The Benefits of Multi-tiered Pricing B2B organizations get an incredible boost by offering multi-tiered pricing flexibility. It makes little sense to carry inventory that can be quickly turned over and replaced profitably by simply adjusting prices. Why risk losing money to competitors when the company can still earn a reasonable profit on a larger volume of products? Account-specific pricing offers the flexibility to adjust prices, promote discounts and give staggered breaks on price based on the number of products customers buy. Most companies already offer some form of tiered pricing based on the volume of B2B sales, for resellers, VARs, distributors, etc. Offering fully flexible pricing requires integrating your business systems into the ecommerce platform to offer account-specific pricing, custom price points and tailored discounts. Administrators can set the terms for when these price breaks are offered based on ordering behaviors such as order abandonment or looking for lower priced goods that are similar. Clarity ecommerce provides a multi-tiered pricing model that allows for integration and customization with your back-office ERP, such as Dynamics AX, GP, NetSuite, Oracle, SAP, Epicor, Syspro and many more. The top benefits of multi-tiered pricing models include: Set Specific and Confidential Prices Platform development and integration allow companies to set partner / client-specific prices that are only shown to that specific partner, or client, or a partner or client type. Automate Tiered Pricing Customers can enjoy the benefit of tiered pricing in self-service applications so that they never need to contact a staff member to view or get the negotiated prices. Offer Different Prices Within a Company Prices might vary when sold to different departments such as those who use supplies in business operations and departments that resell products. Integrate Key Features Tiered pricing can apply to backorders, tax rates, VIP pricing, club prices, group prices and special rates offered to family members and friends of employees. Provide Cross-channel Pricing It’s easy to set prices for multiple sales platforms such as retail sales, sales in other countries and marketplace platform sales of products such as products sold at Amazon. Give Discounts Based on Different Sales Criteria integration allows companies to offer discounts for buying multiple brand-name products or buying products and key accessories. Promote Bulk Discounts Bulk discounts are the most common type of tiered pricing because they work to help improve revenue and conversions. Arrange Nonfinancial Benefits It’s not always necessary to offer a discount to increase sales conversions and order quantities. Other incentives can also be offered automatically such as service agreements, free shipping and customer perks such as first offers of new products. One of the most important reasons for offering tiered prices is that it gives customers a choice between two company ordering options instead of giving them a choice between the company and a competitor. Self-service tiered pricing also provides a better customer experience, greater ordering flexibility and a range of incentives for easily ordering more products. Companies can transform their online sales operation into a distributor, reseller and marketplace platform and provide custom pricing for each channel and customer profile. The Importance of Offering Special Pricing Offering custom price points makes customers feel good according to market research. [1] The offer of special pricing tiers also discourages customers from comparing the products to other brands and company prices. Special prices generate the following business benefits: Attract new clients. Generate more attention to the company’s website. Increase sales volume. Clear old inventory. Strengthen customer loyalty. Give B2B buyers more ordering options. Pricing Features that B2B Companies Can Offer It’s astonishingly easy to configure special pricing features when all business operations are fully integrated into the sales platform. Coders can build a direct endpoint in the API layer to assign and configure an unlimited number of account classes, and the assignments can be made directly into the company’s ERP software. Creative ways to take advantage of custom tiers include: [2] Quantity Discounts More product for the money always means greater value for the customer, but prices should not be discounted so greatly that customers feel as though the products were overpriced deliberately. Better Quality Products Value is what’s important. A better quality product can also move customers to convert. Service Options Customers are often willing to pay for certain service options such as extended warranties, greater service options and guaranteed returns. Customization Options B2B customers increasingly demand personalization options. Companies don’t need to offer these for free, but they can be added as buying incentives for ordering more or better products or just as a competitive advantage. Special Access B2B customers will pay more or buy more when they’re offered special VIP incentives such as custom content, consultations on new product lines and special services such as attending an entertainment event with company officials. Length of Commitment When selling services, the length of commitment is a key value. Customers are notoriously unwilling to commit to long-term contracts, but offering price incentives for longer commitments is a standard marketing strategy that often works. Levels of Service Offering different levels of service is another popular marketing model that works within the parameters of tiered pricing. Prepayment and Advance Ordering Discounts Many companies create buzz and ensure sales by soliciting orders before new products come on the market. Electronics are a good example--new phone models often generate tremendous excitement and thousands of advance orders. Special-event Pricing In the retail world, Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day and Labor Day sales are common. B2B companies can offer special-event pricing and use automated marketing messages to send personalized emails to every customer. integration Enables Seamless Tiered Pricing Companies can offer special catalogs for their best customers and special prices for a vast number of customers and partners by integrating their ecommerce or marketplace with your back-office platforms. If you decide that you need pricing tiers to be competitive, you should look for an experienced developer to help you integrate ERP and CRM software to enable automated pricing tiers. Clarity ecommerce offers multi-tiered pricing out-of-the-box and Clarity Connect allows us to integrate and automate tiered pricing with any back-office ERP, CRM, EMR, or proprietary application. Give Clarity a call today to discuss your ecommerce project. References: [1] Business.tutsplus.com: https://business.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-use-discount-pricing-strategies--cms-28611 [2] Summitevergreen.com: Why Tiered Pricing Is the ONLY Way to Price Your Product http://summitevergreen.com/why-tiered-pricing-is-the-only-way-to-price-your-product