Amazon always strives to provide the best prices, which makes sellers rule.
It’s called the General Pricing Rule, and Amazon is increasingly enforcing it. Don’t be put off, as failure to comply could have dire consequences for your business.
If you offer a lower price on eBay, another marketplace, or your own web store, it can easily result in loss of seller privileges or even suspension.
So, what are Amazon pricing rules?
The item price and total price of the product listed on Amazon must be equal to or lower than the price on any other online channel.
The item price is the amount your customer pays and is displayed when you list your product on Amazon. It does not include handling or transportation.
The total price is the amount payable plus any terms of the offer or sale. This includes discounts and shipping costs.
We spoke with Amazon, who confirmed that their automated systems continually check and notify sellers within 15 minutes if a violation has occurred. You will receive a policy warning in your Amazon Seller Central account.
Amazon’s general pricing rules apply only to US sellers. It is not enforced for other international, UK and European sellers at this time. Amazon will even check your listings for similar products with different descriptions, such as color or size. In other words, there is no place to hide. Amazon goes to great lengths to ensure its shoppers have the best prices.
Dealing with price fluctuations
Let's say you currently price a SKU on Amazon at $10.00 and on eBay or in your own web store at $11.00. The Amazon marketplace moves because the competitor runs out of stock and the price changes to $12.00. Until you update your eBay price or lower your Amazon price, you will be violating Amazon pricing rules.
Manual repricing means constantly monitoring your competitors and adjusting your prices accordingly. This is a labor-intensive approach, especially if you operate in a competitive market or have a large number of SKUs. Of course, you can't do anything about it, taking a "set it and forget it" approach and risking the wrath of Amazon. For most multi-channel sellers, this is not an option.
It’s vital that your prices stay in sync to improve your chances of making a sale and getting the best price possible. It is difficult to react quickly enough to price fluctuations. It makes sense to develop a strong multi-channel pricing strategy that eliminates confusion, keeps Amazon happy, and helps you grow your business.
Multi-channel price replication
It remains a challenge for online sellers to control prices across multiple marketplaces and remain competitive, especially in highly volatile markets. Multichannel sellers should look into a range of tools that make this possible. The ability to adjust prices on Amazon and automatically update to other channels is critical. Until now, no Amazon repricing tool has been able to do this.
xSellco’s Price Replicator tool within Price Manager provides all the benefits of Amazon’s repricing tools across all your marketplaces. It saves time and resources, reduces complexity, simplifies management, and helps you comply with Amazon Pricing rules.
