Amazon has changed the data feed
that AMan uses for pricing. This document details the changes and required
configuration necessary for AMan once you have installed this new version of
AMan. There is a FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions) at the bottom of this document.
The new MWS
Pricing Data Feed has the
following significant changes:
- Amazon will now return the
shipping charged by sellers. AMan will now factor in shipping when pricing
against other seller offers.
- The identity of sellers
will no longer be available. This means that specific sellers cannot be
excluded from the pricing calculations.
- Quantities for other
sellers will no longer be provided.
- Seller Comments for other
seller offer is no longer provided.
- Amazon now provides the
lowest prices by group. The groups will be based on condition, fulfillment
channel (Amazon/FBA or Merchant), whether the seller ships from a domestic
or international location, shipping time and feedback. For instance we will
now get the lowest prices for condition and sub-condition (Like New, Very
Good etc.). Furthermore we will get these prices grouped by feedback buckets
(98-100%, 94-97% etc.). See below for more details.
- The specific Amazon price
will no longer be provided (however, the new buy box price will be able to
be used in a similar fashion (see below)).
- The new
pricing data feed is slower (currently about 10,000 to 15,000 items per
hour)
Details on the changes
in the data provided by Amazon.
Previously we
received the 10 lowest prices (excluding shipping). Now Amazon will
provide the lowest price by group. The groups will be based on condition,
fulfillment channel (Amazon/FBA or Merchant), whether the seller ships from a
domestic or international location, shipping time and feedback. For instance
we will now get the lowest prices for condition and sub-condition (Like New,
Very Good etc.). Furthermore we will get these prices grouped by feedback
buckets (98-100%, 94-97% etc.).
Using an
exaggerated example of an item with 6 offers (all assumed to be New), the old
data feed would provide all 6 offers as in:
Seller |
Price |
Feedback |
Fulfillment
(FBA or MFN) |
|
Seller1 |
$10 |
98-100% |
Amazon |
|
Seller2 |
$20 |
98-100% |
Amazon |
|
Seller3 |
$30 |
98-100% |
Merchant |
|
Seller4 |
$40 |
98-100% |
Merchant |
|
Seller5 |
$50 |
95-97% |
Merchant |
|
Seller6 |
$60 |
95-97% |
Amazon |
|
With the old data
feed we would get the offers from all 6 sellers. From that we could filter out
the ones that you configured as such and then price against the offers left.
So if previously if you configured the equivalent of not pricing against
sellers with 95-97% feedback, sellers 5&6 would not be considered when
pricing. Further if you configured a minimum price of $15, we could set to
your minimum price of $15 and then bump up to the next highest seller thereby
getting a value of $20 calculated.
Enter the new MWS
pricing data feed. First off, at best, we are only going to get
offers from sellers 1, 3, 5 and 6 because of the grouping nature of the prices
returned (in this case grouped by feedback and fulfillment).
-
Seller 1
because of being the lowest price in the group that has 98-100% and is FBA
-
Seller 3
because of being the lowest price in the group that has 98-100% feedback and
is merchant fulfilled
-
Seller 5
because of being the lowest price in the group that has 95-97% feedback and
is merchant fulfilled
-
Seller 6
because of being the lowest price in the group that has 95-97% feedback and
FBA
At
best because much of the time we do not get all the prices in all of the
groups. In those circumstances (which happen more often than not), we are
provided with the lowest offer in their group and any groups not provided will
have a higher price (how much we do not know). Therefore it is quite possible
that we only get the offers from sellers 1, 3 and 5 back. In other words there
are gaps in the list of offers being returned by Amazon to AMan.
Configuration for the new data feed:
Once installed , you will need to configure the MWS Pricing Rules. This may be
done by clicking on Configure->MWS Settings->MWS Pricing Rules. Your old
pricing rules will remain intact but not carried over. Therefore, you will
need to configure new pricing rules for the new data feed. The following steps
are required:
- Click on Start
MWS Pricing Rules Wizard. This will guide you through each of the pricing
rules. The first time you run the wizard, it is required that you go through
all steps before being allowed to press Finish.
- Once you have
completed configuring the new rules, you should run a Price Active
- Once complete,
Pending Uploads will be displayed.
- The newly
calculated prices should be reviewed to ensure that they are being
calculated as you expect. Sorting by the Price Difference and Price Percent
columns (click the column header to sort ascending, click twice to sort
descending) will speed up this review.
- Double clicking
on any record will display the List an Item display. New in this version is
a display of each offer used to calculate the price and if not used in the
calculation, a reason for its exclusion (see below).
- Additionally
FBA, Buy Box, Buy Box ownership, your offers and the offer used for the
calculation will highlighted (see below).
-
This data should be used to tweak your pricing rules
Colors used in List an Item offer display
1.
Yellow
- The offer that was used for the pricing calculation.
Gray
- This is a filtered offer that was excluding from being used in the pricing
calculations. The reason for being ignored will be in the Filter Notes field.
Cyan
- This is an FBA offer (also indicated by the Fulfillment
field having a value of 'Amazon' as opposed to 'Merchant' for merchant fulfilled offers).
Green
- These are your offers (also indicated by the MyOffer field)
Red
- This is a Buy Box owning offer (also indicated by the BuyBox field)
Orange
- This listing owns the Buy Box (it is possible to own the buy box for an item
where you have multiple listings – this will indicate that this particular
listing is the owner of the buy box). Also indicated by the ListingOwnsBuyBox
field.
Getting Assistance with the new pricing rules:
Please email us
with any questions you may have regarding the meanings of the new pricing
rules or the behavior of the product. However, if you have a specific
question as to why one or more items are being priced the way they are, you
must send
the diagnostics below before we can assist.
Diagnostics required for any issue with the MWS pricing data feed
ALL
of the
following will be required when you request our assistance in determining why
one or more items are not being priced the way you expected: