Pricing Magic With StoneSpot’s Pricing Wizard!

Alright, StoneSpot enthusiasts! Today I am going to dive into the nitty-gritty details of StoneSpot’s new Pricing Wizard! Because this is a lot of information to absorb, I will cover each feature one at a time over a series of posts.

If you are new to the Pricing Wizard feature, please go back and read this post first. It will take you through the very basics of ensuring your Pricing Wizard works like smooth magic.

We are going to take this one tiny step at a time. Let’s get started!

Two Parts of Pricing Wizard

The Pricing Wizard has two incredibly important components: the Custom Pricing Rules and the Custom Pricing Additions.

While the names sound familiar, they are two totally different things that you need to address. We will cover the Custom Pricing Additions in a separate post.

So, for now, we are ONLY focusing on the Custom Pricing Rules.

Custom Pricing Rules

The Custom Pricing Rules are ONLY raw material related.

Raw material is material before you improve upon it. So, for monument retailers, that is the blanks you receive from suppliers. The un-carved, un-engraved stone that shows up at your shop.

When you think about that raw material, you have two costs associated with it: the cost of the stone and the cost of having it delivered to you. Those two costs are what the Custom Pricing Rules are for. Everything else is added in a different area that we will discuss on a different day.

Entering Your Pricing Rules

When you click on the Custom Pricing Rules, and then click “Add New Rule”, a bunch of boxes will appear like those in the image below.

I know this looks overwhelming! But…it is not going to be! We are going to go through each item, beginning with the mark up values in the top left hand corner of the page. You can see them in the screen shot below.

Mark UP Values

These two little boxes play a HUGE role in the Pricing Wizard. In fact, they are so important, that I considered doing a blog post ONLY about them.

So what do they do? This is where you enter the percentage you use to mark up your product.

Clients & Mark Up Percentages

Before we dive into the mechanics of the mark up percentages, there are a few things you need to know.

• You can assign each wholesale account it’s own markup percentage. Doing so will override the value assigned on this page.
• Each retail client may also be assigned their own markup percentage. The percentage assigned to them will override the value on this page.
• IF YOU WANT TO ASSIGN CUSTOM MARK UP VALUES TO YOUR CLIENTS- RETAIL OR WHOLESALE- you must do so on the Client Profile page. NOT on the individual sales order page.
• If you DO NOT assign custom mark up values, the system will assign the desired percent (retail or wholesale) based on how the client is coded in the client profile page. It is important to ensure that all clients are classified correctly for this reason

Understanding the Percentages

Many companies in the industry arrive at their retail price by double their cost, leading to a theorized 50% margin. They calculate this as: [(freight+tariff/taxes+all other costs+stone)*2].

Here we are thinking about this the exact same way, but focusing on the granite only. So, using this example, our retail mark up is 100%.

We would simply enter the $25 per square foot that we pay to our supplier and the system will mark it up by the 100%.

But….

What if you mark up different colors by different percentages?

Let’s say that you buy Granite X for $25 per square foot. However, you mark this color up an additional 25% before marking it up the standard 100%.

In this case you would calculate $25 * 1.25 = $31.25 per square foot. This is the price you would enter in the Pricing Wizard. Because you already have the 100% retail markup selected, it will automatically mark the end customer price to $62.50 per square foot.

Colors

When you click on this drop down, you will see a list of every color in your Settings>Stone Attributes>Colors. Browse through the list and ensure it is complete.

Here you may select one color, multiple colors or even all colors. The important thing to note is that each color you select must share the same per square foot price.

For example purposes, we are going to select only the color Bahama Blue. Using the drop down box we would select Bahama Blue.

Piece Types

This menu will display every category of memorial product in your Settings>Stone Attributes > Piece Types/Polishes section.

It is important to note that you may select as many piece types as you wish. However, the color(s) and piece type must share the same square foot price.

Building on our example, we are going to do a Bahama Blue, Flat Grass Marker.

Polishes

This menu will display every polish option listed in your Settings>Stone Attributes > Piece Types/Polishes section.

Again, using our example, we would now have Bahama Blue, Flat Grass Marker, PFT, BSS

Edge Finish

This dropdown will display every edge finish listed in your Settings>Stone Attributes > Edge Finishes section.

I don’t use edge finishes as an option, so I leave this blank. But, if you use it, you would select the appropriate option.

Now….it is time for dimensions!

Dimensions

Next you will see six little boxes labeled X, Y, Z. This is where you will enter the range of dimensions that a square foot price is associated with.

For example, let’s pretend our supplier charges $25 per square foot for Bahama Blue flat markers, PFT, BSS up to a size 2-4×1-4×0-4.

Here I have entered my minimum size quotable as any length x any width x a minimum of 2″ height and I have entered my maximum size as 2-4×1-4×0-4.

By doing this, we are telling the system “hey, any Bahama Blue flat grass marker PFT, BSS up to a 2-4×1-4×0-4 is going to cost $X per square foot”.

Next you would enter the price per square foot and then select the appropriate shipping cost profile.

Shipping Cost Profile

You may have a million shipping cost profiles set up. But the nice thing is, as the freight industry experiences rapid rate changes, you can too.

StoneSpot calculates the per pound freight rate for each item you quote. You get to dictate which rate the system uses by ensuring you have assigned the correct shipping cost profile to the correct color/piece.

To set up the Shipping Cost Profiles, go to Admin>Shipping Cost Profiles.

Setting up these profiles can be a little tricky. The system has each shipping profile row labeled and one of them is “Cost to Ship Container” and the other is “Tariff”.

It looks like this:

I started by creating a profile I call “Domestic Freight”. This is the profile I use for product coming from Georgia. So, what I did here, was enter the maximum weight allowed on a truck- 40,000 lbs. (Even if you are doing an LTL load, you want to enter 40,000 lbs.) Then I grabbed a few recent freight bills, averaged out the totals and entered the result on “cost to ship container”.

It is important to note that, in this field, we don’t care about price per pound. The system will calculate that for you. Just enter the total cost to ship and call it good.

(Note: if you are being charged a fuel surcharge as a percentage based on weight, you could enter it in the tariff field. Otherwise, you can just average it into the total cost to ship. I recommend putting it in the tariff field so you can easily change it if necessary.)

You will notice I haven’t entered anything for tariff. That is because this profile is for domestic goods. A few things to keep in mind about tariff:

• If you are importing, you enter the tariff percentage from the country of origin in the tariff field.
• If you are buying imported goods from a domestic supplier, and are paying an international surcharge based on weight, you will want to enter that percentage here.

The Next Post

Now that you understand what each field is used for, and how to use it, my next post will focus on how to set up your custom pricing rules. Subscribe below to ensure you don’t miss the post!