B2B Tiered Pricing with Counterpoint
Overview
Counterpoint can support B2B tiered pricing by storing alternate customer-specific or group-specific prices in Counterpoint and making that pricing available to the website through Modern Retail.
This is most commonly used for B2B clients where different customers, customer groups, or account types receive different pricing than the standard retail price. For example, a product may have a regular price for the general public, but approved wholesale customers, contractors, dealers, or commercial accounts may receive a different price once they are logged into the website.
Modern Retail can pull this pricing from Counterpoint and send it to the e-commerce platform so the correct price can be shown online.
How Tiered Pricing Works
Counterpoint allows additional pricing values to be stored against an item. Modern Retail can use one of these fields as the source for the online B2B price.
When a shopper visits the website as a general consumer, they see the standard retail price.
When a B2B customer logs in, the website can display the appropriate tiered price based on how that customer is configured.
The key point is that Counterpoint remains the source of truth for the pricing, and Modern Retail moves that pricing to the website in a way the e-commerce platform can understand.
Supported Counterpoint Pricing Sources
Modern Retail can pull B2B tiered pricing from several places in Counterpoint, depending on how the retailer manages their data.
1. Counterpoint Price Fields
Counterpoint item pricing includes the regular price and multiple additional price fields.
For example:
Regular Price
Price-1
Price-2
Price-3
Price-4
Price-5
Price-6
A retailer may choose to use one of these price fields as the online B2B price.
Example:
Counterpoint Field | Website Use |
|---|---|
Regular Price | Public website price |
Price-1 | B2B / wholesale price |
Price-2 | Contractor price |
Price-3 | Dealer price |
This is usually the cleanest approach when the retailer already maintains tiered prices in Counterpoint’s item pricing fields.
2. Counterpoint Profile Fields
Modern Retail can also use Counterpoint profile fields if the retailer stores pricing or pricing-related values there.
These fields may be useful when the retailer has an established Counterpoint process that does not use the standard item price fields.
Examples could include:
Numeric Profile 1
Numeric Profile 2
Alpha Profile fields
Code Profile fields
This approach is flexible, but it requires confirming exactly which profile field is being used and whether the data is stored consistently for all relevant items.
3. Counterpoint Custom Fields
Modern Retail can also pull from custom fields, as long as the data is stored in the IM_ITEM table.
This gives the retailer additional flexibility when their pricing structure does not fit neatly into the standard price fields or profile fields.
Examples of possible custom field uses:
Dealer price
Contractor price
MAP price
Special B2B price
Margin-based pricing value
Customer-group-specific price indicator
Custom fields are acceptable as long as Modern Retail can access the field from the item data being exported or queried from Counterpoint.
Customer Assignment on the Website
Pulling the price from Counterpoint is only one part of the setup. The website also needs to know which customers should receive that price.
Typically, this is handled by assigning customers to a group, role, company, or price list on the e-commerce platform.
Example:
Customer Type | Website Group | Price Displayed |
|---|---|---|
Public shopper | Guest / Retail | Regular Price |
Approved B2B customer | Wholesale | Price-1 |
Contractor account | Contractor | Price-2 |
Dealer account | Dealer | Price-3 |
The exact setup depends on the e-commerce platform and the client’s B2B requirements.
Important Implementation Notes
Counterpoint should remain the source of truth for the B2B pricing values.
Modern Retail needs to confirm where the retailer stores the tiered price before implementation begins. This could be a standard price field, profile field, or custom field.
The data must be consistent across the product catalog. If some products use Price-1 and others use a profile or custom field, that needs to be identified before mapping begins.
The e-commerce platform must support customer-specific, group-specific, or price-list-based pricing. The final website behavior depends on the platform being used.
Modern Retail should confirm whether the client needs one B2B price or multiple pricing tiers.
Recommended Discovery Questions
Before implementing Counterpoint B2B tiered pricing, confirm the following with the client or POS provider:
Which Counterpoint field contains the B2B price?
Is the pricing stored in a standard price field, profile field, or custom field?
How many pricing tiers need to be supported?
Are all products using the same pricing field consistently?
Should the B2B price only appear after login?
How are B2B customers identified on the website?
Does the client need different prices for different customer groups?
Should the website show both retail and B2B pricing, or only the customer’s assigned price?
Should the B2B price be available for all items or only specific products?
What should happen if an item does not have a B2B price populated?
Recommended Internal Approach
For most implementations, Modern Retail should first look for tiered pricing in Counterpoint’s standard price fields. This is the preferred approach because it is easier to understand, easier to map, and easier to support.
If the retailer is not using the standard price fields, then Modern Retail can review the profile fields or custom fields.
The implementation should follow this order:
Confirm the pricing source in Counterpoint.
Confirm the customer grouping logic on the website.
Map the Counterpoint pricing field to the appropriate website pricing structure.
Test with a public shopper.
Test with a logged-in B2B customer.
Confirm pricing across several sample products.
Confirm behavior when no B2B price exists.
Document the final field mapping for support and future troubleshooting.
Example Scenario
A retailer sells a product for $28.99 to the general public.
In Counterpoint:
Field | Value |
|---|---|
Regular Price | $28.99 |
Price-1 | $22.99 |
Modern Retail can pull Price-1 from Counterpoint and use that as the B2B price on the website.
On the website:
Shopper | Displayed Price |
|---|---|
Guest customer | $28.99 |
Logged-in B2B customer | $22.99 |
This allows the retailer to maintain pricing in Counterpoint while giving approved B2B customers the correct online price.
Summary
Counterpoint can support B2B tiered pricing in several ways. Modern Retail can pull pricing from standard price fields, profile fields, or custom fields, provided the data is stored consistently and is available from the item record.
The most important part of the implementation is confirming where the retailer stores the pricing and how the website should determine which customers receive that pricing. Once those two pieces are clear, Modern Retail can map the Counterpoint pricing data to the website’s B2B pricing structure.