New Amazon Coupon Pricing Rules to Avoid Gaming

As of March 12, 2024, Amazon is implementing new requirements for coupon pricing in order to improve the customer experience and build trust. These changes are aimed at preventing sellers from artificially inflating prices just to make coupon discounts appear larger.

New Coupon Rules:

1. Products must have an established sales history before being eligible for coupons. This prevents offering coupons on brand new listings without any pricing data.
2. The coupon discounted price must be lower than either the recent prevailing “was price” or the absolute lowest recent price for that product.
   Coupon discounts still must be between 5-50% off.

If your product does not meet these criteria, you will get an error message when trying to create a new coupon promotion. Potential issues include:

• No pricing history: You need to build up some sales over time to establish a “was price” reference.
• Discount too low: Increase the percentage off to make the promotion price lower than the prevailing price points.
• Discount outside 5-50% range: Adjust the discount percentage to fall within the allowed range.

How to Act on the New Coupon Rules

Monitor Pricing History
Pay close attention to the pricing history and prevailing “was price” that gets established for each ASIN. This pricing baseline is now critical for determining what coupon discounts will be permitted.

Time Promotions Strategically
If you want to offer an aggressive coupon discount, make sure to time it when your recent pricing has been higher to maximize the allowable promotion price reduction.

Focus on Consistent Pricing
Rather than frequently changing prices up and down, aim for more consistent pricing on an ASIN. This will create a stable “was price” baseline to work from for promotions.

Consider Pricing Position
Think strategically about your desired long-term pricing position for each product. If positioning it as a value-price offering, keep baseline prices lower to allow bigger future percentage coupons.

These new rules place more emphasis on sellers setting an authentic and sustainable pricing strategy, rather than bouncing prices up and down to exaggerate discounts. Be mindful of establishing a compelling but realistic price baseline to maximize your allowable future promotions.

FAQs
What if my product has no sales history?
If you have a brand new product ASIN with no previous sales history, you won’t be able to offer coupons on it right away under the new rules. You’ll need to build up some sales over a period of time first to establish a pricing baseline. Focus on driving organic sales through other marketing efforts until you have enough data for Amazon’s system to set a “was price” reference.

Can I increase my price temporarily to get a higher “was price”?
No, you shouldn’t artificially inflate your price in an attempt to set a higher “was price” reference just for the sake of offering bigger coupon discounts later. Amazon’s system looks at pricing histories over time and could detect pricing games like this.

What if my coupon conflicts with an existing deal promotion?
The new rules state that the coupon discount must make the net purchase price lower than both the “was price” and any other currently running deal prices on that ASIN. So if you have an existing promotion or deal that puts the product at a certain sale price, your coupon discount percentage would need to be set to go lower than that price after discount.