbished.
Dynamic price ceiling
A dynamic price ceiling applies at the time an item prices. Depending on the condition of an item, you can use a price ceiling that's no higher than the 5th lowest competitive listing, is a percentage of the lowest new price, or is a percentage of the market price.
You can use a percentage of the lowest price New condition offer as a price ceiling for items in Used, Collectible, and Refurbished condition when Amazon includes information about the New offer in a Used condition notification. If Amazon doesn't include the information or you select the FBA only option in your custom strategy settings and there are no FBA offers, this price ceiling doesn't apply.
Fixed price ceiling
A fixed price ceiling is a fixed monetary amount you set up on the Settings tab under Inventory Pricing or on the My Inventory tab. A fixed price ceiling that's set up on under Inventory Pricing is a group level price ceiling. A fixed price ceiling that's set up on the My Inventory tab is an item level price ceiling.
Notification (Amazon Subscriptions API notification)
A notification is a list of the 20 lowest price offer listings in the same condition group as an item that you sell. Amazon packages notifications into four different condition groups: New, Used (Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable), Collectible (Like New, Very Good, Good, and Acceptable), and Refurbished.
Depending on how your system is set up, notifications can either be pushed directly to your system (the fastest repricing option) or retrieved from a Monsoon Marketplace service that stores notifications for you. See Pricing overview for more details.
Price floor
See Price Floor.
To price an inventory item, Monsoon Marketplace first identifies the lowest Amazon competitive offer listing according to the settings in your default, custom, or Buy Box pricing strategy. The lowest price is known as the target price.
After a competitive offer listing is identified as your target price, Monsoon checks your price ceiling. If the target price is higher than your price ceiling, the target price is adjusted to match the ceiling.
After a price ceiling is applied to the target price, the item's Amazon default shipping rate is deducted from the target price.
Each time an inventory item prices or reprices, its price ceiling applies as follows:
Let's see what the steps look like when the competitive offer listing that's identified as the target price is $34.95, your price ceiling is $29.99, and the item's Amazon default shipping rate is $4.99.
The price ceiling you set up in a custom pricing strategy is a dynamic value. A price ceiling set up on the Settings tab under Inventory Pricing (group level) or on the My Inventory tab (item level) is a fixed monetary amount.
Price ceiling settings:
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