What are safety nets?
Safety nets are guardrails that protect your pricing from unexpected situations. While a price floor sets the absolute lowest your price can go, safety nets add profit protection, manufacturer pricing compliance, fallback behavior, and schedule controls. You configure them in the Safety Nets step of the strategy wizard.
The Safety Nets step has four sections. Most apply to all channels, but the Fallback Behavior section only appears for marketplace channels.
Section 1: Profit protection
Profit protection prevents the repricer from setting a price that would sell your product below cost. Toggle Require minimum profit per sale to turn it on, then choose how you want to define "minimum profit":
- Fixed ($): A flat minimum profit amount in your currency. For example, if you set $2.00, the repricer won't set a price that leaves you with less than $2.00 profit per sale.
- Percentage (%): A minimum profit margin percentage. For example, if you set 5%, the repricer won't set a price where the margin falls below 5%.
This is different from the price floor. The price floor is calculated from your cost and desired ROI or margin, while profit protection is an additional safety check that runs after all other calculations. Think of it as the last line of defense before a price goes live.
Section 2: MAP and MSRP
If your products have manufacturer pricing requirements, these toggles make sure the repricer respects them. MAP (Minimum Advertised Price) and MSRP (Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price) values come from your listing data, either synced from the channel or set manually.
MAP options
- Respect MAP. The repricer won't set a price below the product's MAP value. If the calculated price would be lower than MAP, it gets raised to MAP. This takes priority over your pricing mode target.
- Always price at MAP. When a product has a MAP value, the repricer sets the price to exactly that value, bypassing the normal pricing calculation entirely. Useful for brands that require strict MAP compliance.
MSRP options
- Cap price at MSRP. The repricer won't set a price above the product's MSRP. If the calculated price exceeds MSRP, it gets capped there, even if that means a lower margin than your target.
- Always price at MSRP. When a product has an MSRP value, the repricer sets the price to exactly that value.
Mutual exclusion rules
Some MAP/MSRP options can't be active at the same time:
- "Respect MAP" and "Always price at MAP" are mutually exclusive. You can use one or the other, not both.
- "Cap price at MSRP" and "Always price at MSRP" are mutually exclusive.
- "Always price at MAP" and "Always price at MSRP" are mutually exclusive. You can't lock the price to both MAP and MSRP at the same time. Turning one on disables the other.
The wizard enforces these rules automatically. If a toggle is disabled, it shows a message explaining which option to turn off first.
Section 3: Fallback behavior (marketplace only)
This section only appears for marketplace strategies. It controls what happens in two situations where normal price competition isn't possible.
No price reference
What should the repricer do when there's no Buy Box winner or no competitor data available? Pick one:
- Hold current price. Keep the price where it is. This is the safest choice.
- Use min price. Drop to the listing's minimum price.
- Use max price. Raise to the listing's maximum price. Maximizes profit when no data is available.
- Use lowest competitor. Use the lowest competitor offer as the reference, even if nobody holds the Buy Box.
Can't compete by price
What should the repricer do when the competitor's price is below your minimum, meaning you can't beat or match them? Pick one:
- Stay at min price. Set your price to your minimum and wait. If the competitor raises their price later, you'll be in a good position.
- Raise to max price. Since you can't win on price, raise to your maximum to maximize profit from any sales you do get.
- Hold current price. Keep the price where it is and wait for the market to change.
Note: The "Can't compete" dropdown is hidden when your competition mode is "Stay above by," since pricing above the reference is the intended behavior in that mode.
Section 4: Repricing schedule
By default, repricing runs 24/7. The schedule section lets you limit repricing to specific days and hours. Toggle Enable schedule to activate it.
When enabled, you configure four settings:
- Active days. Which days of the week the repricer should run (default: Monday through Friday).
- From. Start hour in 12-hour format (default: 9 AM).
- To. End hour in 12-hour format (default: 5 PM).
- Timezone. Eastern (ET), Central (CT), Mountain (MT), Pacific (PT), London (GMT), Paris (CET), or UTC. Default is Eastern.
Outside the scheduled window, the repricer pauses and prices stay unchanged. Data syncing continues regardless of the schedule, so the repricer always has fresh data when the window opens. For more details, see Repricing Schedules.
How safety nets interact with other settings
Safety nets work alongside your other strategy settings in a specific order:
- The repricer calculates the ideal price based on your pricing settings (competition mode, target, amount).
- It checks if the price is within your price floor and max price boundaries.
- It applies MAP/MSRP rules (raise to MAP if below, cap at MSRP if above).
- It checks profit protection (make sure minimum profit per sale is met).
- If no competitor data is available, fallback behavior kicks in.
- Finally, rounding rules are applied to produce the final price.
This layered approach makes sure multiple checks are in place before any price change goes live.