Competitive Price - Featured Offer Pain and a Solution
We have been struggling with our Brand Registered products losing their Featured Offer status due to them being priced higher than the "Competitive Price." We are the only retailer of our product, and all of our prices across all sales channels which we list are either at or above our Amazon sale price. We have gone back and forth with seller support to try and get them to understand this, however, all they reply with is "The price outside amazon is $x.xx and you must set to this price or lower to get the Featured Offer. We cannot share with where or how we came up with that price." Hours spent trying to convince them otherwise.
After digging and testing, I have found the answer. The Competitive price for our category is based on Price/Unit Count. Not the Sale Price of the listed item. Our category unit count is Fl Oz. Our website listings, and our products are measured in milliliters. So, if based on our website price at 100ml, which is 3.38 Fl Oz, if our Unit Count on Amazon is 3.37 Fl Oz or lower for the same price, we lose the Buy Box/Featured Offer.
When they discontinued our original category, Amazon moved our products into their current category. Our original category Unit Count Type was not limited to a particular type. So we had all of them set to Count. Over the years, Amazon changed these values to match their Unit Count Type limitation in the new category (Fl Oz) The values are set inconsistently and inaccurately all over the catalog. And very few match the actual calculated value of the conversion from ML to Fl Oz.
So, based on the Unit Count in Fl Oz recorded in the Amazon Catalog, and the calculated ML to Fl Oz conversion Amazon has done while crawling our website, They have determined that any product priced higher by the Unit Count in Amazon will not win the Featured Offer.
For us, this isn't a repricing problem, it is a data entry problem on the Unit Count field causing a discrepancy between our prices on and off Amazon. We are currently in the process of editing our Unit Count values to the correct ml/fl oz conversion value. Yet, we all know how difficult it can be to update Attribute values in the Amazon Catalog.
Hopefully this helps anyone struggling to figure out why their prices are being rejected for the featured offer due to apparanty erroneous competitive pricing.
Competitive Price - Featured Offer Pain and a Solution
We have been struggling with our Brand Registered products losing their Featured Offer status due to them being priced higher than the "Competitive Price." We are the only retailer of our product, and all of our prices across all sales channels which we list are either at or above our Amazon sale price. We have gone back and forth with seller support to try and get them to understand this, however, all they reply with is "The price outside amazon is $x.xx and you must set to this price or lower to get the Featured Offer. We cannot share with where or how we came up with that price." Hours spent trying to convince them otherwise.
After digging and testing, I have found the answer. The Competitive price for our category is based on Price/Unit Count. Not the Sale Price of the listed item. Our category unit count is Fl Oz. Our website listings, and our products are measured in milliliters. So, if based on our website price at 100ml, which is 3.38 Fl Oz, if our Unit Count on Amazon is 3.37 Fl Oz or lower for the same price, we lose the Buy Box/Featured Offer.
When they discontinued our original category, Amazon moved our products into their current category. Our original category Unit Count Type was not limited to a particular type. So we had all of them set to Count. Over the years, Amazon changed these values to match their Unit Count Type limitation in the new category (Fl Oz) The values are set inconsistently and inaccurately all over the catalog. And very few match the actual calculated value of the conversion from ML to Fl Oz.
So, based on the Unit Count in Fl Oz recorded in the Amazon Catalog, and the calculated ML to Fl Oz conversion Amazon has done while crawling our website, They have determined that any product priced higher by the Unit Count in Amazon will not win the Featured Offer.
For us, this isn't a repricing problem, it is a data entry problem on the Unit Count field causing a discrepancy between our prices on and off Amazon. We are currently in the process of editing our Unit Count values to the correct ml/fl oz conversion value. Yet, we all know how difficult it can be to update Attribute values in the Amazon Catalog.
Hopefully this helps anyone struggling to figure out why their prices are being rejected for the featured offer due to apparanty erroneous competitive pricing.
1 reply
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
Here is my Paul Harvey story about Amazon Advertising and Competitive Pricing.
Amazon selling is very easy and couldn't be any simpler, but no one will tell you the secret Amazon uses for its own for success. Amazon knows this secret better than any other seller and works very hard to keep it from being known, because when the secret is out on the bag, things will change.
Amazon is very good at showing sellers what a good competitive price would be for the products they sell. Why there are several software companies that, for a fee, can do the same. With all the hype around them, they almost sound like a necessity to have when selling online.
Amazon also is very good at offering advertising campaigns to increase your sales. That way, sellers will keep their selling price high, with the potential of more buyers seeing their offerings. Offered are Keyword Advertising, PPC Advertising, Placement Advertising and more, all to boost your sales. But do they really work?
Strangely enough, you do not see Amazon's products displayed in that good competitive price range, nor do you see Amazon actually using the advertising methods sold to sellers. Why, because Amazon knows the secret is not in those add-on strategies offered for sale. The advertising programs offered are to increase Amazon's bottom line, and keep the secret hidden. While sellers naturally have an internal desire to succeed, many focus on all the hype surrounding these advertising addons, while Amazon focuses on something else, the Buyer.
So, what does the buyer have to do with it? Well, the buyer's action is the secret. Amazon knows that the lowest price offering for any product will sell before the higher price offering of the same item. Amazon wants 3rd party sellers to sell at a higher, so-called competitive price, and if it doesn't sell, buy some advertising from Amazon to help it along. This keeps those sellers away from the Amazon offering and the lowest price offering. So, while the sellers are constantly watching their (always Higher) competitive pricing, advertising program, and what other sellers are doing, Amazon and the sellers with the lowest price offerings are selling away 24 hours a day with no problem. And now you know the rest of the story.
