I received an invite to Amazon’s High Average Selling Price program. I had no idea what this was so I started digging around, and it seems like they have a bunch of different options under the program umbrella that you can opt in to. Notably, I haven’t found anything about the cost of these features.
Much like the SAS program, I assume it is not for everyone, and that the costs may not be justified by the service, so I was hoping for some first hand information.
This is what I found under that title:
The “Amazon HASP program” likely refers to Amazon’s discounted Prime membership for government assistance recipients (Prime Access), using EBT/SNAP, Medicaid, etc., or it could be a misunderstanding of HASP software licensing keys (Thales Sentinel HASP) , which some software uses and Amazon sells, but isn’t an “Amazon program” in the employee/customer sense. Amazon’s Prime Access offers 50% off Prime, free SNAP EBT grocery delivery, and other benefits for eligible low-income individuals.
I think this is what you meant:
“High Average Selling Price (ASP) Program,” Amazon uses dynamic pricing algorithms and tools like Automate Pricing and the former Sold by Amazon (SBA) program (now largely defunct due to antitrust issues) to help sellers manage pricing, aiming to maximize competitiveness and profit for high-value items by setting minimum thresholds and adjusting in real-time. Sellers can increase their ASP through strategies like brand differentiation, offering unique features, and leveraging FBA, which justifies higher prices and reduces per-item costs, notes RepricerExpress.
How Amazon Influences High-Value Pricing:
Automate Pricing: A tool for professional sellers to set rules (e.g., stay $1 above a competitor) to automatically adjust prices, ensuring competitiveness without manual intervention.
Dynamic Pricing: Amazon’s core algorithm constantly evaluates millions of sellers and products to keep prices competitive, sometimes boosting high-ASP items if they meet certain criteria.
Sold by Amazon (SBA) (Historical): Allowed Amazon to manage pricing for select third-party FBA products, guaranteeing sellers a minimum profit (Minimum Gross Proceed or MGP) while using dynamic pricing, but this program ended in early 2022 after price-fixing allegations.
Seller Strategies to Increase ASP:
Brand Registry & Differentiation: Enroll in Brand Registry to use enhanced brand content and differentiate your product with unique features to justify higher prices.
Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA): Using FBA lowers shipping costs and enables faster delivery, making your items more attractive for the Buy Box, which can support higher prices.
Minimum Price Settings: Set minimum price parameters in your inventory settings to prevent extreme drops and maintain your desired ASP, even with automated repricing, according to RepricerExpress and Amazon Seller Central.
Focus on Value: Add features, benefits, or unique materials to justify a price point above generic competitors, says Jungle Scout.
In essence, while Amazon doesn’t run a specific “High ASP” program, its tools facilitate competitive pricing, and sellers must strategically build value and use automation to achieve and maintain higher average selling prices, explains Jungle Scout.
It brought back memories of the IBM HASP Workstation, a program which turned a mainframe into a remote card reader and printer for another mainframe. It was a multi stream product unlike the hard wired IBM 2780.
I developed emulator products for both the HASP Workstation and the 2780 in the 1970’s and can still remember what they were.
If it’s in fact a “dynamic” pricing program and they’re still enforcing the #@($@ high-priced bot like they absolutely are, then either this is the most extreme example of silo-management I’ve ever seen at Amz (which is saying a LOT), or it’s some unclear form of greed that benefits Amz more than the existing high-priced rules hurt… hmmm.
The features of this program do not (currently) have a fee, and while some of them hold no interest for me, that’s mostly about my company and business model than the features being bad.
The program is exclusively for FBA, items with an average sale price over $50, and standard size items. The goal, from Amazon’s perspective, seems to be reducing FBA’s operational costs, especially returns and disposals.
Nothing about this program is related to an item’s selling price except in that it must be over $50 to be eligible.