If you’re new to tire e-commerce, you may not have heard of MAP pricing. In this articles, we’ll explain what MAP pricing is, & why you should care.
What is MAP tire pricing?
MAP stands for Minimal Advertised Pricing. MAP Policy refers to the legal policy which certain tire manufacturers deploy across the world.
If there is a MAP policy in place for a certain tire brand (ex. Michelin) is is unlawful to advertise any SKU in the policy at a price BELOW their set Minimum Advertised Price (MAP).
What's the point of MAP?
The point of MAP pricing is to avoid DE-VALUATION or tarnishing of a brand’s status in the market.
Think of this to be similar to a Luis Vuitton handbag, or a Supreme sneaker. They have a brand status and they want to protect it with pricing that demonstrates their status.
Ex. If a new Luis Vuitton handbag was advertised for $99 instead of $9,999 – they believe the brand status would suffer and they would lose the market power to demand those prices in the future.
This would costs them lots of money – and hence they feel the need to put controls on it.
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The fine print (exceptions)
MAP policy dictates your ADVERTISED pricing, but there are loop holes.
Examples (by the way – this is not legal advice. consult your attorney for your exact case).
Fleet Customer (Joe’s HVAC):
- You give them a PRIVATE volume discount on a certain brand
- You are able to do so
- You CANNOT ADVERTISE that private volume discount on your site or anywhere else. (That would be a violation of MAP policy)
Which brands use MAP, and which don't?
There are several brands that employ MAP pricing. At the time of this writing, some of those brands include:
- Michelin
- Bridgestone
- Hankook
- Continental
- Nexen
- Nitto
- Yokohama
and the list goes on…
Basically, if it’s a Tier 1 or Tier 2 brand – it’s highly likely there’s a MAP policy attached to most of their SKUs.
Here’s an example link to Nitto’s MAP policy (it may not be current – but will give you an idea)
What happens if I don't follow MAP policy?
Most manufacturers have a 3 strike system. Each strike has varying levels of severity of punishment:
Strike 1 – Just a warning:
- warning email, and a 5-10 days to correct the issue
Strike 2 – Warning and maybe penalties:
- repeat violation warning and 5-10 days to correct the issue
- some penalties may be applied (volume discount penalties, etc)
Strike 3 – You’re out:
- Banned from advertising or selling the brand
- must remove all products from advertising
- must remove all trademarks, etc related to the brand
Where can you find MAP tire pricing data?
Some manufacturers like Continental will email out a doc (usually a giant excel spreadsheet) which you then need to painstakingly sift through and update on your e-commerce inventory in whatever way you can figure out.
They do not help you in much of this process at all – believe me I’ve already found out the hard way.
This can be extremely tedious, time-consuming, and error prone.
Automating MAP pricing on your tire e-commerce store
You’re in luck, because TreadCommand has taken yet another repetitive task off your To-Do list.
With TreadCommand, we’ll automatically connect you with the nation’s largest tire suppliers like ATD, TireHub, and more. We also automatically apply MAP pricing to all tires on your site that are affected.
This is kept updated automatically, 24/7, 365 – so you’ll never have to worry about it. It’ll save you dozens of hours every month so you can focus on what matters and avoid legal entanglements.
Put your MAP pricing on AutoPilot with TreadCommand
Say goodbye to clunky & cookie-cutter tire shop management software. Grow your mobile tire shop confidently with the best-in-class automated e-commerce tire platform that customers & operators love.
Closing Remarks
Don’t get caught off guard with MAP pricing violations. The consequences can be quit severe for your tire business. In some cases – it may result in long term black-listing of your shop.
But rest assured, TreadCommand has your back on this. 24/7 365.