This quarter, we’re focused on execution and control in the workflows teams rely on every day. For retailers, the updates center on shipping operations, including faster bulk label processing and smarter carrier selection during label creation. For brands, we’re deepening last-mile partner integrations so listings, inventory updates, and order management can be handled in Rithum. 

For retailers: shipping upgrades now  

These updates bring shipping logic and label workflows into the platform so teams can move faster with more confidence. 

Retailer Initiated Promotions (Commerce Solutions) — Available now 

This feature gives retailers the ability to lead promotional campaigns from start to finish. Instead of relying on suppliers to initiate offers, retailers can now create their own promotions like “Labor Day Sale” or “Back to School” and invite suppliers to opt in with eligible SKUs. 

• Drive higher GMV during key sales periods through coordinated, multi-supplier promotions 

• Boost supplier engagement by enabling opt-in participation of promotional campaigns 

• Stay in control of promotional planning to align with seasonal and strategic goals 

Shipping Optimization Control Center (Delivery Solutions) — Available now, only available in North America, powered by RithumIQ  

Previously, updating shipping rules meant downloading spreadsheets, editing them offline, and re-uploading them. Now, retailers can make those changes directly in the platform, with clearer visibility into how settings affect delivery outcomes.  

• Save time by editing shipping rules directly in the platform instead of downloading spreadsheets  

• Reduce errors by previewing how your settings will impact delivery outcomes before they go live  

• Stay organized by managing all shipping logic, rules, defaults, and preferences, in one place  

Shipping Label Workspace (Delivery Solutions) — Available now, only available in North America  

Managing shipping labels, especially in bulk, can be a slow, manual process. The new Shipping Label Workspace is a centralized view that lets teams review and process labels for multiple shipments at once, with built-in confidence levels for shipment weights and dimensions.  

• See every shipment in one view and filter predicted weights, dimensions, and confidence levels before printing  

• Batch high-confidence shipments for label printing in seconds and easily spot ones that need review  

• Optimize shipments with real-time rate shopping for the optimal carrier and service level 

Rate shop at label generation (Delivery Solutions) — Available now, only available in North America, powered by RithumIQ  

This feature gives retailers the ability to make smarter, more cost-effective shipping decisions at the exact moment a label is created. Instead of relying on static rules or default carrier selections, the system compares real package sizes and delivery timelines so every label reflects the best available option.  

Package Predictor auto-populates weight and dimension predictions to make bulk label printing easy, and warehouse operators can edit the number of shipments and input real weights and dimensions to account for any inaccuracies, missing data, or atypical circumstances. This allows us to calculate rates more accurately. And because it understands fulfillment timing, it can automatically upgrade late shipments or downgrade early ones, saving money while still meeting delivery expectations. 

• Reduces shipping costs by comparing rates across carriers and service levels at the time of label creation  

• Improves package-level accuracy by using real-time weights and dimensions to return the most precise options  

• Optimizes delivery by upgrading late shipments or downgrading early ones to meet promises and reduce costs 

For brands: centralize DoorDash selling in Rithum  

These updates make it easier to manage listings, inventory updates, and order workflows for last-mile partners without leaving Rithum. 

DoorDash listings, inventory updates, and order management — Available now  

Rithum is deepening our integration with some of the top last-mile delivery partners. This means you can manage more of your DoorDash workflow in Rithum, including listings and order management.  

• Create new listings directly from Rithum’s product catalog and keep product updates synced  

• Avoid manual order imports by managing order status and updates in Rithum  

• Maintain near real-time inventory for brick-and-mortar stores with hourly stock updates sent to DoorDash  

Want a closer look at how these updates work in the platform? Join us for Rithum Pulse: Q1 Product Showcase on Feb 18, 2026 at 1 PM EST / 10 AM PST for a walkthrough of the new capabilities and live Q&A with the team. 

Madison Jarvis is Senior Product Marketer, Retailers, at Rithum. Alessandra Magnini is Global Product Marketing Manager at Rithum. Micah McGuire is Senior Product Marketer, Brands, at Rithum. 

The post Q1 2026 product updates: shipping control at label creation and centralized last-mile selling appeared first on Rithum.

special guest post by Caitlyn Ford and Brittny Cantor, AI Commerce Innovation Leads at Accenture.

For years, your product detail page (PDP) was the critical bridge to turning browsers into buyers by giving them specs, visuals, and the confidence to click “add to cart.”  

Generative AI has changed the path to that click. Shoppers aren’t reading your PDP first; agentic AI is. These agents scan your descriptions to decide whether a product is worth a shopper’s time—and sometimes even handle the recommendation, summary, and transaction themselves. Agentic AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, are now common starting points for product research, and Google’s AI summaries increasingly sit above the traditional blue links, often answering the query without a click. Analyses show that when an AI overview appears, the #1 organic result can lose roughly a third of its usual clicks, and more than half of Google searches already end without any website visit at all. 

That means your PDP now speaks to three audiences at once: the shopper, search algorithms, and the AI agents deciding what gets recommended. You’ve built for shoppers and search, but when agents answer a query, it gets more complicated. They synthesize data across multiple PDPs, reviews, listings, and brand content into one recommendation. To even be brought into their considering, your PDP must be accurate, consistent, structured, and easy for AI to parse. Because most AI summaries trigger on informational, top-of-funnel queries, discovery and education are increasingly happening inside AI layers, while the remaining clicks are skewing toward bottom-funnel, brand- and product-specific searches. That makes the quality of your PDPs even more important: when a shopper finally does click through, they’re usually closer to a decision than they used to be. 

This is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) for your product page: optimizing the content so AI agents see your product as consistent, credible, relevant, and complete. In GEO terms, you’re optimizing not just for rankings, but for how (and whether) AI systems mention and cite your products inside their answers—whether that’s a link in a Google AI Overview or a product shout-out in a ChatGPT or Perplexity response.

GEO doesn’t replace SEO—it sits beside it. The fundamentals still matter, and you can start with a few practical moves to make your PDPs GEO-ready without losing ground with direct shoppers or SEO. Traffic from LLMs convert 9x higher than traditional search.  

1. Build for questions, not keywords 

Traditional SEO was about ranking for keywords. GEO is about being the best answer. AI agents scan content to understand intent. This includes who the product is for, what problem it solves, and why it’s trustworthy. Under the hood, modern search engines break complex prompts into many related fan-out queries (such as budget, location, use case, constraints) and then recombine the best matches into one synthesized answer. If your PDP doesn’t clearly map to those real-world questions, it’s less likely to be pulled into that synthesis. 

Start by rewriting your PDPs to sound more conversational. Frame details around real-world questions: “Is it waterproof?” “How long does it last?” “Is it safe for sensitive skin?” Product FAQs and comparison callouts matter more than ever because they train AI models on context, which is the very thing that makes a product relevant in generative results. 

Pro tip: The more structured and direct your answers, the more easily AI can cite and summarize them. Think in use cases: 

• Instead of: “Premium leather tote with zip closure and inner pocket.” 

• Try: “Looking for a work tote that fits a laptop and zips closed for travel? This one holds up to 15 inches and has a reinforced base for durability.” 

The goal is to pre-answer what a shopper might ask, because AI is looking for the best source to do just that. When generative systems are doing the research legwork on behalf of the user, you want them to find crisp, unambiguous language they can safely reuse or summarize on your behalf. 

2. Standardize data across every channel 

Whether you sell through Amazon, Walmart, Target, Instacart, or your own DTC site, the same PDP likely shows up in multiple places. For AI, inconsistency kills trust, as agents compare listings across channels. If your dimensions differ on HomeDepot.com and your own brand site, the agent is less likely to choose either. 

This isn’t just a data hygiene issue; it directly affects how AI systems model your products. Large models build their understanding of brands from many sources—retail PDPs, comparison sites, reviews, blogs—so if product specs conflict across those surfaces, the safest move for the AI is to ignore you or recommend a competitor with cleaner signals.  

Pro tip: Use shared taxonomies, normalize specs, and keep your product attributes up-to-date everywhere. AI agents can’t make sense of your product if your systems don’t agree on what it is. 

• For brands: Build and maintain a “single source of truth” for product data—ideally housed in your PIM and pushed everywhere via API or feed. 

• For retailers: Set clear PDP templates and data ingestion rules for third-party sellers to reduce conflict and duplication. 

Think beyond your own site, too. If comparison or review sites are important for your category, make sure your specs, naming conventions, and positioning match what appears there. AI answers often lean heavily on third-party sources—reviews, forums, round-ups—rather than a single brand’s website. 

3. Focus on proof, not promotion 

Agentic AI is trained to be skeptical. They value facts, third-party validation, and consumer signals. That means your PDPs need more than adjectives—they need evidence. It’s up to you to provide it.  

For example: 

• Instead of “super comfortable,” include “Rated 4.7/5 by 2,100+ customers for comfort.” 

• If you claim sustainability, link to third-party certifications like USDA Organic or OEKO-TEX®. 

• If your laptop is rugged, cite test conditions: “Drop-tested from 1.2 meters to meet MIL-STD-810G standards.” 

AI is scanning your product page for trust markers. Verified reviews, return policies, sourcing info, and warranty terms matter. This is valuable for customers as a rule of thumb, but is even more important now for the bots deciding what gets recommended. In AI search, these proof points do double duty: they help the model decide whether to feature your product at all and, if it does, they provide quotable snippets (ratings, certifications, test results) that can be pulled directly into summaries or comparison tables.  

Remember that a lot of this “proof” now lives off-site as well. If your products are reviewed on blogs, YouTube, Reddit, or niche forums, those conversations shape how AI systems describe you. Investing in credible third-party coverage and cultivating high-quality reviews does more than build social proof. It feeds the training data that powers AI recommendations in the first place. 

4. Automate freshness to avoid invisibility 

PDPs that are out of date—on price, inventory, delivery estimates, or product specs—will get skipped. AI tools now favor real-time accuracy. So if your shampoo shows as “in stock” in one feed and “out of stock” on your brand site, that confusion may cost you visibility altogether. 

• For brands: Connect your PDP data to real-time inventory systems and marketplace feeds. Set up automated triggers to refresh PDP content when price or availability changes. 

• For retailers: Sync PDP fields with seller dashboards and flag stale listings via scoring models or AI-based health checks. 

Timeliness isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s how you stay visible. An outdated PDP isn’t just underperforming. It’s invisible to AI. And as AI layers absorb more top- and mid-funnel traffic, the remaining clicks from search are increasingly tied to bottom-funnel, transactional experiences. That makes it even riskier to let inventory, pricing, or availability drift out of sync across feeds, because those are exactly the signals AI systems rely on when deciding what to surface for high-intent shoppers. 

5. Optimize for a multi-agent future 

AI agents are already embedded across search engines, voice assistants, mobile devices, and retail platforms. And they’re only getting more proactive. Soon, they won’t just answer your questions—they’ll anticipate and fulfill them. 

Your PDPs need to be ready for that shift now. Start by: 

• Structuring your content with pre-defined templates.

• Getting insights into current benchmarks and unlock opportunitites/risk with visibility analysis

• Evaluating prompt coverage. Which products are showing up for common category queries? Which competitors are dominating agent responses? 

GEO is the framework that ties this together: it extends classic SEO into a world where AI assistants summarize, compare, and recommend before a shopper ever sees a SERP. In practice, that means designing your PDPs so they’re easy for AI to understand and safe to quote, then measuring success not just in rankings and sessions, but in how often you’re mentioned or cited inside AI answers.  

Early data suggests that even if total traffic drops, the visits you do get from AI-mediated journeys can convert disproportionately well. In one analysis, LLM-originated visits accounted for a tiny share of total clicks but a materially higher share of sign-ups—because those users arrived later in the decision process. That’s exactly the kind of high-intent traffic your GEO-ready PDPs should be engineered to convert. 

Whether you’re managing thousands of SKUs across marketplaces or a curated set of products on your DTC site, your PDPs now serve a dual audience: the buyer and the buyer’s agent. 

Search behavior is changing. Make sure your PDPs are ready. 

AI agents are now the first (and sometimes only) step in a shopping journey. If your PDPs aren’t ready, you won’t make the cart. 

The good news is that GEO isn’t a separate track. It builds on what good PDPs already do: clear writing, accurate data, consistent structure, and real value to the shopper. You’ve got this (and Rithum can help). 

Caitlyn Ford and Brittny Cantor are AI Commerce Innovation Leads at Accenture.

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Retail is under pressure from every angle. Rising shipping costs are squeezing already tight margins, while consumer expectations for fast, reliable delivery continue to climb. And surcharges up to 26% push real costs above 10% for many shippers. 

Ecommerce retailers face even tougher challenges. Online return rates reached 24.5% this year, compared to just 8.71% for in-store purchases, according to the latest data from Capital One Shopping. This results in higher fulfillment costs and added strain on operations, challenging retailers to maintain speed and accuracy. 

For retailers operating dropship and private marketplace models, these challenges are multiplied. Managing hundreds of suppliers, each with different shipping capabilities and performance standards, while maintaining consistent customer experience, becomes an overwhelming task that traditionally requires a lot of manual work. 

Rithum’s Delivery Solutions are a comprehensive suite of automated tools. These tools are designed to help retailers of every size and shape cut shipping costs, improve delivery performance, and manage suppliers more effectively without the added headcount. Here’s how it works. 

Shipping Optimization: automated savings without the manual work 

Shipping Optimization is at the heart of Rithum’s Delivery Solutions. Rithum uses an intelligent system that automatically selects the best shipping method and origin for every order based on real-time data. Rather than guesswork, the system is powered by comprehensive data including supplier warehouse locations, current inventory levels, product specifications, and dynamic carrier rates. 

Retailers using Shipping Optimization can save 10 to 20% on their annual third-party shipping costs, especially for multicarrier strategies. This automation runs within Rithum’s dropship network, requiring zero IT integration while delivering substantial cost reductions.  

For one multi-brand home goods retailer managing dozens of suppliers across furniture, decor, and kitchen categories, that meant serious savings. With millions in annual shipping spend, a 10% reduction translates to seven-figure savings annually. That’s money that flows directly to the bottom line while the system operates autonomously in the background. 

While the underlying technology analyzes thousands of variables as they happen, your team experiences it as orders being routed more efficiently, costs dropping, and performance improving without any manual intervention. 

Delivery Promise: faster estimates that drive conversions 

Nothing kills a sale faster than uncertain or lengthy delivery timelines. Rithum’s Delivery Promise tackles this challenge directly by providing accurate delivery dates using sophisticated machine learning models that factor in supplier performance history, weather patterns, current order backlogs, and warehouse fill rates. 

Delivery Promise can improve metrics dramatically. Results depend on your starting point, goals, and implementation approach. We’ve achieved 95%+ early and on-time delivery accuracy with optimized promise dates and measured up to 18% conversion lift for each day removed from Delivery Promise. 

According to industry data from the Baynard Institute, 47% of shoppers abandon carts due to shipping costs. The connection to delivery promises is clear: show accurate, optimized delivery dates upfront with total costs, and you remove the uncertainty that kills conversions. 

Our machine learning models are continuously improving, learning from actual delivery performance to refine future predictions. This creates a virtuous cycle where delivery promises become more accurate over time, further improving customer confidence and conversion rates.  

Ensuring supplier compliance with End-to-End (E2E) Monitoring  

Managing supplier performance across a diverse network has traditionally required armies of analysts to constantly monitor shipment data, chase down exceptions, and manually create reports. E2E monitoring transforms this labor-intensive process into an automated oversight system, saving retailer time and resources. 

Real-time monitoring tracks every aspect of supplier shipping performance, automatically generating reports that provide visibility and accountability across your entire network. This systematic approach enables retailers to achieve 97% or higher SLA compliance across their supplier networks. That’s a level of performance that would be nearly impossible to maintain through manual processes alone. 

The downstream benefits extend far beyond internal operations. Improved supplier compliance directly reduces “Where Is My Order” (WISMO) customer service inquiries, minimizes negative reviews related to shipping delays, and prevents the last-minute scrambling that occurs when shipments go awry. 

With consistent performance standards across all suppliers, retailers can confidently make delivery promises to customers while knowing their supplier network will deliver on those commitments. Rithum documents how shipment and delivery insights expose exceptions early so teams can act before promises are missed. 

Released Q3 2025: Shipping Address Validation 

Rithum continues to develop Delivery Solutions to ease the fulfillment process and cut costs. Shipping address validation released Q3 2025. This feature helps prevent costly last-mile delivery errors. It verifies delivery addresses and classifying them as residential or commercial before shipment. The validation will reduce failed deliveries and the expensive redelivery attempts that follow, leading to significant savings for retailers. 

Address validation represents another layer of automated intelligence that further reduces costs and improves customer experience without requiring additional operational resources. 

Built for dropship and private marketplace complexity 

Traditional fulfillment models, while challenging, operate within relatively controlled environments. Dropship and private marketplace fulfillment introduces exponentially more complexity: hundreds of suppliers with varying capabilities, different shipping standards, multiple inventory systems, and fragmented communication channels. 

Rithum’s Delivery Solutions was purpose-built to handle this complexity. The platform connects disparate systems and automates manual decisions that would otherwise require constant human oversight. That provides retailers with comprehensive visibility across fragmented supplier networks, allowing them to make informed decisions.  

This approach transforms what has historically been a series of manual, error-prone processes into an automated system that scales as your supplier network grows. 

Bring delivery under control with Rithum 

Shipping Optimization, Delivery Promise, and End-to-End Monitoring work together to tackle three daily problems: rising parcel costs, higher shopper expectations, and complex third-party operations. 

Use them to lower shipping spend, give customers clear delivery dates, and keep suppliers on time, all without adding headcount. 

Package Predictor, powered by RithumIQ, automatically predicts package weights and dimensions based on real-world shipping behaviors. For retailers using Shipping Optimization, predictions flow into the label printing process to reduce manual guessing and avoid costly mis-selections. Accuracy stats are forthcoming once broader rollout data is in. 

Ready to see what 10-20% shipping savings looks like for your specific operation? We’ll analyze your historical shipping data—at no cost—to show exactly where dropship rate shopping could impact your bottom line. Contact us for your personalized savings analysis based on your actual shipping patterns and supplier network. 

Connect with Rithum to see what this looks like for your business. Get the tools and intelligence needed to succeed in today’s retail environment. 

Kyle Knoblock is Staff Product Manager, Retailers at Rithum.

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To meet consumers where they are, brands are turning to third-party commerce (3P). 3P commerce allows brands to reach consumers directly through retailer marketplaces. However, managing multiple channels can be challenging.  By investing in a unified marketplace management solution, brands can streamline operations, saving time and resources.  

Here are four lessons for brands managing a multichannel selling strategy. 

Retail Media helps Weber stand out in a competitive market

Brands are under pressure to establish their online presence, said Marco Rocha, E-Commerce Channel Manager at Weber. Competing in a crowded market space and trying to prove authenticity to a new audience is challenging. By introducing a robust retail media advertising strategy through Rithum, Weber has increased sales conversions and improved its overall visibility in high-demand searches, he said. Rithum helped  Weber streamline its advertising process and automate bids, ensuring the business gets the best ROI on their ad spend.  

Brands need to adapt product selection to meet consumer demand

Azura Fashion Group connects fashion brands, suppliers and resellers with global customers through a network of marketplaces. It had to adapt its listing strategy to reflect the differences in customer preferences, said Sam Wood, CEO and co-founder.  

“People don’t stop buying items during economically challenging times, but what they do buy will change,” Wood said. He highlighted that major discounting and promotions wasn’t the best route for the retailer. Instead, adjusting its marketplace strategy and expanding into new markets has helped increase profitability by 20%.  

 Consumers are actively seeking the best value for money items and will shop around for the best price. Data from our 2023 Online Consumer Behavior Global Report conducted by Rithum and Dynata shows, 83% of consumers will visit at least 2 marketplaces before committing to a purchase. Diversifying sales channels can help get your products in front of new audiences and boost profits.  

“People are doing their research online. If they know an item is not available in their market, they will contact us and ask when it’s being launched on Amazon or eBay. We had to make sure we met that demand,” said Weber’s Rocha.  

Investing in marketplace management can simplify cross-border selling

Brands need to develop individual strategies for their marketplaces and move away from a one-size fits all approach, said Azura’s Wood.  “Listing products onto a marketplace and then sitting and waiting for sales to happen just doesn’t work anymore,” he said.  

Treating each marketplace like your own website and investing in aspects such as the user experience, shipping, and creative elements can help to engage consumers.  

Azura Fashion Group currently sells on 56 marketplaces across 28 countries. Partnering with Rithum has allowed the retailer to expand its reach globally and simplify the complexity of navigating new territories. 

The importance of building relationships with marketplaces

Relationship building with marketplaces can be a great way to develop an effective sales approach. “A marketplace is not a self-serve checkout, you need to build those relationships and work on a shared strategy,” said Dan Pittman, country manager at Zinus.  

Marketplaces have a depth of knowledge and insights on what resonates with their shoppers. Partnering with them and having regular conversations about goals and KPI’s can help you identify the best way to maximize sales and help you reach your targets.  

 Rithum’s network includes more than 400 channel integrations so you can find the marketplaces which best suit your business needs. To learn more about how Rithum can support your marketplace strategy, contact a member of our team. 

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Here are some of the key takeaways:

Retail Media continues driving conversions 

Insights showed the significant impact of retail media on conversions throughout the entire buying journey. With research showing that product searches often start on retail sites such as Amazon rather than search engines, retail media allows advertisers to not only reach shoppers even closer to their purchase but to also help drive brand awareness earlier on in their journey. Using precise targeting and contextual relevance, a strong retail media strategy can help to engage customers at every stage of the purchase funnel, helping to create measurable impact. 

Measure, measure, measure

The speakers discussed the factors causing the rapid growth in retail media and one of the key drivers identified was the focus on measurable ROI for marketing budgets. Retail media fits the bill perfectly. With GDPR regulations and tightening rules around user tracking and 3rd party cookie usage, understanding how well ad campaigns are performing is becoming harder. First-party data is quickly becoming the new gold. And retailers are sitting on a huge pot of it. 

Brands were encouraged to pay attention to Closed Loop Measurement (CLM) as part of a winning strategy. Establishing direct links between marketing activities and in-store or online sales enables brands to gain deeper insights into the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and consumer purchase behavior, in turn supporting strong ROI whilst also helping to drive increased investment.

AI is transforming the retail media landscape

AI-powered solutions are reshaping how brands and retailers approach advertising and creating more opportunities to connect with consumers throughout their journey. AI has allowed brands and retailers to enhance their customer targeting, creating detailed customer profiles and helping to deliver more personalized experiences. And the capabilities don’t end there. AI is also helping to optimize the way retailers interact with brands, allowing them to own and tailor the purchase funnel for each consumer. By harnessing the power of AI, brands and retailers can optimize their display ad campaigns on retail media platforms enabling better targeting, enhanced ROI and ROAS, and more efficient allocation of advertising spend. 

Selecting the right Retail Media Networks is crucial

Amazon led the way in monetizing advertising opportunities for sellers on their sites and it’s no surprise that retailers are now seeing the huge potential in creating their own offerings, capitalizing on lucrative ad revenue, and allowing sellers to benefit from their valuable first-party data.  As the retail media options increase, brands need to carefully consider where to focus ad spend.  At the summit, the experts advised brands to first look at offerings from retailers they already have relationships with to assess the advertising options that will maximize return on ad spend and ultimately profitability.  

Beyond these existing relationships, brands need to select retail media networks that align closely with their audience, offering them reach and engagement with new customers.

Automation will help you scale faster

Automated processes play a pivotal role in most successful ad strategies. With potentially thousands of products in inventory and many moving parts when managing ads, staying on top of multiple campaigns and ensuring ad spend is going to the right products can be challenging and time-consuming. Automated ad management can help brands to minimize manual tasks, make data-driven decisions, and quickly adapt to campaigns and ad spend to changing market conditions and inventory levels. By using a centralized e-commerce platform to manage both inventory and advertising, brands and retailers can harness data to make informed and guided advertising decisions, and improve business performance. 

Let’s not forget about product content!

Let’s face it, competition is fierce out there and setting yourself apart amongst thousands of other listings can be challenging. Clicking on a sponsored ad is just the first part of the journey, seeing those clicks turn into conversions is another matter. Link Walls, VP of Digital Marketing Strategy, discussed the importance of regularly reviewing product content and optimizing details as part of a winning retail media strategy. Well-crafted and informative product descriptions, high-quality images, and accurate specifications not only help customers make informed purchasing decisions but also contribute to a positive user experience allowing you to stand out in a crowded market and ensure you’re getting the most out of your ad spend. 

Rithum can help automate your retail media campaign, provide management and tracking support and deliver sales growth and a higher return on your ad spend. Click here to find out more about the retail media services we offer. Looking to understand more about creating a successful retail media strategy? Download our free eBook here.

The post Unveiling the Insights: Key Takeaways from the Rithum Retail Media Summit appeared first on Rithum.

Price floors and recommended resale values are key to leveling the playing field, but they can be difficult to implement when they involve so many subtle nuances. 

What Is a MAP Pricing Policy?

MAP stands for “minimum advertised price.” It is a policy a brand or manufacturer imposes on its sellers not to advertise a product below a certain threshold. 

For example, if a jeans manufacturer sets a MAP of $48.99, neither brick-and-mortar boutiques nor online marketplaces can advertise prices below that mark. 

Technically, distributors can still sell below the price, they just cannot publicly advertise below the set value. For example, a vendor who sells below MAP over the phone or behind a members-only website is still within the confines of the policy. 

How is MAP different from the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP)? MSRP is the price the manufacturer recommends selling a product at, while MAP is the lowest possible advertised price. Retailers don’t have to choose the MSRP (it’s more of a starting price), but the amount helps standardize prices across sellers.

It’s important to note that MAP policies primarily only apply in the US and Canada. In most cases, MAP pricing is illegal in other countries like the UK, where it is seen as a type of price fixing. 

What Are the Benefits of a MAP Pricing Policy?

MAP policies are important because they protect multiple parties, including brands, retailers and consumers. In fact, they benefit the entire market because they:

• Keep competition alive. MAP policies were primarily enacted to maintain fairness among distributors. By setting a minimum advertised price, brands prevent Seller A from undercutting Seller B and winning all the sales. Not only does this benefit a brand’s relationships with multiple sellers, but it fuels the free market with healthy competition instead of creating monopolies.   
• Protect profit margins. The prevalence of automated repricers has made it easy for sellers to stay in close competition with other retailers. Without a MAP policy in place, sellers are forced to follow suit with vendors who continually slash prices, resulting in a “race to the bottom” that erodes margins for everyone. 
• Maintain brand integrity. MAP policies are especially beneficial for luxury brands or manufacturers with high-ticket items. If a distributor sells a product significantly below the suggested price, customers will begin to see the item (and subsequently the brand) as less valuable. 
• Limit customer complaints. Consistent pricing also limits customer inquiries and complaints about finding cheaper prices elsewhere. MAP pricing keeps things fair among brands, retailers and consumers. 
• Increase sales channels. When competition is healthy, it encourages more sellers in various channels, whether offline or online. It also gives smaller resellers a chance to compete with major retailers. 

What Happens if a Seller Breaks MAP Policy?

MAPs are manufacturer policies, not contractual agreements with sellers, meaning they aren’t enforceable by law. In fact, manufacturers who require distributors to sign a MAP agreement are in violation of US antitrust law. This is according to the Colgate ruling, which stated that manufacturers may set pricing policies as long as sellers remain independent parties that are free to abide by them or not (while risking partnership termination from the brand). 

Each manufacturer may set its own policy in terms of dealing with MAP violators. Some companies may provide the distributor with a warning, while others choose to immediately terminate the relationship. In turn, resellers must determine if selling below MAP is worth the risk of never working with the brand going forward. It is in the best interest of sellers who want to maintain strong manufacturer relationships to adhere to MAP policies.

Why would a distributor even want to sell below MAP or market value? 

• To move inventory. Retailers who are eager to offload old inventory may be willing to take a loss just to make room for new products that will sell quicker. This is why it’s important for brands to reassess their MAP values from time to time, especially after releasing new generations of products that automatically lower the value of older versions.
• To win the buy box. Price-conscious shoppers will always choose the best deal. Sellers who price below MAP opt to lower their individual product revenue instead of withstanding slow or no sales at all. 
• To gain positive reviews. Some sellers price low to keep customers happy and boost ratings for their shop that will remain long after parting ways with the manufacturer. 

How Can You Set a MAP Pricing Policy?

Plenty of MAP pricing policy templates can help you draft your own, but we recommend working with your legal and compliance team or an e-commerce expert to tailor your approach and devise a plan that works for you and your reseller network. As you create your own MAP pricing policy, remember:

• Draft a unilateral policy, not a two-way agreement. Pricing contracts put manufacturers at risk of violating antitrust laws. For this reason, you’ll want to work with experts that can position your MAP as a one-way policy, not a contract that sellers are federally obligated to follow. 
• Don’t consult retailers. Write your policy independent from retailers or other selling partners so the price you set is free from perceived favoritism or price fixing.
• Include exceptions that make sense for your resellers. Consider offering specific situations and seasons where sellers can “break” the MAP policy to incite buzz and increased sales. This may include peak shopping times like Cyber 5 or other holidays that increase demand for your products. 
• Communicate clearly. Make sure your sellers understand exactly what they’re getting into when they partner with you. Opt for plain language instead of legal jargon unless necessary, and provide other resources like videos, checklists and examples to drive home the point. 

You’ll also want to devise a plan for dealing with noncompliant vendors. Will they receive a warning? Will you send written communication? Or immediately terminate? Remember to make it clear that by law, sellers are free to sell and advertise any price they want — but you also have the freedom to cut ties. 

Set the Right Price with Rithum

Pricing your products is hard enough without worrying about minimum advertised amounts and seller behavior. But it’s absolutely necessary in a world of increasing channels and marketplace competition. 

Rithum’s experts can guide you through the process, acting as an extension of your team to devise a pricing strategy, implement automated repricers and make the biggest impact on your profit margin. Rithum Managed Services draws on years of e-commerce experience to execute the best repricing options to accomplish your goals and continually monitor performance as circumstances change. 

Contact us today to learn how Rithum Managed Services takes the stress out of creating an ironclad pricing strategy. 

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