ChannelEngine: why are my price rules not applied?

About this article

This article describes possible reasons why your price rules are not being properly applied to products listed on the marketplaces you are working with.

Introduction

When adding price rules to ChannelEngine, you have two options:

• Price rules on a marketplace
• Price rules on a listing (product selection filter)

While it is possible to create both types of rules on one channel, they cannot be used together. In that case 'listing' price rules are applied and channel price rules are ignored. In the example pictured above, only the 3% discount is applied on all products in the Aanbod Bol.com listing, and a 20% discount on all products in Special sale!. However, if the same product is also in a listing without a price rule, the channel rule is applied. See the explanation for this below.

Multiple listings

Make sure the product you want the price rule applied to is only active in the specific listing. If an item is active in more than one listing, ChannelEngine submits the highest calculated price to the marketplace. That means that if a product is in three listings (e.g.: a listing without price rules, the above mentioned Aanbod Bol.com, and the above mentioned Special sale!), only the highest price is calculated.

E.g.:

  Base price = EUR 20.00
  Listing without price rules = EUR 20.00 + EUR 5.00 (from the applied channel price rule) = EUR 25.00
  Listing Aanbod Bol.com = EUR 20.00 - (3% of EUR 20) = EUR 19.40
  Listing Special sale! = EUR 20.00 - (20% of EUR 20) = EUR 16.00

Of those three calculations, the first results in the highest price (i.e.: EUR 25.00), so this will be the exported price. If you have discount prices created via price rules, make sure those products are only active in one listing with a price rule.

Price overrides

Another common cause of price rules not being applied is prices that have been 'hard' overwritten. You can overwrite the exported price in the Listed products section on ChannelEngine.

Listed products

Go to the Listed products section of the channel interface. Select Show price override settings in the top right corner and select the List for price checkbox. Any price filled in there is the fixed price exported to a marketplace. That price is not subject to any price rules, repricing, shipping costs, etc. – and is the exact price used by the marketplace.

Offer mappings

While you cannot overwrite the exported price in the Offer mappings, you can overwrite the input which may cause unexpected prices if overlooked.

1. Go to the Mappings section of the channel interface and click the tab Offer mappings.
2. Click the Price before price rules column to change the price.
3. Press Enter to save it.

The main difference between the overwrite in the Listed products section and the override in the Offer mappings is that the former is the output price for a channel, while the second overwrites the input price – though price rules are still applied, if applicable.