Pricing: Overview

A price sheet is a list of prices for the priceable components (pre-priced products, print services, Media, impressions, products, shipping) tailored to a specific set of buyers.

A price sheet can list prices for only certain items.

●        Typically, the site-level price sheet will be completely filled out whereas company and Print Shop price sheets will have values for only a few of the items (i.e., for those items that are priced higher or lower than on the site-level price sheet).

●        When calculating an order price, the pricing system will look first to the company and Print Shop levels to see if an item is priced; those items not priced on the company and Print Shop price lists will be taken from the site-level price sheet). 

If your site has several Print Shops and you want to charge different prices based on the Print Shop that receives an order, then you will use a Print Shop price list.

You can create as many price sheets as you need to tailor pricing for customers associated with different Print Shops and companies. Thus, if Company A is a high-volume customer, you could create a Company A price sheet that discounts all items by 10%. Or you could discount all Media by 25% off your standard prices just for customers who order through Company A.

You can set pricing for five different components on your price sheets. FSF calculates the price of a buyer’s order by summing the charge for each of the priceable components in the order.

●        Print Services: performing a task (such as cutting or folding) on a job

●        Media: the substrate (e.g., paper, vinyl, canvas) to which an image is applied

●        Impressions: applying an image (printing) to a Media

●       Products: goods or services your company sells on their storefront

●        Shipping: shipping and delivery charges

●       Storage: storage cost for the product or service

*Each of these components can have a per unit price and a fixed setup fee.

How billing unit and range unit work in price calculations

The range unit specifies which row in the price sheet to use. If the range unit is the number of sheets in the job, then you set quantity-based pricing according to the number of sheets.

The price in the range unit row (but not the range number) is multiplied by the value for the billing unit to arrive at the component price. The component price is the price of a component in one copy. For a copy job, if the price in a range unit is $.05 and the billing unit is sheets, the component price will be $.05 x the number of sheets in the PDF file.

Range Unit value x Billing Unit value

=

Price for the component

The item price is the sum of the component prices (e.g., the sum of the price of the impressions, price for folding, and price for cutting one copy).

Sum of price for all components (e.g., impressions, price for print services, price for Media)

=

Item price

The total item price is calculated by multiplying the item price by the job quantity that the buyer enters.

The sum of the component setup prices is added to the price at the end. Thus if lamination has a setup fee of $2.00 and impressions has a fee setup of $0.50, the system will add $2.50 to the job total.

Item price

x

Job Quantity

+

Setup Price

=

Total Job Price

Examples of pricing coil binding:

Example 1: If a buyer orders 25 copies of a 32-page blue coil-bound document, the price is: (25 x 1.50) + 3.00 = $40.50.

Example 2: If a buyer orders 25 copies of a 64-page blue coil-bound document, the price is: (25 x 1.60) + 3.50 = $43.50.

Consult the table below when configuring billing and range units. Disregard billing and range units when pricing pre-priced products because the billing and range units are already set for pre-priced products.

Priceable Units Table

All priceable units are measured at the item level because the pricing computation calculates an estimate by adding items individually. The billing units and range units for pre-priced products are always based on the number of copies requested by the buyer.

Priceable Unit	Application
	Impressions	Print Services	Media	Shipping
Area: The area in square units of measurement (e.g., centimeters, inches). This is computed from Media size or finished size, if applicable.	Applicable This computed from Media size and finished size.	Applicable Used for print services such as lamination.	Applicable	Not Applicable
Copy: The number of copies of the item a user requests.	Applicable	Applicable Used for print services such as stapling that occur once per copy.	Applicable	Not Applicable
Perimeter: This is computed from Media size or finished size. For wide format or any product that uses continuous Media, “final width and height” print service should be added in the ticket. The buyer-entered final width and height would be used for perimeter calculation (e.g. Frame | Print services).	Not Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not Applicable
Width: This is computed from Media size or finished size. For wide format or any product that uses continuous Media, “final width and height” print service should be added in the ticket. The user entered final width would be used for print service category (e.g. Top finish, Bottom finish Print services).	Not Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not Applicable
Height: This is computed from Media size or finished size. For wide format or any product that uses continuous Media, “final width and height” print service should be added in the ticket. The buyer- entered final height would be used for print service category (e.g. Left finish, Right finish Print services).	Not Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not Applicable
Currency: The currency unit is used to record items that receive a price directly, without consideration of the number of units. Within MDSF, setup fees are always expressed in currency units.	Applicable as billing unit.	Applicable as billing unit.	Applicable as billing unit.	Applicable as billing unit.
File: The number of files associated with a document part. WARNING: Due to file combining, use of this unit may vary as orders are placed, so it is recommended that you do not use this unit.	Applicable but not recommended	Applicable but not recommended	Applicable but not recommended	Not applicable
Generic Unit: May be used if measuring by a custom unit is required. This always triggers a manual quote.	Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Applicable but not recommended
Impressions (Single Copy): The number of impressions required to print a single copy of the item.	Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not applicable
Impressions (Total for all copies): The number of impressions required to print all requested copies.	Applicable Used for precut sized impression charges	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable
Job: A special unit for items like “Call to Discuss” or “Request Proof” for which a charge is made per job.	Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not applicable
Length: The larger dimension of the size as obtained from the Media size and/or finished size. This is either the width or height, whichever is larger.	Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not applicable
Sheets (Single Copy): The number of sheets required to print a single copy of the document. This computation considers whether or not the document is printed simplex or duplex.	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable	Not applicable
Sheets (Total for all copies): The number of sheets required to print all requested copies. This computation considers whether or not the document is printed simplex or duplex.	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable Best used as billing unit for precut Media	Not applicable
Shipped Items’ Price:	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable for use as range unit only
Shipped Weight:	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable for use as a billing unit only
Tabs Sets (Actual; All copies): The actual number of tab sets used to assemble document. Includes wasted tabs.	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable	Not applicable
Tab Sets (Actual; Single copy): The actual number of tab sets used to assemble document. Includes wasted tabs. Tab set pricing sets pricing for a bank (or set of tabs). For instance, if tabs are priced in sets (or banks) of three. Buyer requests seven tabs with a tab count of three. This is two banks and one tab. The system will charge for three banks because the tabs are priced in sets.	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable Suggested as range unit	Not applicable
Tabs (Requested; All copies): Buyer requested number of tabs.	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable	Not applicable
Tabs (Requested; Single copy): Buyer requested number of tabs.	Not applicable	Not applicable	Applicable Suggested as range unit	Not applicable
Time: These always trigger manual quote (i.e., bypassing the automated pricing engine)	Applicable	Applicable	Applicable	Not applicable

Standard Pricing Model

The standard pricing model for MarketDirect StoreFront determines the price of a component based on the Regular Price for a quantity range. For example, here is the standard price list for a coffee cup:

If a buyer orders 120 coffee cups, then the cost per unit will be $4.00. The cost per unit will always be $4.00, as long as the buyer orders a quantity between 101 and 200.

Interpolated Pricing Model

The interpolated pricing model determines the price of a component based on the quantity ordered between two known price points. For example, here is the interpolated price list for a coffee cup:

Interpolated price list only have a single value for a Range Unit, whereas standard price list have two values to display the range.

If a buyer orders 120 coffee cups, then the cost per unit will be $3.80. The cost per unit will always change depending on the quantity ordered. Interpolated pricing gives administrators a more accurate price per quantity for a component.  

How to calculate Interpolated Pricing:

The interpolated pricing model is based on the interpolated formula:

In MarketDirect StoreFront, the Y variable equals price and the X variable equals the quantity. Furthermore, the variables are assigned as follows:

• Y equals the final price of the product.

• Y1 equals the price of the upper bracket in the Pricing table.

• Y2 equals the price of the lower bracket in the Pricing table.

• X equals the quantity purchased by the buyer.

• X1 equals the quantity range of the upper bracket in the Pricing table.

• X2 equals the quantity range of the lower bracket in the Pricing table.

For the coffee cup example in the Interpolated pricing model section, the equation would be:

 

To Enable Interpolated Pricing:

1         Open the price list you want to manage and click Edit.

2         Select the appropriate Component tab.

Interpolated pricing is available for the following components:
-Print Services
-Media
-Impressions
-Products
-Shipping

3         Click the Use Interpolated Pricing check-box.

Once you enable interpolated pricing in a Component tab, all the items in that tab will use interpolation. You cannot select specific components to have standard pricing and other components to have interpolated pricing in the same tab.

You can use a combination of standard and interpolated pricing in your storefront by applying different pricing models to different Component tabs. For example, your Print Services could use standard pricing, and your Products could use interpolated pricing.

MarketDirect StoreFront recommends you set the first range value to 1 when using interpolated pricing. If a buyer orders an amount below the first value, then the order will require a quote.

MarketDirect StoreFront has three levels of price sheets that correspond to the three levels of pricing in the system.

●        1 Site-Level Pricing

●        2 Print Shop-Level Pricing

●        3 Company-Level Pricing

1         Site-Level Pricing in MarketDirect StoreFront

●       What is Site-Level Pricing?
Site-level pricing is the most general level of pricing that applies to all customers across your site.

●       When should I use Site-Level Pricing?
When you are servicing a single customer community and all customers are going to be charged from a single price list (i.e., the site-level price sheet that serves as the default pricing for your site). You will configure a single price sheet that will serve as the site-level price list. All pricing will come from that price list.

It is always helpful to have a site-level price sheet to minimize data entry (i.e., so that you only have to enter exceptions to the base pricing for a company or Print Shop, for instance when you want to adjust pricing for a sale or promotion for a particular subset of customers).

2         Print Shop-Level Pricing in MarketDirect StoreFront

●       What is Print Shop-Level Pricing?
Print Shop-level pricing is pricing that is applied at the Print Shop level (between the more general site-level and the more specific company-level).

●       When to use Print Shop-Level Pricing?
You would use Print Shop-level pricing (i.e., a Print Shop price sheet) when you have multiple Print Shops and want to charge a different price based on the Print Shop with which the order is placed.

●       How is Print Shop-Level Pricing Set Up?
After you set up your site-level (default) price sheet, you will make a copy of it and adjust the prices that will be different from the site-level in the Print Shop price sheet. When a buyer selects ticket options for an order, the pricing system checks for the Print Shop price list. If no Print Shop-level pricing is configured, the site-level price sheet will be applied.

3         Company-Level Pricing in MarketDirect StoreFront

●       What is Company-Level Pricing?
Print Shop-level pricing is pricing that is applied at the Print Shop level (between the more general site-level and the more specific company-level).

●       When to use Company-Level Pricing?
You would use company-level pricing (i.e., a company price sheet) when you have multiple companies and want to charge a different price based on the company in which the customer places the order. If you have different pricing arrangements for different customers based on the company they are registered with you will want to use company price lists.

●       How is Company-Level Pricing Set Up?
After you set up your site-level (default) price sheet, you will make a copy of it and adjust the prices that will be different from the site-level in the Company price sheet. When a buyer selects ticket options for an order, the pricing system checks for the Company price list. If no company-level pricing is configured, the pricing system will check for a Print Shop price list. If now Print Shop-level pricing is configured, the site-level price sheet will be applied.

Pricing lookup order

MarketDirect StoreFront pricing operates on a hierarchy. Pricing information is looked up in the following order:

●        Company-specific pricing is always used first (if the company has special pricing).

●        Print Shop-specific pricing is used next (if the Print Shop has an Exceptions price sheet and no company-level pricing is set).

●        Site-level pricing, in the form of a site-level price sheet, provides a look up for all prices not otherwise overridden. Site-level pricing, in the form of a site-level price sheet, provides a look up for all prices not otherwise overridden.

Company - and Print Shop-specific pricing are not used together to simplify management and reporting. You should choose to have company or print shop level exceptions and use this throughout your site.

Pricing Lookup Order: Company-specific pricing is indicated on the “Companies” page in FSF:

Pricing Lookup Order: Print Shop-specific pricing is indicated on the “Print Shop” page in FSF:

During job configuration, shopping cart, and order placement, MarketDirect StoreFront will use the prices that you enter as follows:

●        Pre-priced products: Certain types of products (finished goods, Static and Non-Print items) are assigned a fixed price. For example, a ream of paper is priced at $6.99.

●        Calculated from job specifications: Products that are not pre-priced can be calculated from the job specifications. In this case, the system will total up the number of impressions, sheets, and other characteristics and then use the data that you enter in your price sheets to automatically compute a job price. This involves adding up prices for the requested print services, Media, and impressions:

●        Job Price =

Print Service Setup Charges (if any)

+ Print Service Charges (if any)

+ Media Charge (Media type, Media size)

+ Impression Charges (impression, size, imaged sides, impression mode)

+ Setup Charges (if any)

Shipping charges are computed separately and outside the context of the regular product pricing. Shipping charges are based on the delivery method, estimated weight, and the value of the items being shipped to each destination.

Final order totals are computed based on this formula:

●        Total Order Price =

Sum of All Jobs

+ RUSH Charge (if any)

+ Shipping Charge (if any)

+ Taxes (if any)

There is a set of hidden price sheets for products created by an MIS (such as Monarch, Radius, Logic, PrintSmith, Pace) if the MIS supports pricing and importing products to MarketDirect StoreFront. These MIS prices are imported from MIS-defined products. Hence, there is no need to assign prices in MarketDirect StoreFront to products that are priced in a supported MIS.