Pricing on Kaufland: Smart Pricing, minimum price and price rules explained

Why price counts twice on Kaufland

First, the price (including shipping costs) together with delivery time and service quality decides which offer sits in the BuyBox on the product page – and only that offer is shown in the results list (winning the BuyBox). Second, Kaufland explicitly recommends that prices, shipping costs and delivery times should not differ from your offers on other platforms. A price that is higher on Kaufland than in your own shop costs visibility.

Smart Pricing Standard: the second-price logic

Smart Pricing Standard – formerly the "low-price automatic" – adjusts your offer price so that it matches the price of the second-best offer when your offer wins the BuyBox. Kaufland describes this as a second-bid sealed auction (Vickrey auction): the best offer wins but only pays the second-best price. The second-best price is not undercut. If two offers have the same minimum price, Kaufland says the one with the faster delivery time wins.

Smart Pricing Plus: with an eye on price comparison sites

Smart Pricing Plus additionally factors in the lowest available online price including shipping for the item, based on data from price comparison sites. Depending on your setting your price moves up or down to that comparison price, but is never set below it. According to Kaufland, first-time users of Smart Pricing get the Plus model activated by default; the chosen model applies to all your sales channels.

The minimum price is your floor

Smart Pricing is activated as soon as you enter a minimum price for an offer – via the Seller Portal, file import or the marketplace API. The system never goes below it. Calculate it properly: purchase price, shipping, packaging, Kaufland's basic fee and commission (fees explained), return rate and the margin you need at the very least. A minimum price set too low turns a sale into a loss without you noticing.

Price rules for many offers

In the Seller Portal under Offer management › Price rules › Price adjustments there are templates for rule-based adjustments: add minimum price, adjust offer price, change minimum price. Kaufland applies several rules in a fixed order – first "change offer price", then "add minimum price", last "change minimum price". Important: the "add minimum price" rule overwrites minimum prices you previously set via API, manually or by file.

Measure price changes against rankings

A lower price wins the BuyBox more often, brings more sales – and more sales usually strengthen the position in the search. Conversely, a price increase can cost the BuyBox and make the product disappear from the results list even though nothing about the product changed. So track your most important search terms daily while you test prices, and note when you set which price (keep an eye on competitors). Kaufland's "Price competitiveness" report in the Seller Portal additionally shows market price, BuyBox price and your own lowest price of the last six months per EAN.

Frequently asked questions