How to Stay Within Amazon’s Pricing Update Rules

Sellers on the Amazon marketplace know something the average consumer doesn’t: wait a few minutes, and the price of an item could change. Amazon sees about 2.5 million pricing changes on its products every day. For sellers, that complicates things.

Setting prices for items you sell has always been a challenging part of running a business. But it used to be that you’d figure out your price once and it would stay fairly stable. With a site like Amazon, though, price stability can hurt you. If a competitor that sells the same product undercuts your price, you lose the sale. But if you set your price so low that no one will undercut you, you hurt your profits.

You want to make a big enough profit on the items you sell to make the work worth it, but if you price too high, you’ll lose the Buy Box. Without the Buy Box, most customers will never see your products and you won’t make many sales.

It Pays to Update Prices on Amazon

One of the first things you figure out as an Amazon seller is the importance of timing. To get a sale, you have to offer the right price at the right moment. Any time another seller drops their price, you want to know as soon as possible so you can change yours to beat them. To do that, many sellers monitor competitors’ product listings and update their pricing throughout the day based on changes in the market.

2023 Update: Amazon's Similar Product dashboard allows you to compare prices for similar products that customers may consider when shopping for your product. This can help you make sure your pricing remains competitive.

In some cases, for particularly competitive items, a seller could change their price dozens of times in one day to beat a competitor and keep winning the Buy Box. This especially tends to happen when sellers use an Amazon repricer that automates the process. 

Amazon also suppresses the Buy Box when a product is offered at a lower price on other platforms, meaning you might need to change your price to make your product easily shoppable. SellerPulse by eComEngine alerts you about Buy Box wins, losses, and suppression.

When you don’t have to monitor competitor listings and make changes manually, it’s easier to make more frequent updates. But if Amazon notices a high quantity of pricing changes from your account in one day, you could find yourself up against Amazon’s pricing update limit.

What is Amazon’s Pricing Update Limit?

Amazon allows a certain number of pricing updates each day before you hit their limit. They’re not upfront about how many pricing changes are allowed, and instances of sellers hitting the limit are rare enough to suggest the number is high enough that many sellers won’t need to worry about it. If you do make so many pricing changes in a day that you trigger the limit, Amazon will restrict your ability to make any more pricing changes for the remainder of that day.

If that does happen, don’t worry too much. It’s a temporary inconvenience. The restriction will be lifted again the next day, so it won’t put a huge dent in your ability to do business on the platform.

Why a Pricing Update Limit Makes Sense

As a seller, if you hit the limit and find yourself faced with the restriction, it can seem unfair. You’re just doing what you have to in order to profit on the platform. This is the way Amazon is set up, what other choice do you have?

While it may seem unfair at first, the policy is in place for good reason. Having a daily limit on pricing updates can cut down on bots and hijackers who try to game the system. It can also help even the playing field for sellers that have a hard time gaining traction because bigger players with more resources are better able to undercut them at every turn.

In addition, if customers start to notice those pricing changes, it makes for a more frustrating experience for them. Not knowing what’s actually a fair price for an item can make them feel cheated or unsure if they should even bother trying to purchase it. Putting a limit on pricing changes can also be better for the customer experience.

Should I Still Use an Amazon Repricer?

The existence of a pricing update policy shouldn’t scare you away from using a repricer. The fact is, even sellers that use repricers rarely hit up against Amazon’s pricing update limit. And a repricer can make a big enough difference in the profits you make on Amazon that, even if you do exceed Amazon’s pricing limit once in a blue moon, you’ll still be coming out of top in the long term.

Repricers make increasing your profits on the Amazon marketplace much easier. You can cut down on the work involved in monitoring your listings, and still win the Buy Box. All of that means more sales and a more successful business.