Pricing Terms

This page contains the most common pricing terms.

Term

Description

Product Costs

The cost of production.
Types:

  • Standard

  • Fixed

  • Variable

  • Avoidable

  • Internal Transportation

  • Internal Storage

Quantity/Volume

The amount of product sold.

Margin

The product's price minus cost; margin is usually the key profitability indicator.

Target Margin

The amount of profit expected to be received from a product sold.

Purchase Price

The acquisition costs of the product that is produced somewhere else.

Price Indexes

Price variation that is market- and material-related (example: oil, grains).

Competition Price

The price of a competitor with a similar product.

Packaging Price

The price of packaging, which is counted as an extra cost.

Stock

Inventory of the product.

SKU

Stock-keeping unit.

Transportation Costs

The costs to move products.

Floor Price

Lowest price calculated based on profitability.

Price Ceiling

The highest price for selling a product.

Distributor Price

Wholesale price in B2B businesses (example: manufacturer sells tires to distributors).

Bottom-up Pricing

Method in which all the costs are calculated first, and the desired profit is added to the total cost to calculate the price.

Top-down Pricing

Method in which the price is calculated based on the perceived value of the product by the customer and then pushed down.

Global Pricing

Global price setting that is applicable for all business units.

Local Pricing

Regional price setting that comes on top of the global pricing.

Product Life Cycle

Product life stages reflected mostly in sales: introduction, growth, maturity, decline.

Pocket Margin

Final margin (profit before taxes).

Margin Leakage

Areas where the company loses money.