In the Pioneer Cycling store, we implemented a flexible pricing engine that can be easily manipulated by the business user. The pricing engine applies a number of pricing models to a particular cost such as item cost, shipping cost, or tax cost. The store generates a price for an object and then applies the pricing models against this list price. You can specify the list price and the pricing models in the ACC. For example, we specified that Pioneer Cycling customers who order over $400 of merchandise receive free shipping. The pricing engine can apply this model and other restrictions and promotions to calculate list, item, order, shipping, and tax costs dynamically.
Each SKU in the store has a list price and a sale price. When an item is flagged “on sale,” its sale price becomes active. Each SKU also has a cost price field so that you can analyze cost margins if desired.
Gross modifications to item prices can be made using “global promotions.” Global promotions are given to every customer on the store, and provide a flexible method for modifying pricing with any rule that can be expressed as a promotion. For example, every product in the store could be marked down by 2%, or, all items in a category could be $5 off in September. In addition, the store catalog shows customers the difference between the current price and the list price.
Entire orders may be priced with the same rules. Shipping costs can be similarly discounted. For example, you can offer a shipping discount on orders above a certain dollar amount, or free shipping, depending upon the contents of the order.
Refer to the Merchandising chapter for more information.
