Repricing tools are sold on winning the sale. The quieter question is what the sale is worth after fees, shipping, returns and the cost of the part. Automation that only chases the lowest price will eventually sell your stock below what it cost you, one cent at a time.
Start from the floor, not the competitor
A protective floor is a calculation, not a feeling. For each SKU it needs the landed cost, the marketplace referral fee for that category, the fulfilment or shipping cost you actually pay, a handling allowance, and a returns assumption based on your own history. Add the margin you insist on and you have the lowest price the rule may ever choose.
| Item | Sample value |
|---|---|
| Landed cost | C$18.40 |
| Referral fee (12% of C$34.99) | C$4.20 |
| Shipping and packaging | C$6.10 |
| Returns allowance (3%) | C$1.05 |
| Minimum margin | C$3.00 |
| Floor price | C$32.75 |
Rules you can explain
- A floor and a ceiling per SKU or group, with the ceiling preventing the price from drifting upward when competitors disappear.
- A target position: match the lowest offer, sit a fixed amount above it, or ignore sellers below your floor entirely.
- A change log with the old price, the new price, the rule that fired and the time. If you cannot explain a price, you cannot trust the rule.
- A pause switch per SKU, group and account. Supplier price increases and marketplace fee changes are the moments you will need it.
Fees are estimates until the settlement arrives
Marketplace fee tables change, promotions alter the effective rate, and settlement reports are the only ground truth. Build the floor from current published fees, then compare against actual settlements monthly and tighten the assumptions. Any tool that promises exact profit per sale from a fee table is overstating what it knows.
What repricing cannot do
No rule guarantees the Featured Offer on Amazon, and eBay has no equivalent mechanism at all; competitive rules there only manage your own position. Approval, placement and sales depend on factors outside pricing. Treat automation as margin protection with a competitive posture, and judge it by margin kept rather than by sales alone.
ORCA’s Guarded Repricing implements the cost-aware floor, the change log and the rejected-row review described here on top of the Sell module; a per-SKU ceiling and a pause switch are in development.
