Amazon: set up strikethrough pricing with pricing v2

About this article

This article describes how to set up discounts on Amazon via ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Requirements

Verify the list price

Verify your selling price

Set up the strikethrough discount

• In Price rules
• In Promotions

Introduction

Make your Amazon listings competitive by setting up strikethrough pricing via ChannelEngine.

Amazon supports discounts as strikethrough pricing, a.k.a. from-for pricing or reference pricing. Either your product’s list price, a.k.a. Recommended Retail Price (RRP), MSRP, or catalog price, or your own selling price will appear with a strikethrough as the “before” price if Amazon approves your offer.

ChannelEngine makes it easy to set up this kind of time-bound discount on your listed products in the Mappings and Pricing steps of your Amazon marketplace plugin.

Using the steps below, your discounts may appear as strikethrough pricing on your Amazon listings, given that Amazon approves your request.

Requirements

• Amazon decides if the product listing qualifies for strikethrough pricing. Amazon approves or denies each offer via an automated process.
• Follow two rules of thumb: the given product is listed at the list price for at least 90 days and shows substantial sales at this price for at least 30 days.
• Your chances of getting the strikethrough pricing approved might improve if the item is sold at the discounted price on Amazon before the strikethrough price is enforced.
• Enable the pricing v2 feature in your environment. Reach out to your ChannelEngine customer success manager or the ChannelEngine Support team to get this feature enabled.

Verify the list price

Before you set up your discount, verify that you have correctly mapped the product’s list price in Mappings:

1. First, locate any list price attributes in Content mappings and Offer mappings.
   1. If you do not export content to Amazon from ChannelEngine, then only locate the list price attribute(s) in Offer mappings.
   2. Each Amazon country may name this attribute differently, e.g.: List price, RRP, MSRP, catalog price, etc.
2. Verify the product’s list price, including tax. E.g.: on Amazon DE, map list_price/value_with_tax.
3. If there is also an attribute for the product’s list price excluding tax, map and verify this attribute as well. E.g: on Amazon DE, map UVP list price: value.
4. If there is no list price attribute for you to map, then skip to the next section, Verify your selling price. You send Amazon your selling price via the Pricing step.

Verify your selling price

Next, verify your selling price in Pricing, Price rules:

1. The selling price attributes will each appear as a different tab in Price rules. For standard consumer listings, your selling prices are mapped in B2C. For Amazon Business listings, your standard prices are mapped in B2B.

1. Verify both the Min. price and Base price for the product(s) in question. 
2. Check that you have correctly mapped these attributes by reviewing the article ChannelEngine: price rules v2.
3. ChannelEngine sends one of these values to Amazon as your selling price.

Set up the strikethrough discount  

Once you have verified your list price and selling price, you need to set up your discounted price and your discount’s start and end dates. To set up this time-bound discount, you must map attributes in both the Mappings and Pricing steps.

• You must map the discount’s start and end dates in Mappings, Offer mappings.
• Then, you must re-enter the same start and end dates in the Pricing step. Set your discounted price there, too.

Mappings: map the start and end dates

First, map the promotion’s start and end dates in Mappings:

1. Go to Mappings, Offer mappings.
2. In the Optional section, map the following fields.
   1. Purchasable offer: discounted price schedule end at (sale end date)- the last day* on which the discounted price applies. After that, the standard product's price is displayed. To set up a discount on Amazon, you must map this attribute.
   2. Purchasable offer: discounted price schedule start at (sale start date) - the first day* on which the discounted price will apply. The discounted price overrides the standard product’s price. To set up a discount on Amazon, you must map this attribute.
3. Click Save.

*Use the format yyyy-mm-dd. E.g.: 2022-01-31. Make sure to respect the fair pricing and time duration requirements for discounts within each country.

Pricing: set up the discount

Next, set your discounted price and re-enter the discount’s start and end dates in Pricing. In the Pricing step, there are two places where you can set up this strikethrough pricing discount:

1. In Price rules, to set up a price rule that represents the discount. The discount complements any ongoing repricing activity or pre-existing price rules.
2. In Promotions, to override any repricing activity or existing price rules.

In Price rules

If you have set up repricing with Amazon, and if you do not want your discount to override any ongoing repricing activity, then set up your strikethrough pricing discount in Pricing, Price rules. This option is recommended if you always want to try sending Amazon strikethrough pricing for the same product selection, all the time.

1. Go to Pricing, Price rules.
2. Set your discounted price:
   1. To the right of the row of attribute tabs, click More.
   2. Select Discounted price with tax.

The tab Discounted price with tax appears.

3. Map your Min. price and Base price.
4. Set your discounted price with any one of four methods:
   1. Add fixed amount
   2. Add percentage
   3. Rounding
   4. Use field
   5. If you use multiple methods, bear in mind that ChannelEngine applies the rules from the top of the list, to the bottom. For guidance on these rules, check out ChannelEngine: price rules v2.
5. Name your price rule, e.g.: 'Amazon rounded down to nearest .99'.
6. Select a product selection for which you always request strikethrough pricing:
   1. Click + Add product selection.
   2. Select the desired product selection.
   3. Verify the Price field input and Price rules that you set in the previous section.
   4. Click Save.

In Promotions

To override any repricing activity or existing price rules, set up your discount in Promotions. This option is recommended if you know that you only want to set up your discount for specific items and easily overwrite their prices.

1. Go to Pricing, Promotions.
2. Create your discount.
   1. Click Create promotion.
   2. Name the new discount as 'Black Friday sale’ or the name of your choosing.
   3. Enter the same start and end dates as were entered in the Offer mappings. Choose a start and end time in the time zone of your choice.
   4. Click Save.
3. In the Products section, make the Discounted price with tax tab visible:
   1. To the right of the row of attribute tabs, click More.
   2. Select Discounted price with tax.

5. Select the products for strikethrough pricing:
   1. Add products via the search bar, paste a list, or upload a CSV file.
   2. On each product line, enter the discounted price in the Set price field.
   3. For guidance on selecting products for a given promotion, check out ChannelEngine: promotions.

Finally, save your changes and wait for Amazon to validate them. Amazon ultimately decides whether to show strikethrough pricing on your item.