Pricing & Promotions

## Setting Your Prices Every listing on CaratX supports three price fields. You set these when creating or editing an item from your seller dashboard. ### Retail Price (required) The price every buyer sees by default. This is your public-facing price — the number shoppers and guests see when browsing your storefront. ### Sale Price (optional) Activating a sale is a two-step process: 1. Enter a **Sale Price** — must be a positive number lower than your retail price. 2. Toggle the **On Sale** flag on the listing. When both are set, the sale price takes over entirely. It is shown to all buyers regardless of their account type, and it overrides wholesale pricing. Use this for flash sales, clearance, or seasonal markdowns. > **Note:** Only one price tier is shown to a buyer at a time. The priority order is: Sale Price > Wholesale Price > Retail Price. ### Wholesale Price (optional) A lower price shown exclusively to verified B2B buyers (see next section). Leave this blank if you do not sell wholesale. --- ## How B2B / Wholesale Pricing Works CaratX supports a two-tier pricing model for sellers who work with trade buyers — jewelers, resellers, and interior designers who purchase in volume. **Access is not automatic.** Wholesale pricing is only visible to buyers who have been granted the `pricing.wholesale` permission by a CaratX administrator. You cannot grant this access yourself — buyers must apply or be approved through the platform. Once a buyer is approved: - They see your **Wholesale Price** wherever your retail price would normally appear. - The wholesale price is shown on product pages, search results, and comparison views. - Sale prices still take priority over wholesale prices. **Wholesale-Only Items:** You can mark a listing as *Wholesale Only*, which hides it entirely from retail buyers. Only approved wholesale accounts will be able to view and purchase it. **Wholesale Min Quantity:** You can set a minimum purchase quantity for wholesale orders on each listing. This helps ensure wholesale pricing only applies when buyers are purchasing at a meaningful volume. ### Practical Tips for Wholesale Pricing - Price wholesale at a realistic trade margin — typically 40–60% off retail for finished jewelry. - For loose gemstones, wholesale discounts are often narrower (15–30%) depending on grade and rarity. - Do not set a wholesale price that is higher than or equal to your retail price — the system requires wholesale to be lower. --- ## Creating a Promotion (Coupon Code) Go to **Store > Promotions** in your dashboard, then click **Create Promotion**. ### Promotion Code Name - Up to **20 characters**, letters and numbers only. - Saved in all uppercase (e.g., `SUMMER20` or `FREESHIP`). - This is the code buyers type at checkout. ### Discount Type Choose one of three options: | Type | Description | Example | |---|---|---| | **Percentage** | Reduces the price by a percentage | 15% off | | **Flat Amount** | Reduces the price by a fixed dollar amount | $50 off | | **Free Shipping** | Waives the shipping charge | No delivery fee | For percentage discounts, the maximum is 100%. For flat discounts, the discount cannot exceed the eligible item subtotal. ### What the Promo Applies To You can target the promotion precisely: - **All Products** — applies to everything in your store. - **Categories** — select one or more product categories. - **Brands** — select one or more brands from your catalog. - **SKUs** — enter specific product SKUs, one per entry. When targeting categories, brands, or SKUs, only items matching your selection qualify for the discount. Items outside the selection are charged at full price. --- ## Promotion Rules ### Date Range (required) Set a **Start Date** and **End Date**. The promotion is only valid between these two dates, inclusive. The end date must be on or after the start date. Promotions show a status badge in your dashboard: - **Upcoming** — start date is in the future. - **Active** — currently within the valid date range. - **Expired** — end date has passed. ### Max Items Optionally limit how many items in a single cart the discount applies to. For example, setting Max Items to `3` means only the first 3 eligible items in the cart receive the discount, even if the buyer has 10 in their cart. This is useful for introductory offers ("first 2 items at 20% off") or to cap your discount exposure. ### New Customers Only Toggle this on to restrict the promotion to buyers who have never placed an order with your store. Buyers with a previous order from your store (excluding cancelled orders) will not be able to apply the code. Guests cannot use new-customer-only promos since they cannot be verified. --- ## Managing Active Promotions ### Editing a Promotion You can edit any promotion at any time — including active ones — by clicking the edit button in your promotions list. ### Deleting a Promotion You can only delete promotions that are **not currently active** (status is Upcoming or Expired). To stop an active promotion early, change the end date to today or a past date, then delete it. ### How Buyers Apply a Code Buyers enter the coupon code during checkout. The code is validated against: - Whether the code exists and belongs to your store. - Whether today falls within the valid date range. - Whether the buyer qualifies (new customers only, if enabled). - Whether at least one item in their cart matches the promotion's scope. If none of their cart items are eligible, the code is rejected with an appropriate message. --- ## Best Practices for Jewelry & Gemstones **Lead with value, not discount.** Buyers in the jewelry and gemstone market are often knowledgeable. A poorly thought-out promo can undermine perceived quality. Reserve deep discounts for slow-moving inventory, not your flagship pieces. **Use date ranges strategically.** Short windows (3–7 days) create urgency. Longer windows (a month) work better for driving steady volume on wholesale accounts. **Category-targeted promos outperform blanket discounts.** Targeting a slow-moving gemstone category with a promo is more profitable than discounting your entire store. **Free shipping converts well for high-value items.** For items over $500, shipping cost can feel like a psychological barrier even if it's small relative to the price. Free shipping promos remove that friction without touching your margin directly. **New Customer promos build your buyer base.** A welcome discount (10–15% for new buyers) is a standard acquisition strategy. Pair it with a short date window so it stays exclusive. **Protect your wholesale margin.** If a wholesale buyer applies a coupon to already-discounted wholesale pricing, the discount stacks. Make sure your promo economics still work at that combined rate before creating an unrestricted promo.