Targets and modes

The target is the price you want to compete with and the mode is how far above or below it you want to be, and the pairs depend on where you sell.

A target is the price you want your own price measured against, such as the price a shopper sees on the Buy Box. A mode is what you do about that price: beat it, match it, or stay above it. Put together, the two are the rule that turns somebody else’s price into yours.

Every strategy needs both, so this is the first pair you pick and the one you come back to when your prices are not where you want them. What you get to pick from depends on where you sell. A marketplace puts your offer on the same product as other sellers, so there are other prices to point at. On a store of your own there are none, so you either track a competitor by address or build the price out of your own cost.

You set both on Pricing, the second step of the strategy wizard. Open the wizard from Strategies in the left sidebar, either with Create strategy above the table or by clicking a strategy already in it. Pricing is the one step that looks different on each kind of integration, and it is the only place these settings exist.

Before you start

What your role lets you do

An Admin and a Manager can pick a target and a mode. An Editor and an Analyst open the wizard read-only, so they see every card on this step and can click none of them. Roles are set in team, roles and permissions.

How to set your target and mode

1. 1

   Open a strategy on its `Pricing` step

   Click Strategies in the left sidebar. Use Create strategy above the table to build a new one, or click a row to open one you already have. Pricing is the second marker in the numbered row of steps across the top of the dialog that opens over the page.

2. 2

   Pick what you are competing with

   On a marketplace, click a card in the Target price section. On a store of your own the first section is Pricing method instead, where you click Competitor-based pricing or Cost-based pricing.

3. 3

   Pick what you do about it

   Click a card in the Pricing mode section under it. On a store of your own that second section is Competition mode when you are pricing against a competitor, and Pricing target when you are pricing from your cost.

4. 4

   Set the amount

   Two fields open inside the card you picked, unless the card is a matching one. Set Type to a fixed amount or to Percentage (%), then type the number into Amount.

5. 5

   Move on

   Click Next at the bottom right of the dialog. Next stays gray until a card is picked in each section and the amount is above 0.

That is the whole step. Every step after it opens with an answer already in it. So you can click through to Preview, the last step, and see what your new pair would do to the listings you have.

Everything below goes through the cards one kind of integration at a time. Read the part for where you sell and skip the other two.

Every option in detail

Pricing shows two, three or four sections stacked down the step, and which ones you get is decided by the integration you picked before Basics. That choice is fixed once the strategy exists, so a strategy built on the wrong kind of integration has to be built again on the right one.

Each card has an information icon on its right. On a card you cannot click, that icon says why.

Choose what to compete with on Amazon

Target price is the first section on the step, and it has five cards. Each one is a different offer on the same product, and the one you pick is the price the rest of the step works from.

Take Buy Box Price unless you have a reason not to. It is the card marked Recommended. It is also the price on the button a shopper clicks, so beating it is what moves your sales. Take Lowest FBA or Lowest FBM when you would rather be measured against sellers who ship the way you do. Take Amazon Price when the only offer you care about is Amazon’s own.

Choose how to price against it on Amazon

Pricing mode is the section under Target price, and it has four cards.

Picking a card opens two fields inside it. Type is either a fixed amount, labeled with your region’s currency symbol, or Percentage (%). Amount is the number itself, and it starts at the smallest amount your currency has, which is 0.01 in dollars. Switch Type to a percentage and the amount starts at 1 instead. A percentage is worked out from the target price, so 5% below a 40.00 target is 38.00.

Take Beat by + Win Buy Box when winning the Buy Box is the point. It is the card marked Recommended. It starts where Beat by would, then finds the winning price for you instead of you guessing at it. The moving up and down it does is on how a price is decided. Take Beat by when you would rather have a price you can work out from the target yourself. Take Match exactly when you would rather not start a price war. Take Stay above by when you sell above the market on purpose.

Which modes work with which target

Beat by + Win Buy Box needs a target that stays close to the real Buy Box price, so it works with Buy Box Price and Lowest Overall and with nothing else. The other three modes work with all five targets.

The wizard stops you from building the pairs that do not work, from either side.

To get out of it, pick the other one first. Move your target to Buy Box Price or Lowest Overall and the mode turns back on.

Price differently against Amazon or an FBA seller

Pricing mode overrides is the third section on the step. It has two switches, and both start off. Each one lets you use a different mode when the offer you end up measured against comes from a particular kind of seller.

Turn one on and a Mode dropdown opens under it, with the same modes as Pricing mode in it, less Beat by + Win Buy Box when your target does not allow that one. It starts on Match exactly. Type and Amount open beside it on every mode except the matching one, and they are that switch’s own amount, not the one you set in Pricing mode.

An offer from Amazon is treated as Amazon’s first, so where both switches could apply, Price differently against Amazon is the one that runs.

A switch grays out when your target already covers it. Pick Lowest FBA and the FBA switch turns itself off, and pick Amazon Price and the Amazon one does the same, because in both cases the mode you already chose applies to those sellers directly.

When one of these takes over, the reason on that price change says a special rule was used instead of your default strategy. You read it on pricing activity.

Choose which competitors count

Filter competitors is the last section on the step. It starts off, and Enable competitor filtering turns it on and opens seven dropdowns.

Your listing competes only with offers in its own condition. That is true whether this section is on or off. With it off, the rule runs anyway, so a New listing is never priced against a used offer. With it on, Listing condition set to Any is how you drop the rule and let every condition count.

A seller with no rating goes out once you set a minimum. Set Min rating to 90%+, and an offer whose Rating column is a dash goes too. There is no number on it to check. Min feedback works the same way, and Amazon’s own offer is exempt from both, since Amazon has neither.

Exclude on FBA sellers also drops a Seller Fulfilled Prime offer, which is the same pairing Lowest FBA uses.

Exclude grays out where choosing it would leave you nothing to price against. That is the last seller type still included, and any type your target or one of your switches needs. Pick Lowest FBA while FBA sellers are excluded and they go back to Include on their own, with the section switched on.

Amazon Price is read straight off Amazon’s own offer, so nothing in this section touches it, the condition rule included.

Set your target and mode on Walmart

A Walmart step has two sections and nothing else. Target price has two cards.

Pricing mode under it has the same four modes as an Amazon step, with the matching one labeled Match here, and Type and Amount work the same way. Both targets work with every mode, so nothing grays out and there is no pair to get wrong. Buy Box Price and Beat by + Win Buy Box are the two cards marked Recommended.

There are no override switches and no competitor filter on a Walmart step.

Choose a pricing method on your own store

On a store of your own, Pricing method is the first section and it decides what the rest of the step asks you.

A new strategy opens on Competitor-based pricing, the card marked Recommended, already set to Beat lowest competitor by 0.01.

Take Cost-based pricing when you are not tracking anybody. It needs nothing but a cost on the listing. It also takes the Price Floor step out of the wizard, because a price built from your cost already has your profit in it. A listing with no cost on it is not priced at all, and reads Not working on your listings table, which listing and repricing status covers.

Take Competitor-based pricing when your listings have competitor addresses on them. You add those on the Competitors tab of a listing, which competitor URLs covers, and a listing with none gives this method nothing to work from.

Price from your cost

Pricing target is the section you get under Cost-based pricing, and it has three cards. Each one is a different way of asking for profit, and the field under the cards changes name with the card you pick.

The two percentages read alike and give you different prices. A margin is a share of the selling price. An ROI is a share of your cost, so the same number as a margin always gives you the higher price. Take Profit Margin when your accounting is done in margins, and ROI (Return on Investment) when you think in terms of return on what you spent. Take Fixed Profit when you want the same money from every unit whatever it cost you.

Price against a competitor you are tracking

Competition mode is the section you get under Competitor-based pricing, and it has three cards.

Beat lowest competitor is the card marked Recommended. Under the cards, Type is a fixed amount in your region’s currency or Percentage (%). The field beside it is named after the card you picked, Beat by or Stay above by. Switching Type puts 0.01 in a fixed field and 5 in a percentage one. Match lowest competitor has no field at all.

There is no Beat by + Win Buy Box here, because a store of your own has no Buy Box for it to win.

Show a crossed-out compare price

Compare price is a section at the bottom of the step on a Shopify or a BigCommerce store, with a switch of its own at the right of its heading. It starts off. Turn it on and three cards open under it.

Auto (previous price) is the card marked Recommended. Picking Markup from selling price opens two more fields inside that card, Markup type for Percentage or a fixed amount in your currency, and Markup for the number, which starts at 20%.

What a compare price looks like on the listing itself, and when it comes off your store, is on pricing on a listing.

Limits

What targets and modes cannot do

When something goes wrong

Why Next will not turn on

Two cards are required on a marketplace, one in each section, along with an amount above 0 on a mode that uses one. Whatever is missing turns red under the section it goes in.

Hovering the grayed-out Next names the same thing in a tooltip, and the strategy wizard lists what every step of the dialog can ask you for.

Why a card or a switch is grayed out

The information icon beside the card or the switch says which of these it is.

Why your price was measured against a different offer

Your target names a kind of offer, and which offer that turns out to be can change.

Your filter can take out the seller who has the Buy Box. When it does, the cheapest offer that did get through is used instead, and your price is worked out from that one. Nothing on screen says the swap happened, and the reason on the price change still names the Buy Box.

Amazon can also take the Buy Box off the product altogether, and then there is no Buy Box price to point at. No price reference on the Safety Nets step decides what happens then, and how a price is decided covers each of those answers.

Where to go next