Understand repricing
At Multiply, pricing is a process of applying prices on one or more marketplaces based on observed and configured factors. Automated pricing requires specific setup and maintenance to prevent errors.
Multiply uses intelligent algorithms to automatically calculate and adjust product prices on one or more marketplaces with the aim of maximizing the merchant's profit.
Multiply's repricing process consists of three steps:
Preamble
Before these three steps, Multiply updates your catalog index every morning.
Using the credentials configured during catalog setup, Multiply automatically retrieves daily:
- The list of SKUs from your marketplace back-office and displays them in Pricing > Product (with links to the marketplace offer)
- The active/inactive status of SKUs
- SKU stock levels
- Offer conditions (new - refurbished - used...)
- FBS (Fulfillment by Seller) / FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) status
Observation
Multiply observes the marketplace to update data for your offers and those of your competitors. Observations are done in bulk, with each observation focusing on one SKU at a time.
The frequency of observations for your offers depends on the marketplace's configuration and your settings.
Through observations, Multiply retrieves:
- Your offer's selling price and shipping fees
- Selling prices and shipping fees of competing offers
- Delivery times for each offer
- Reviews
- Buy Box holder(s)
Price Recommendation
Multiply can recommends a price based on :
- the chosen strategy of your SKU
- the bounds of your SKU
As soon as Multiply observes new data on the marketplace, Multiply can recommend a new price if needed.
The most recent recommendation appears on the pricing screen, and all recommendations are displayed in the recommendation history.
If mandatory parameters are missing, Multiply cannot make a valid recommendation, and an error message will indicate the missing elements.
Price Application
How to activate automatic pricing ?
If the recommendation is valid, and if pricing is enabled, Multiply applies the recommendation and sends the price. If the recommendation matches the previously sent price, Multiply will not resend the price.
How the Target Price is Applied on the Marketplace?
Via API
On the marketplace, Multiply submits the price directly via the API, using your merchant ID and access codes.
Via an enriched feed if you use a feed manager
If you use a feed manager, Multiply can create a new source feed containing target prices. This feed should be used as input by your feed manager instead of the original feed. You can find this feed directly in your account:
Account Configuration > My Integration Feeds
In the absence of integration, your feed manager overwrites the prices sent by Multiply to your marketplaces via the API one or more times a day. This overwriting is normal: your feed manager is configured with rules and input data that do not contain the prices calculated by Multiply.
To avoid overwriting, we offer a feed that is a copy of your original feed, to which we have added columns (for CSV feeds) or XML elements (for XML feeds).
The Multiply replacement feed is always up-to-date: whenever you or your feed manager downloads it, Multiply obtains your original feed and adds the most recent Multiply target prices to it.
To activate the feed generated by Multiply, you need to change the input feed URL used by your feed manager and then change the price assignment rules for the relevant marketplaces. If you are unable to do this yourself, you can contact your feed manager's customer service and include a copy of these instructions.
In your feed manager's configuration, you should associate these new columns with the prices of the corresponding marketplaces while adhering to the following criteria:
- If the column created by Multiply is filled, use the column's value as the unit price excluding tax, unchanged.
- If it is empty, use another price, which you can define freely, e.g., using the rules already configured in your feed manager before integration.
As a precaution, we recommend making the feed change on any day of the week except Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, and holiday eves.
Sending Prices to a Third-Party System
Some integrations allow direct application of prices to an API. This solution is also available to apply prices to a dedicated/proprietary API or a web service.
