Fair pricing - it just gets worse
Due to the price of metal going through the roof my supplier has had no option to put their prices up, so of course I need to do similar to maintain my already meagre margins.
So last night I increased the prices of this particular suppliers items however woke this morning to find that many of them had been suppressed due to high pricing, I tried again with the same result. the bottom line being that if I do sell at the highest that Amazon will allow quite frankly it wouldn’t be worth the hassle that goes with selling given the return on investment
Apparently Amazon have never heard of inflation or the cost of materials and services rising while at the same time expect us to continue to be bullied to lowering prices with another of their policies on items not being available for buy box.
dont know about others but between VTR, REACH, Pricing limits and the usual A-z, did not receive scammers amazon it is quickly becoming unviable as a business model for me.
13 replies
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
This is the conundrum. Amazon take the view that if others can sell within the price range they set, you should be able to do the same. This is not the real world, of course, because prices of most things have increased considerably. However, Amazon’s systems seem to be stuck in the previous decade on some pricing.
I am not aware of any occasion where contact has been made with Amazon and the price ranges of items have been duly increased as a result. Prices literally change on an hourly basis on here, as I’m sure you know and there is, therefore, no easy solution. That is the conundrum.
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
I think I read that if you do it in small increments it will be ok
Alternatively, not sure about your plan or templates but could you add the price on as shipping?
Seller_19xPhE8YgkmxW
Hello bobsyouruncle,
This is Amazon’s statement on the subject:
"Amazon regularly monitors the prices of items in our marketplaces, including shipping costs, and compares them with other prices available to our customers. If we see pricing practices on a marketplace offer that harms customer trust, Amazon may take action, such as removing Buy Box, removing the offer, or in serious or repeated cases, suspending or terminating selling privileges.
Pricing practices that harm customer trust include, but are not limited to:
setting a reference price on a product or service that misleads customers;
setting a price on a product or service that is significantly higher than recent
prices offered on or off Amazon;
selling multiple units of a product for more per unit than that of a single unit
of the same product; or
setting a shipping fee on a product that is excessive. Amazon considers
current public carrier rates, reasonable handling charges, as well as buyer perception
when determining whether a shipping price violated our fair pricing policy."
I doubt that helps but indicates the parameters you have to work within
All Best
Brian
Seller_slaY7nVNr1UKn
I never had a similar issue like yours but its up to the seller to determine the right price for its products. same applies to amazon buy box prices; they’re in most instances, unbeatable.
They’re more than happy to take partners onboard but then they compete with us. They must forget about all the fees that we have to pay.
Seller_03A80x8hh1qZC
Yes, we are familiar with this issue, having faced it ourselves.
Amazon takes the view that a “fair increase” in price is a small increase.
So, for instance, if you increase your price 50%, you will almost certainly get docked due to high price.
The only way that works is to increase the prices gradually - say 5% at a time. There’s one kink though…one you have increased the price 5%, you must wait till a good number of customers have bought at this new price before you raise it again by 5%…
Hope it helps…
Seller_x1xMSBwZsJrTE
Oh they have.
They mention this sort of thing every time they announce new fee increases…
Then they suddenly get amnesia in the rest of their dealings with us.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
I suppose you could just do what all the rogue dropshippers do and create duplicate ASINs that have no sales history and therefore are immune to fair pricing algorithm.
Amazon seems not to have a problem with sellers who flood the system with overpriced bogus duplicate ASINs on a vast scale but woe betide any honest seller that raises their price to a realistic level on a genuine ASIN… 
