The Most Overlooked Profit Lever in E-Commerce: Pricing

Key Takeaways from the Flashpricer × SmartScout Webinar

Most Amazon and Walmart sellers obsess over ad tweaks, A/B testing images, SEO, logistics, and inventory planning. All of those matter—but in our recent webinar with SmartScout, the data revealed something surprising:

Price—not ads—is the most powerful and most overlooked lever for profit.

Below are the biggest takeaways operators should know.

1. “Copy-pasting” your Amazon strategy to other marketplaces doesn’t work

Sellers often expand to Walmart or Shopify and just reuse their Amazon pricing. That’s a mistake.

Marketplaces have different fee structures, audiences, and competitive dynamics. Smart sellers now test pricing per channel rather than setting one global price and ignoring it for months—or even years.

2. Pricing is not a one-time decision—it's a living, breathing variable

Most brands do this today:

1. Research category

2. Build listing

3. Choose a price relative to competitors

4. Never touch price again

   
   

Sometimes for years.

Meanwhile, the most sophisticated sellers are now treating price as something to continuously test, just like ad creatives or conversion rates.

3. The lowest price is not always the winning price

In fact, sellers are often shocked that the optimal price to maximize sales velocity is higher, not lower.

Why? Because:

• Price signals value

• Quality listings with strong reviews can command premium pricing

• Marketplace algorithms increasingly factor in more than just price

  
  

SmartScout has seen cases where brands raise prices—and market share goes up.

4. Real-world proof: Data-driven pricing can drive double-digit profit growth

Flashpricer shared a recent case study with a brand that allowed automated price testing:

• +73% revenue

• +52% profit

• +88% units sold

  
  

The sweet spot ended up being a higher price than expected, proving that the most profitable price is rarely the lowest. Later modeling projected an even higher monthly profit at an even higher price. The optimal price moves based on real-time data.

5. Pricing + Advertising is where the real compounding happens

Instead of throwing more budget at ads and hoping ROAS improves, Flashpricer recommends:

• Let your advertising team focus on keeping TACOS / ACOS neutral or lower

• Let pricing automation find the optimal price for profit

  
  

When both move together—profit compounds.

6. Coupons and deal triggers are more powerful than people realize

SmartScout showed how big brands strategically raise prices before Prime Day or major deal events…then put a coupon on top to create a psychological sense of urgency.

Lightning deals + coupons + temporarily higher price = more sales, more profit.

7. AI is accelerating marketplace pricing changes

Two important takeaways from the panel:

• AI shopping agents will increasingly consider more than price (trust, reviews, quality).

  
  

• Walmart is actively integrating purchasing into GPT, which may shift more early demand from Amazon to Walmart.

  
  

The sellers who adapt pricing fastest will win this transition.

Final thought: Price is a two-way door

You can always change price back.

The real risk isn’t testing pricing—it’s holding onto a price set months ago under completely different market conditions.

Don't set your price once. Treat it like a living, breathing variable.

Want Flashpricer to model the optimal price for your catalog?

Flashpricer automates:

• Competitor aggregation

• Price elasticity modeling

• Continuous testing

• Real-time repricing on Amazon + Walmart

  
  

Start a 14-day free trial and watch the full webinar for an exclusive discount.