I’ve been tracking a top competitor in my niche and found something interesting:
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Normal daily price: $18.99
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Recent 7-day Deal price: $18.98
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Strikethrough reference price: $29.99
Their previous Lightning Deal was around $14.41, following the normal calculation:
$19.99 × 0.85 ≈ $16.99 → $16.99 × 0.85 ≈ $14.44, rounded to $14.41.
That deal ended about two months ago, and they’ve been priced at $18.99 ever since. Now they’re running a BD at almost the same price as their regular selling price.
I’m trying to understand how Amazon’s deal algorithm allows this. Has anyone else seen this in their category? How does Amazon determine the minimum allowed deal price here?
Answers (7)
If the system uses your higher List Price as the reference, you can set a deal price very close to your regular selling price.
This comes from stable pricing and a legitimate, higher MSRP, not any loopholes.
A valid deal price must meet all of these:
Here, 85% of $29.99 ≈ $25.49, and the 30-day low is $18.99. The strictest limit is $18.99, so $18.98 is sufficient.
You can enter a precise price like 18.985 in the backend. Amazon recognizes it as lower than 18.99 and rounds it to 18.98 on the front end.
The system only checks that it’s technically lower, not how big the discount is.
To do this legitimately:
Then your deal only needs to be $0.01 lower to display the deal badge.