How prices work in X-Cart 5.6.x
X-Cart 5.6.x brings together manual prices, integration-provided prices, and a calculated Listing price that’s driven by your store’s pricing strategies.
Manual prices are product prices entered manually in the product editor (e.g., Retail price or Sale price).
Integration-provided prices (e.g., Cost, Jobber, Retail, MAP, etc.) come from connected auto integrations (warehouse distributors or catalogs) as a result of data import. These prices are used for the calculation of Listing prices.
Listing prices are prices calculated by the system automatically based on rules defined in a pricing strategy.
Compared to X-Cart 5.5.1, pricing strategies are a new feature; it centralizes price-calculation logic that previously lived in brand import settings.
A pricing strategy is a set of rules the system uses to calculate the Listing price for products in the brands assigned to that strategy.
Strategies are assigned to brands. You can keep a single global strategy for all brands or create brand-specific strategies. Once assigned, X-Cart automatically calculates each product’s Listing price using the rules you’ve defined.
💡Please keep in mind that strategies don’t apply to products with Manual prices.
Any change to a strategy’s rules or brand assignment triggers a price recalculation for all affected products. Depending on catalog size and integrations, this process may take time; Listing prices update in the background and appear automatically in the storefront once recalculation completes.
Managing pricing strategies
You can manage pricing strategies in Store → Pricing Strategies.
On this page, you can add new pricing strategies, as well as view, edit and delete existing ones.
All existing strategies are displayed in a list. There is always one General Strategy (Default) that applies to all brands without an assigned custom strategy. You can add additional strategies as needed or edit existing ones.
Creating a strategy
Navigate to Store → Pricing Strategies.
Click the New strategy button at the top of the page.
Еnter the strategy name and click Create strategy.
Сonfigure the rules on the Strategy Rules tab. See How pricing strategy rules work.
Click Save changes. The strategy will be created and added to the list.
💡Until the strategy is assigned to at least one brand, it is considered not fully configured (you’ll see the message “Strategy is not configured.”) Instructions for assigning strategies to brands are available in the section Assigning a strategy to brands.
Editing a strategy
Navigate to Store → Pricing Strategies.
Find the strategy you need to edit and click the corresponding Edit button.
Adjust the strategy details as needed — the main parameters can be configured on the Strategy Rules tab, while the Brands tab is used to specify which brands the strategy applies to.
Click Save changes.
Assigning a strategy to brands
Once a pricing strategy has been created, it must be assigned to one or more brands.
💡Each brand can only belong to one pricing strategy.
You can assign strategies either from the strategy's Brands tab or from the Catalog → Brands page.
If assigning from the strategy's Brands tab:
Find the strategy you require, open its details and go to the Brands tab.
Click Add brands.
In the pop-up window, select the brands to which the strategy will apply. You can use filters to narrow down the list.
Click Add brands. The selected brands will be added to the list on the Brands tab of the strategy.
If assigning from the Catalog → Brands page:
You can assign a strategy to brands either individually from each brand’s details page or in bulk using the Pricing strategy button on the Catalog → Brands page.
To assign a strategy to brands individually:
Navigate to Catalog → Brands.
Note that the brands table includes a Pricing strategy column indicating each brand’s assigned strategy.
Click the brand name to open its details page.
Scroll down the Info tab to the Pricing Strategy section.
Use the selector to choose the desired strategy.
(Optional) Click Manage strategy to review or edit the selected strategy’s rules on its configuration page.
Click Save changes. A confirmation dialog will appear, notifying you that price recalculation will begin.
Confirm to proceed.
To assign a strategy to brands in bulk:
Navigate to Catalog → Brands.
Note that the brands table includes a Pricing strategy column indicating each brand’s assigned strategy.
Select the brands you want to update by checking their boxes. Once selected, click the Pricing strategy button on the sticky panel at the bottom of the page.
The All Brands → Bulk Edit Pricing Strategy page will open, displaying the selected brands.
Click Click to specify.
Choose the desired strategy from the dropdown list.
A short summary of the selected strategy will appear below the selector.
If needed, you can create a new strategy on the Pricing Strategies page.
Click Save changes to apply the selected strategy.
A confirmation dialog will appear, notifying you that price recalculation will begin. Confirm to proceed.
Deleting a strategy
Custom strategies can be deleted. When a strategy is removed, all associated brands automatically revert to the General Strategy. This action cannot be undone.
To delete a strategy:
Navigate to Store → Pricing Strategies.
Find the strategy you want to delete on the list of your store's strategies and click the Trash button opposite the strategy's name.
A confirmation dialog will appear.
Confirm to proceed.
How pricing strategy rules work
You configure a pricing strategy as a set of rules.
The rules include:
Price type priority: This rule is configured in a table titled "Prices priority and adjustment". It defines which price types can serve as the base for Listing price calculation and in what order. The table displays all price types available from the connected and configured auto integrations (i.e., all price types from all auto integrations). You activate the price types you want to use and adjust their order in the table as needed (Price types listed higher in the table have higher priority.) It’s understood that not every product will have all the price types listed in the table. That’s fine: the system will use only the prices available for the specific product, following the priority rules defined.
Please note that Cost price is always enabled for all products (it cannot be disabled). This is by design: Since all warehouse distributors supply this price type, your store will always have a baseline for price calculation—even when other price types do not overlap across products.
Price adjustment: This rule defines a percentage markup that needs to be applied to the selected base price. All you need to do is specify the adjustments you require in the "Prices priority and adjustment" table.
Ensure min safety margin of: This rule allows you to set a minimum profit—either as a percentage or as an absolute amount. The calculation uses the maximum Cost price.
Choose your MAP policy: This rule validates the resulting price against the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy. You can choose how you want MAP to be treated:
Use the highest MAP; or
Disable MAP enforcement.
If you wish your prices to never go below MAP, choose the "Use the highest MAP" option.
Price source priority: This rule applies to products with prices from multiple sources; it defines the priority order of price sources whose prices will be used to calculate the Listing price. The table includes all warehouse distributors installed in the store, catalog integrations that may provide prices, and the local inventory. Newly added WDs appear at the end of the list. You adjust the order of price sources in the table as needed (Sources listed higher in the table have higher priority.)
Once a pricing strategy has been created and assigned to one or more brands, the system follows the rules defined in the strategy to calculate Listing prices for the products within the brand/brands that use this strategy.
The price calculation logic works as follows:
First, the system needs to identify a price that will serve as the base price for further calculations. To do so, the system checks the product's prices against the Price type priority and Price source priority rules. These rules are applied in combination.
Following the priority defined in the "Prices priority and adjustment" table, the system picks the first applicable price type for the product.
Suppose Retail is at the top. The system checks whether the product has a Retail price from any source. If not, it proceeds to the next row. If the product does have the highest-priority price type (Retail in this example) and only one source provides it, that Retail price becomes the base price. If the product is available from multiple sources, the system consults the Price source priority table to decide which source’s price to use. This table works the same way: the system checks sources from top to bottom. For example, if the topmost row in the table is Turn14, and the next one is Keystone, the system first looks for a Retail price from Turn14. If found, that value becomes the base price. If not, the system checks Keystone; if Keystone also lacks Retail, the system continues down the source list.
Once the base price is identified, the system applies any price adjustment defined for that price type in the "Prices priority and adjustment" table. For instance, if the adjustment for Retail is +20%, the system increases the base price by 20%.
Next, the system checks the Minimum safety margin. It verifies whether the price obtained in the previous step meets the minimum margin specified in the Ensure min safety margin field. If it does, the calculation proceeds. If it does not, the price is raised to meet the required margin.
Next, the system validates the resulting price against the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) policy. If the price is at or above the highest available MAP, the calculation is complete, and the process moves to the final step. If the price is below MAP, the price is increased to match MAP.
Finally, the system writes the result to the product’s Listing price field.
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