Amazon: set up a discount with strikethrough pricing

About this article

This article describes how to set up strikethrough pricing (also known as from-for pricing or reference pricing) on Amazon via ChannelEngine.

Table of contents

Introduction

Requirements

Step 1: verify the list price

Step 2: verify your selling price

Step 3: map the start and end dates

Step 4: set up the discount

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.

Step 1: 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. 
   • If you do not export content to Amazon from ChannelEngine, then only locate the list price attribute(s) in Offer mappings.
   • The list price is available to map with specific categories on Amazon US. 
2. Each Amazon country may name this attribute differently, e.g.: list price, RRP, MSRP, catalog price, etc.
3. Verify the product's list price, including tax. E.g.: on Amazon DE, map list_price/value_with_tax.
4. 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.
5. 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.

Step 2: verify your selling price

Next, verify your selling price in Pricing, Price rules. The selling price attributes each appear as a different tab in Price rules:

• For standard consumer listings, your selling prices are mapped in B2C.
• For FBA listings, your selling prices are mapped in B2C – FBA.
• For Amazon Business listings, your standard prices are mapped in B2B.

Verify your selling price in the relevant tab(s) in Price rules. Verify both the Min. price and Base price for the product(s) in question.

Check that you have correctly mapped these attributes by reviewing the article ChannelEngine: price rules v2. ChannelEngine sends one of these values to Amazon as your selling price.

Step 3: 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:
   • Purchasable offer: discounted price schedule end at (purchasable_offer/discounted_price/schedule/end_at) — the last day* on which the discounted price applies. After that, the standard product price is displayed. To set up a strikethrough price on Amazon, you must map this attribute.
   • Purchasable offer: discounted price schedule start at (purchasable_offer/discounted_price/schedule/start_at) — the first day* on which the discounted price will apply. The discounted price overrides the standard product price. To set up a strikethrough price 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.

Step 4: set up the discount

Once you have verified your list price and selling price, you need to set up your discount in Pricing.

To set up the discount: 

1. Configure your discounted price attribute(s) in Pricing, Price rules. 
2. Set up your discount for specific products, during the specific start and end dates, in Pricing, Promotions. The discounted price that you set up here is always sent to Amazon during the discount period, overriding any activity from the repricer and the price rules. 

Map Discounted price with tax

You need to configure the Discounted price with tax and/or Discounted price with tax – FBA in Price rules because ChannelEngine uses the Min. price that you configure there as the floor of any discount that you configure in the Pricing step. 

To map Discounted price with tax:

1. Go to Pricing, Price rules.
2. Set up your discounted price. To the right of the row of attribute tabs, click More. Select the relevant discounted price tab for your fulfillment type:
   • Discounted price with tax — for standard (FBM) listings.

   • Discounted price with tax – FBA — for FBA listings.

     

3. The selected tab appears. Map your Min. price and Base price.
4. Set your discounted price with any one of four methods: Add fixed amount, Add percentage, Rounding, or Use field. 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 the nearest .99'.
6. Click Save.

Set up your promotion

In Promotions, configure any type of discounted price - a fixed percentage or a fixed value for each product - for a specific set of products that you want to discount during the promotional period. 

To set up your promotion:

1. Go to Pricing, Promotions.
2. Click Create promotion.
3. Name the new discount, e.g.: 'Black Friday sale'.
4. Choose your discount setting, e.g.: Promotion discount in percentage. 
5. Enter the same start and end dates as were entered in the Offer mappings.
6. Click Save.
7. In the Products section, make the relevant discounted price tab visible: to the right of the row of attribute tabs, click More and select the relevant tab for your fulfilment type:
   • Discounted price with tax — for standard (FBM) listings.
   • Discounted price with tax – FBA — for FBA listings.

8. Select the products for strikethrough pricing: add products via the search bar, paste a list, or upload a CSV file. For guidance on selecting products for a given promotion, check out ChannelEngine: promotions.
9. If you chose Promotion discount per product as your discount setting, enter the discounted price in the Set price field on each product line.
10. Your discounted price is compared to Discounted price with tax, Min. price. By default, ChannelEngine does not allow the discount price from Promotions to fall below Discounted price with tax, Min. price unless you enable Allow promotion below min price setting in Offer mappings.

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