Customer prices in a B2B portal: validity, discounts and tests

Decide which price wins when several rules match

A customer price list is useful when the same result appears in the catalog, quote and order. Before choosing a portal, write down the priority: individual agreement, segment list and general price. Decide whether a promotion stacks with negotiated pricing or replaces it. Two successive 10% discounts leave 81 from a base of 100; they are different from a single 20% discount.

Platforms have specific rules. Shopify documents that a fixed catalog price overrides that catalog’s overall adjustment; it also distinguishes capabilities by plan and assignment to markets or company locations. That describes Shopify rather than a universal rule. Ask for a demonstration on your plan with your products and customers.

Worked example: special agreement and a list change

The general price is 125, distributor price is 110 and Customer North’s agreement is 100 until cutoff. On October 8, 12 units cost 1,200. A general 10% promotion does not reduce the agreement to 90 because this policy excludes it. Customer South has no agreement and buys the same 12 at 110: total 1,320. Every price needs an explanation identifying the customer, rule, version and date.

An old cart may still show a price stored on the phone. Final validation therefore needs to consult the authorized rule and explain changes before accepting the order. Repeating an already confirmed request should retrieve its original result. Changing quantities afterward may require another version; the quote-to-order guide explains that commercial acceptance.

Test quantity boundaries and rounding

With a proposed tier of 1–9 units at 110 and 10 or more at 105 for every unit, 9 cost 990, 10 cost 1,050 and 11 cost 1,155. A discount applying only to extra units gives a different result. Have sales approve the intended interpretation; a “volume discount” label is insufficient. Also define how many decimal places each price stores and when the total is rounded.

Check that a box of 12 units is not counted as one unit when evaluating a tier. When packaging changes, retain the approved conversion and show both quantities. A correct price with an incorrect quantity remains an incorrect order. For assignments across branches, review portal access tests too.

What should happen in a realistic purchase test

1. Normal purchase: each customer sees and confirms the correct rule, currency, packaging and total; sales can reconstruct the calculation.
2. Exception: an expired agreement or incompatible rules stop confirmation until pricing is resolved. Do not silently apply a different list.
3. Access change: switching company or branch revalidates pricing; an earlier tab cannot retain another account’s prices.
4. Lost response: repeating confirmation returns the same order and amount. Two genuinely separate orders retain different references.
5. Stale data: when an ERP list has not arrived, show its update time and follow the agreed decision: wait or review. Do not label a price current without evidence.

Configure what you can verify before developing exceptions

You can start with a configurable catalog when its priority and validity cover your agreements. An integration or additional development requires identifying who maintains each list, which access the existing system permits and how it recovers a failed update. The ERP connection guide helps assess access before budgeting.

The downloadable worksheet contains ten synthetic cases, including the exact expiration instant, another account and a packaging change. Replace the amounts, record the observed result and attach evidence; a row without an observation is still untested. To evaluate a customer portal, bring your lists and an order where two rules compete. The discussion then starts with a specific difference the portal must resolve.