SI Store Ops

Troubleshooting guide · updated 2026-10-12

A price floor from landed cost: the arithmetic, and why alerts come before automation

How to work the lowest price you will accept from cost, fees, returns and margin, with a formula, and why to set alerts before any automatic matching.

The formula

A floor is the price at which, after fees, the returns allowance and your minimum margin, you still cover landed cost. With a payment fee of f percent, a fixed fee, a returns allowance of r percent and a minimum margin of m percent of the price, the floor is (landed cost + fixed fee) divided by (1 - f - r - m), with f, r and m as fractions.

Round up to the next penny. This is an authored method, and the percentages are yours to choose.

What pushes a price below its floor

A sale price left on, a bulk edit, rounding, and a bundle whose price was set before a component cost rose. The bundle case is the one a poster in a Shopify thread describes: a bundle missed in the manual updates sells at an incorrect price.

  • Check every price against its floor each week.
  • Treat a bundle's cost as the sum of its parts.

Alerts first, and your own prices only

Most replies in one thread advise against matching competitor prices automatically; some favour an alert and a hard floor. The CMA case study is a reminder of why: two sellers who agreed not to undercut each other, and used repricing software to carry it out, were found to be a cartel. Set your own prices from your own costs.

Which paid job fits

The floors job works a floor for up to 300 products and builds the checker. The weekly list repeats it.

The proposals job suggests changes inside your floors; you approve each one. None changes a price in your store.

Sources and limits