# Dynamic pricing Human Guide

## What This Is For
Dynamic pricing automatically adjusts product prices based on demand signals, inventory levels, competitor prices, and business rules. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for go-to-market work: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Dynamic pricing agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for dynamic pricing.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Dynamic pricing guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- When high-velocity SKUs lose revenue because prices are set-and-forgotten while competitors adjust hourly
- When you need to liquidate slow-moving inventory through automatic markdown schedules
- When running a marketplace where seller prices must respond to competitive pressure
- When building a revenue management system for perishable or time-sensitive inventory
- When A/B testing price elasticity at scale and needing a framework to safely roll out price changes
- Sign up at prisync.com and connect your Shopify store via the integration
- Add competitor product URLs to track in the Prisync dashboard
- Set repricing rules: "Match lowest competitor price", "Beat by X%", or "Match and beat"
- Set your floor and ceiling prices per product
- Prisync pushes price updates to Shopify automatically on your configured schedule (hourly, daily)
- In your Shopify admin, go to **Apps → Flow**
- Create a new workflow triggered by **Inventory level changed** or a custom webhook

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Overview, When to Use This Skill, Core Instructions, Step 1: Determine the merchant's platform and choose the right tool, Step 2: Define your pricing rules before configuring any tool, Step 3: Platform-specific setup, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, Custom / Headless.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- When running a marketplace where seller prices must respond to competitive pressure
- | **Custom / Headless** | Build a pricing job that calls your platform's pricing API | Full control; required when custom logic exceeds what apps can handle |
- | **Floor price** | Never go below cost × 1.15 (15% gross margin minimum) |
- | **Ceiling price** | Never exceed MSRP or a set maximum |
- | **Maximum change per cycle** | Never change more than 20% in a single repricing run |
- | **Lock-out periods** | Do not reprice during active flash sales or promotions |
- | **Human review threshold** | Any change greater than 10% must be queued for human approval before applying |

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Dynamic pricing human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the finsilabs/awesome-ecommerce-skills skill entry for `dynamic-pricing`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Dynamic Pricing

## Overview

Dynamic pricing automatically adjusts product prices based on demand signals, inventory levels, competitor prices, and business rules. The goal is to maximize revenue per unit sold — raising prices when demand is strong or inventory is scarce, and reducing them to clear slow-moving stock. Most Shopify and WooCommerce merchants accomplish this with a repricing app rather than custom code. Custom implementations are reserved for headless storefronts or merchants with unique repricing logic that apps cannot handle.

## When to Use This Skill

- When high-velocity SKUs lose revenue because prices are set-and-forgotten while competitors adjust hourly
- When you need to liquidate slow-moving inventory through automatic markdown schedules
- When running a marketplace where seller prices must respond to competitive pressure
- When building a revenue management system for perishable or time-sensitive inventory
- When A/B testing price elasticity at scale and needing a framework to safely roll out price changes

## Core Instructions

### Step 1: Determine the merchant's platform and choose the right tool

| Platform | Recommended Tool | Why |
|----------|-----------------|-----|
| **Shopify** | Prisync, Wiser, or Skio Pricing | Prisync monitors competitor prices and pushes price updates via Shopify Admin API; Wiser uses demand signals and inventory |
| **Shopify Plus** | Prisync + Shopify Flow automations | Shopify Flow can trigger price changes via webhooks based on inventory or sales velocity signals |
| **WooCommerce** | Prisync, Repricer.com (via WooCommerce API), or custom via WooCommerce REST API | Most repricers support WooCommerce through the product API |
| **BigCommerce** | Prisync, Linnworks, or ChannelAdvisor | BigCommerce's Price Lists API is designed for dynamic segment-based pricing |
| **Amazon/Multi-channel** | RepricerExpress, BQool, or Seller Snap | Purpose-built for Amazon repricing with Buy Box optimization |
| **Custom / Headless** | Build a pricing job that calls your platform's pricing API | Full control; required when custom logic exceeds what apps can handle |

### Step 2: Define your pricing rules before configuring any tool

Before touching any tool, document your guardrails — these prevent the repricing algorithm from making decisions that destroy margin or customer trust:

| Rule | Example |
|------|---------|
| **Floor price** | Never go below cost × 1.15 (15% gross margin minimum) |
| **Ceiling price** | Never exceed MSRP or a set maximum |
| **Maximum change per cycle** | Never change more than 20% in a single repricing run |
| **Change threshold** | Only update if the new price differs by more than 2% (prevents micro-oscillation) |
| **Lock-out periods** | Do not reprice during active flash sales or promotions |
| **Human review threshold** | Any change greater than 10% must be queued for human approval before applying |

### Step 3: Platform-specific setup

---

#### Shopify

**Option A: Prisync (competitor-based repricing)**

1. Sign up at prisync.com and connect your Shopify store via the integration
2. Add competitor product URLs to track in the Prisync dashboard
3. Set repricing rules: "Match lowest competitor price", "Beat by X%", or "Match and beat"
4. Set your floor and ceiling prices per product
5. Prisync pushes price updates to Shopify automatically on your configured schedule (hourly, daily)

**Option B: Shopify Flow (inventory/demand-based, Shopify Plus)**

1. In your Shopify admin, go to **Apps → Flow**
2. Create a new workflow triggered by **Inventory level changed** or a custom webhook
3. Add a condition: e.g., "Inventory quantity is less than 10"
4. Add an action: **Update product variant** and set the price to a higher value
5. Add a separate workflow for when inventory recovers to restore the original price

Keep the original prices stored as a product metafield (`product.metafields.pricing.original_price`) so you can always restore them.

**Option C: Third-party apps for demand-based repricing**

- **Wiser** (Shopify App Store): uses sales velocity, add-to-cart rates, and inventory to suggest and apply price changes
- **Bold Commerce's Pricing**: allows scheduling price changes and automated rules

---

#### WooCommerce

**Option A: Prisync + WooCommerce REST API**

1. Connect Prisync to WooCommerce using the REST API credentials (WooCommerce **Settings → Advanced → REST API → Add key**)
2. Map your products in Prisync to competitor URLs
3. Configure repricing rules and schedules in Prisync
4. Prisync calls `PUT /wp-json/wc/v3/products/{id}/variations/{id}` to update prices