Common Sense eCommerce

MAP Pricing (MAP stands for ‘Minimum Advertised Price’) is a pricing control technique used by many manufacturers and suppliers.  When there is a MAP price policy in effect, you are usually required to not show a price lower than that on your website, eBay listing, etc.

The problem with MAP pricing in practice is that it is often keystone or higher and many times is not the competitive value of the item.   Someone once said that ‘the value of an item is only what someone is willing to pay for it’.  Nowhere is this more true than on eBay.

MAP has different specific definitions depending on the supplier, but in most cases it controls the price you can show but it lets you sell it at lower prices using discounts and other techniques.

One such technique that works well in the eBay environment is using the ‘Best Offer’ feature.  When setting up a listing, you can choose to allow buyers to submit best offers to you. Suppose for example, you have an item that has a MAP of $89.00.  You can set up an eBay listing with a Buy-It-Now price of $89.00 and allow Best Offers on it.  When you allow Best Offers, you listing will appear like this.

This allows you too sell your item at competitive levels and still satisfy the MAP pricing requirement of the supplier. 

Note: if you do accept Best Offers in your listing, decide on a set price that you will not go below and stick to it.  Some buyers will make ridiculously low offers.  All in all however, eBay’s Best Offer is a practical option when MAP Pricing is in effect.

Tags: MAP Pricing, Home Based Business, eBay Home Business, eBay Business

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