BigCommerce Listing Management Pricing Setup

CSM Price Groups

Most eCommerce platforms contain some sort of way to group or categorize customer pricing. This makes it possible to set up different pricing schemas for different groups of customers, then assign customer records to these groups. When a customer orders products, the platform uses the pricing that has been defined for that customer’s pricing group.

The terminology for these records varies from platform to platform, but within CSM these categorizations are referred to as “CSM price groups.” CSM channel categories are set up to correspond to existing Business Central customer price group codes.

CSM price groups correspond to “customer group” records in BigCommerce. Each customer group in BigCommerce has an external ID number that identifies it as unique. You can obtain the external ID for a customer group by opening the customer group record in edit mode from BigCommerce’s administration interface and then reviewing the URL in your browser. The BigCommerce customer group’s ID can be identified as the final value that appears directly before the “edit” portion of the URL. For example, in the sample below, the customer group’s external ID is 1:

https://mybigcommerce.com/manage/customers/groups/1/edit

It is recommended that you use CSM price groups to link your Business Central customer price groups and your BigCommerce customer groups, as this association can streamline the process of building channel listings. This is a manual process in which you associate an external ID from BigCommerce to a CSM price group record in Business Central:

• Open the CSM sales channel record for which you want to set up the price group.
• Choose the Related ribbon, then select the Setup menu and choose the Price Groups action.
• Create a new The API set code and sales channel code will be automatically populated by the application.
• In the Price Group Code field, enter the Business Central customer price group code you want to assign.
• In the External ID field, enter the external ID for the customer group you obtained from BigCommerce.
• In the Pricing Type field, use the dropdown to select the source of pricing information from within Business Central that will be communicated to BigCommerce for the price group. 
  • None: the CSM price group is not associated to any pricing information in Business Central
  • Customer Group: prices for the CSM price group will be sent based on pricing discount rules. This model only supports fixed prices for products and is ideal for simple, straightforward pricing scenarios.
  • Price List: prices for the CSM price group will be sent based on CSM price lists. This model supports more advanced models such as variant-specific pricing or tiered/quantity-based pricing and is ideal for more complex pricing If you select this option, you must also assign a price list in the CSM Price List Code field.
  • Catalog: this option is applicable to pricing models that are available for other sales channels and is not supported for BigCommerce.

Sending Price Groups to BigCommerce

It is also possible to instruct CSM to send/update price group records from Business Central to BigCommerce:

• Open the CSM sales channel record for which you want to send price
• Choose the Related ribbon, then select the Setup menu and choose the Price Groups action.
• In the CSM Price Groups window, choose the CSM price group line that you want to send to BigCommerce. This record must have an assigned Business Central customer price It also must have an assigned tax class ID (refer to CSM tax group records or your BigCommerce tax classes to obtain valid IDs).
• If necessary, enter the value that BigCommerce will use to identify the price group in the External Description field.
• Enter a check mark in the Default field if you want the price group to be assigned as the default customer group to new BigCommerce customers. You cannot define more than one default group.
• Enter a check mark in the Guest field if you want the price group to be assigned as the default customer group to new BigCommerce guest customers. You cannot define more than one guest group.  Note: you can designate the same price group as both the default and guest group, if desired.
• Choose the Actions ribbon, then choose the Send to External action.

CSM sends the selected price group’s information to the sales channel’s connected BigCommerce store. If the price group did not previously exist as a record in BigCommerce, it will be created and that BigCommerce customer group’s ID will be retrieved and assigned in the External ID field on the CSM price group line. If the record already exists within BigCommerce and an external ID is present, the BigCommerce record will be updated with new data from the CSM price group record (a new external description, for example).

Pricing Discount Rules

Note: working with pricing discount rules is required if you have defined any CSM price groups with a pricing type of Customer Group. If are not working with customer group pricing, you can skip this section of the documentation.

For each customer group on your BigCommerce platform, you can define one “product level discount” per item. If you are looking to define a single, fixed price for your items within each customer group, this level of functionality will probably be sufficient for your needs. If you require more advanced pricing features such as the ability to define different prices based on quantity breakpoints or item variants, you will need to license BigCommerce’s enterprise application so that you can utilize its price list capabilities.

The following prerequisites must have been completed in order to define pricing discount rules for your BigCommerce sales channel:

• CSM price groups need to be defined for your BigCommerce sales channel.  Each CSM price group needs to be mapped to a Business Central customer price group, and the Pricing Type field needs to be set to Customer Group.
• You must set up Business Central sales prices for any items that will have pricing discount rules. Sales prices can be set up under either Business Central’s legacy or “new” sales pricing experience. Each sales price needs to be associated to a customer price group that has been mapped to a CSM price group. In addition, because pricing discount rules do not support quantity-based pricing, the sales price must have a minimum quantity of either zero or 1.
• Your BigCommerce sales channel must have a CSM listing for each item that will have a pricing discount rule. 

 To set up pricing discount rules for a sales channel:

• Open the CSM sales channel record for which you want to define pricing discount rules. 
• Choose the Related ribbon, then select the Listing menu and choose the Pricing Discount Rules action.
• In the Pricing Discount Rules window, choose the Generate Pricing Discount Rules action in the ribbon.

CSM will enter a new pricing discount rule for every item/sales price combination that fulfills the criteria of the prerequisites listed above.

Note: this action will overwrite any existing pricing discount rules.

• Review the generated lines and confirm that the prices are correct. If you need to make adjustments, it is recommended that you update the relevant sales price in Business Central and then regenerate the pricing discount rules rather than making changes directly on the Pricing Discount Rules page.
• When you are satisfied that the pricing discount rules are correct, choose the Actions ribbon, then select the Channel Integration group and choose the Send All to Channel action.

CSM will send all of the records on this page to BigCommerce, where it will update the corresponding customer groups accordingly. The success or failure of a pricing discount rule being sent to BigCommerce will be reflected in the Last External Update Status field.

Note: the product level discounts that exist for a customer group in BigCommerce will be overwritten every time CSM sends pricing discount rules from Business Central. In addition, BigCommerce does not support the ability to limit this activity to selected rules; all pricing discount rules must be sent every time this action is performed.

CSM Price Lists

BigCommerce’s enterprise version includes support for product price lists. Price lists contain additional functionality beyond BigCommerce’s basic pricing discount rules functionality, including the ability to define pricing for specific item variants and tiered pricing based on quantity breakpoints.

The following prerequisites must have been completed in order to define price lists for your BigCommerce sales channel:

• You must set up Business Central sales prices lists for any items that will be included on CSM price lists.  Sales price lists must be set up under Business Central’s “new” sales pricing experience; you cannot use this functionality if your Business Central environment is still utilizing the legacy sales pricing feature set. Each sales price list needs to be assigned to a customer price group that has been mapped to a CSM price group. Because CSM price lists support tiered pricing structures, you can include multiple lines for the same item within a given price list.
• Your BigCommerce sales channel must have a CSM listing for each item that will have appear in a CSM price list. 
  
  

To set up price lists for a sales channel:

• Open the CSM sales channel record for which you want to define price lists.
• Choose the Related ribbon, then select the Setup menu and choose the Price Lists action.
• In the CSM Price Lists window, choose the New action to open a blank CSM price list
• Fill in the following fields:
  • CSM Price List Code: enter a unique code for the CSM price list
  • BC Price List Code: enter the Business Central price list code you want to assign
  • Description: enter a description for the CSM price list
  • Listings Included: select the manner in which CSM listings for the sales channel will be included when you instruct CSM to generate lines for the CSM price list. 
    • All Active Listings: any CSM listings for the sales channel that are linked to items on the assigned Business Central price list will be included. This is useful if you want the items that are included as part of the CSM price list to grow as more items are added to the related Business Central sales price list
    • Named Listings: only CSM listings for existing CSM price list lines will be included. This is useful if you want the CSM price list to comprise a static list of items that does not change regardless of whether changes are made to the related Business Central price list.
  • External Code: you must enter an external code for the price list that will be sent to BigCommerce. 
  • Include Future Starting Dates: choose this option if the assigned Business Central price list has a starting date that falls at some point in the future. By default, CSM will only include Business Central price list lines with a starting date that falls on or before the current date. Price list lines that do not have a starting date will also be included by default.
  • In the ribbon, choose the Generate Price List Lines action.

CSM will add new lines in the Lines FastTab according to the following criteria:

• • • The All Active Listings option is selected in the Listings Included field (the other option, Named Listings, only updates existing CSM price list lines; it does not add new ones);
    • The record has a CSM listing defined for the sales channel;
    • The CSM listing is associated to a Business Central record (typically an item, but possibly also a G/L account or resource) that is present on the assigned Business Central price list.
    • If the starting date for the line on the Business Central price list lies in the future, it will only be added if the Include Future Starting Dates Boolean is enabled.
  • You must assign the new CSM price list to one or more customer price group.   Choose the Actions ribbon, then select the Assignments menu and choose the CSM Price Groups action.
  • In the CSM Price Groups window, locate the desired CSM price group(s) and assign the CSM price list in the CSM Price List Code field (the CSM price group’s Pricing Type field must be set to Price List).
  • Choose the Close button to close the CSM Price Groups window and return to the CSM price list. 

CSM Price List Lines

Each CSM price list line presents a number of different sales price fields, each with a different source:

• Fixed Price: this price is obtained from the Business Central sales price list that has been assigned to the CSM price list. It represents the price for a single unit of the item on the price list line.
• Sale Price: this price is not obtained from any source in Business Central but can be manually populated by the user (or via custom code). This provides you with an option to enter a sales price from a source other than Business Central.
• Retail Price: this price is obtained from the “channel price” of the product, which comes from the Business Central sales price that has been defined for the sales channel’s assigned price group; if a sales price for the product has not been defined for that price group, it will be taken from the unit price on the item card.
• MAP Price: this price is obtained from the MAP Price field on the related CSM It represents the Minimum Advertised Price (MAP) for the product. A MAP price is typically provided by a product’s manufacturer to a retailer and represents the lowest possible price at which the retailer may advertise the product.
  • Note: the BigCommerce storefront does not include support for MAP pricing, but BigCommerce can store this data via their APIs. If you add this to your BigCommerce storefront through customization, then CSM can be used to supply this information from Business Central.

The prices on a CSM price list line assume a quantity of 1. If a product appears on a sales price list in multiple quantities, these will be entered into a separate table. You can view this table’s contents in the Tier Prices FactBox.

All of these price fields have a corresponding “null” Boolean:

• If a price is assigned to a field, the corresponding null Boolean will be unchecked.
• If no price is assigned to a field, the corresponding null Boolean will be checked, but you can manually uncheck it, if desired.

CSM will only send prices to BigCommerce if the corresponding null Boolean field is not checked. This will typically not be relevant if a price exists, but in scenarios where a price is not present, this allows you to instruct CSM to either not send a price value at all or explicitly send a price of zero.

The first time you choose the Generate Price List Lines action for a CSM price list, CSM will create new price list lines based on the defined criteria. If you choose this action when lines are already present, CSM will delete and re-create new CSM price list lines. To ensure that you do not inadvertently delete existing data, CSM will prompt you with a message asking if you are certain you want to delete the price list’s lines when you choose this action.

Sending CSM Price List Information to BigCommerce

When you are satisfied that the CSM price list, its lines, and its assignments to customer price groups are correct, you can send it to BigCommerce. Choose the Actions ribbon, then select the Channel Integration group. There are three actions you must perform:

• Send Price List to channel: CSM will send general information about the CSM price list to BigCommerce, where a corresponding price list will be created. The price list’s ID will then be retrieved from BigCommerce and entered into the External ID field on the Price List Status FastTab.
• Send Price List Lines to channel: CSM will send the CSM price list lines to BigCommerce, where they will be assigned to the corresponding price list.
• Send Price List Assignments to channel: CSM will send the customer price groups that are assigned to the CSM price list to BigCommerce, where they will be assigned to the corresponding price list.

If you make changes to these different elements of a CSM price list, you can choose the relevant action to update BigCommerce accordingly. For example, if you update the sales prices for a price list in Business Central and wish to communicate these changes to BigCommerce, you could open the corresponding CSM price list, re-generate the price list lines to bring in the latest changes, and then execute the Send Price List Lines to channel action. In this scenario, it would not be necessary to perform the other actions.

Next: BigCommerce Listing Management Additional Setup