Tiered pricing explained: the wholesaler’s guide to Trade, Wholesale and RRP

If different customers pay different prices — and in B2B they always do — you either have tiers on purpose or tiers by accident. On purpose is cheaper.

What a tier actually is

A tier is a named price level that a customer belongs to: RRP for retail, Trade for account customers, Wholesale for volume buyers, maybe Enterprise for contract accounts. Every SKU carries a price for every tier; every customer maps to exactly one tier. Two small tables replace a thousand ad-hoc decisions.

Designing your ladder

Start from your customer list, not from theory. Bucket your accounts by how they buy — most businesses find three to five natural groups. Name them plainly. Resist the urge to create a tier for every awkward customer; exceptions are what per-line overrides are for.

Keeping it alive

Tiers rot when maintained by hand across thousands of SKUs. Drive each tier with a formula from cost or RRP, so a cost change recalculates the whole ladder in seconds. That is the difference between a pricing system and a pricing archive.

B2B Price Tiers is this model, built for Linnworks: unlimited named tiers, formula engine, and prices synced back as native extended properties. £29.99/mo, 14-day free trial.

Questions, or want a tool we don't have yet? Email hello@grafto.co.uk — a real person replies.