Setting up MAP Pricing and Resolving Violations

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MAP Pricing in coreFORCE

Coreware MAP Pricing from Coreware on Vimeo.

Background on MAP price

MAP (Manufacturer Advertised Pricing) price is a minimum amount that resellers agree not to advertise below. This does not mean that a retailer cannot sell this product for less in their store, it just means that they cannot advertise a lower price.

As consumers flock eCommerce, distributors and manufacturers want to be sure that their brand's image remains protected and as such, MAP violation monitoring technology has stepped up in recent years. TrackStreet, for example, is a major bot that checks MAP compliance for manufacturers. This bot apparently has the intelligence to add the products to cart and check the in-cart price. This is just one of the solutions out there for distributors and manufacturers.

While a manufacturer can't control what a dealer will actually sell their product for, in the worst case scenario for a dealer, a manufacturer may refuse to let the dealer sell their products. This will generally only come after repeated warnings and you should generally receive a final warning.

This article will explain the different ways that Coreware works as a software company to provide you tools to ensure that you have the ability to follow all rules and regulations laid out by your distributors and manufacturers.

Comment on Coreware's role and responsibility regarding MAP requirements

As a data aggregator, and not a distributor, we have decided to primarily update MAP prices from distributors that we trust in a ranked order. As we have reviewed MAP, we have determined that MAP prices are a mess because of dirty data from only a few of the distributors.

After some careful investigation by our team, we have determined which distributors appear to be the best and most consistent sources of keeping MAP up to date. These distributors will have precedence over others where there are conflicts. We will still use MAP pricing from a distributor if the distributor is the only one to carry that product.

A major caveat of this, is that we will be much more reliant on distributors to fix MAP prices when the prices are incorrect. However, Manufacturer MAP uploads and Client changes to MAP now "stick" for 6 months before being overwritten by distributor MAP prices. This should give the distributors time to properly update those. Formerly, updates to MAP were relatively permanent until they were updated again.

As a dealer, you are ultimately responsible for staying up to date on all MAP policies. There are things you can do to work around the MAP price being wrong, thereby preventing yourself from being placed on a do not sell list. Some options include setting different MAP policies in the manufacturer record, setting a minimum sale price on the products in question, or marking the manufacturer record as "Cannot Sell" (hides the product and removes the product from the site map) until the corrections have been made).

If you forward the violations to the Coreware help desk, we will upload the corrections BUT this does not absolve you as a dealer from being the primary source of keeping up with these either using the options listed above or by simply going in and correcting the prices manually.

MAP Pricing & Setting MAP Policy by Manufacturer

If you enter a MAP price higher than your minimum price, it will show the MAP price. Unless there's a specific pricing structure or sales price set up for the item, the MAP price is what will be displayed.

By default, MAP pricing will say "Add to cart for best price". In your shopping cart, the set price will be displayed, even if it's less than the MAP price and a lot of manufacturers actually allow you to do this.

If the manufacturer is more strict and requires you to sell the item at the MAP price, you can set this by going directly into that manufacturer via Products -> Taxonomy -> Manufacturers.

Under the Settings tab, you can select the dropdown labeled "Map Policy" and select Strict MAP policy. When you go to the same item, it will now say "Email for Price". This is automated and the customer will receive the price via email. That email will let them click a link which will let them add the product to their cart.

This email is stored and editable under Contacts -> Email -> Emails but you can read more about that Here.

Percent above MAP

While it is not typical, if you are going to offer an "Email for Price" option, some manufacturers will require that you list the item at a price that's even higher than the base MAP pricing. In this case, you can set to show that manufacturer's items at 10% (for example) above MAP pricing.

MAP Pricing Holidays

The system is also built to ignore MAP Pricing if there is a MAP Pricing holiday.

All MAP Policy Dropdown Options and Explanation

These have all been added to satisfy manufacturers' detailed requirements:

[None] - default MAP behavior: MAP price is displayed with a button that says "Add to cart for best price"
Strict MAP - as in the video, email for best price (customers can also skip the Email for quote and just add to cart at the MAP price)
Strict MAP with code - same as email for price, except the customer gets a unique promotional code they have to enter at checkout. This is to satisfy manufacturers who require the discount to be applied at the final stage of checkout.
Call for price - the only way to get the real price is to call you.
MAP is minimum price - The minimum price the dealer can sell at is the MAP price. No further discounts offered.
See Price in Cart - This will hide the price in the product search results page, product details page, and the mini cart. In order to hide the price in the mini-cart, javascript will need to be added to the client template. We can assist with this if you submit a ticket. This policy was specifically designed for FN.
Ignore MAP - sell the product based on the pricing structure without regard to MAP at all. Only use this if you are sure that this is ok with the manufacturer.

Coreware's Product Catalog vs Dealer's Product Catalog

If there is ever a conflict between what's in our Shooting Sports Catalog and a dealer's Product Catalog, the system will use the HIGHER of the two MAPs.

Set MAP Policy for ALL Manufacturers

If you would like to set MAP policy for ALL of the manufacturers in your system, you can go to Products -> Taxonomy -> Manufacturers. Click the green "Actions" button in the top right corner:

Choose "Select All" from the dropdown

Click on the Actions button again and choose "Set MAP policy for selected Manufacturers" from the dropdown.

Select the MAP Policy from the dropdown that you would like to apply and click SAVE.

Quick Steps to Resolution

Immediately fix the MAP price of the item in question.
Optionally, deactivate the manufacturer till the corrections are made by selecting that manufacturer as "inactive".
Contact the distributor that has the wrong price.
Submit a Help Desk Ticket with specific details.

FINAL NOTICE

If this is your final notice, you need to make sure to set the manufacturer as "Cannot Sell" (hides the product and removes the product from the site map) until the corrections have been made) so you don't get terminated.
If you do get terminated, there’s little we can do, but most manufacturers are understanding and will work with dealers so long as the issues are resolved. Maybe add those manufacturers to your Christmas card list. It’s good to maintain good open channels of communication with manufacturers. They may even send you a little swag to display in your store.

You will need to contact the manufacturer and/or distributor to explain the circumstances.