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Essendant Market Xpert YouTube Video Series

Video 14: Price Strategies – Creating a Cost Plan

Outline

Ø  If you are an Essendant customer, we may be able to load your best cost file for you

·         We can set up through Essendant to automatically load and keep your cost updated on a monthly basis

·         Please contact us if this is an option you want to pursue

Ø  The best method for creating a cost plan in Market Xpert is for you to obtain your "Best Cost" at the item level in an Excel file

Ø  The file at a minimum would need Item Number and Cost. Other columns can be included, but these two columns are mandatory

Ø  Familiarity with Bid Wizard is required for the following steps. See Bid Wizard - Importing Excel Files

Ø  Login to your Market Xpert account

Ø  Click the Bid Wizard Button on the toolbar

Ø  Click the Start a New Bid Button

Ø  Assign a Bid ID and Bid Name that makes sense for this cost file

·         This Bid will need to remain in the system for as long as your Cost Plan is active

Ø  Make sure My Excel File is selected

Ø  Locate the file and upload it to Bid Wizard just like any other Excel file

Ø  Choose the column with the Required Item Number

Ø  You can optionally map other columns in your cost file, but the cost mapping is required in order for the cost plan to work properly

·         Double-check that the Cost from your Excel file is mapped to the Bid Wizard "Cost Price" field

Ø  Click Next to import your file

Ø  If your file originated from a specific wholesaler, you can choose that wholesaler in the Advanced Matching

·         Otherwise, leave the Advanced Matching set to Match Anywhere

Ø  Click the Submit Button

·         This tutorial is using a small file, but full cost files from a wholesaler can take several minutes to match

Ø  To create your cost plan from the uploaded bid file, click on Price Strategies on the toolbar

Ø  Click the Create a New Price Plan Button

Ø  Make sure the Cost Plan option is selected under Plan Type

·         You cannot change the plan type once created, you must delete and re-enter all the plan information in order to change the plan type

Ø  Enter a Plan ID that makes sense for this price plan

Ø  Click the Next Button

Ø  Enter a Plan Name for this price plan

·         You can enter a different Display Name

·         The Plan Name is what the price plan is referred to internally while the Display Name is what is shown to Market Xpert users and in Excel file outputs

Ø  You have an option to include a default percent to apply to this plan. This is useful if you wanted to add a load to your cost of two percent

Ø  All the price plan percent fields can accept both whole numbers and negative numbers. The number 2 would add 2%, -2 would subtract 2%

Ø  Click the Next Button to display the Price Plan Details

Ø  Click the link to add a new Detail record to this price plan

·         This is how we tell the system where to get our prices from, cost in this case

 

Ø  The Source should be "My Bids", Bids you have uploaded to Bid Wizard

·         The Pricing Plans box shows a list of all the Bids currently in your Bid Wizard

Ø  Choose the name of your cost file in the Pricing Plans box

Ø  Click the Next Button

Ø  You can also add a Detail Display name here, which is useful if your cost can come from more than one detail record

Ø  There is a Price Column option for wholesaler price programs. This is not used for Bid Wizard cost files

Ø  A percent adjustment is available at the detail level also. This is useful if more than one detail record is present and you want different percentages based on the cost source

Ø  Leave the Velocity Code and Category Code set to the defaults

Ø  Fixed price is only used when more than one detail record is present in your plan

Ø  Click the Next Button

Ø  To change the detail record, click the Sequence number on the Pricing Plan Details page

·         You can change the record or remove the detail line from your plan

Ø  Your Cost Plan is now created, but must be assigned to Sell Plans before it can be used

Ø  See Price Strategies – Creating a Sell Plan