A listing that goes live without a price is not a listing anyone can buy from. When you list a product on Amazon from ILLUMA, the listing goes up with a first price chosen against Amazon’s current market, and Apex takes over from there.
Where first prices come from
List it now (on a product’s Channels tab, after a match is chosen) and the bulk listing from the match review both price the same way:
- Read the market. Apex reads Amazon’s current offers for the ASIN: the Buy Box price, the lowest price, and the other sellers. One read serves the listing for a short while (the Market read reused for setting, default 15 minutes).
- Build the floor and ceiling for the offer from the chosen strategy, exactly as a reprice would. See Costs, Floors & Overrides.
- Pick the first price against the market, inside that band, following the strategy’s rules, including Follow the market when the market is above the ceiling.
- Cap it above the market. A first price is never more than a set percentage above Amazon’s price (the First price: max % above Amazon’s price setting, default 25%; a strategy can set its own). Amazon treats a far-above-market first price as a likely pricing error and can block the listing.
The listing push carries that price. The success message reads “Listing started on Amazon”, because Amazon still builds the listing over the next minutes and can refuse the offer.
When Amazon’s price is below your floor
Sometimes the market sits under the lowest price your floor allows. ILLUMA does not list below your floor, and it does not list blind:
- The first List it now stops and shows you the price it would use: “This will list at your floor $X, above Amazon’s price $Y; Amazon may block it as a pricing error.”
- Nothing is written until you choose List at the floor anyway. Choosing a different strategy, fulfillment or offer SKU clears the warning, and the next attempt asks again.
- The bulk listing from the match review lists such products at the floor and shows the same warning in its results.
A listing that goes up at the floor above the market is marked so that its later price pushes keep that floor until the market is back inside the band.
The first half hour
Amazon can take minutes to build a new listing. The first price is retried every two minutes for up to 30 minutes (New listing: retry every and New listing: wait for Amazon up to, both settings). If the listing never appears in that window, the offer is reported on the Status page as a first-price failure with the reason, and nothing is priced blind.
Once the listing exists and Amazon returns a price, the Amazon card shows it, fees are fetched, and the offer is repriced on the next market event like any other.
What you see
- The product’s Channels tab, Amazon card: the listing’s current price, the computed floor and ceiling, and the fee breakdown as soon as Amazon returns them.
- Apex Repricer → Status: a new offer whose first price could not be set (missing cost or weight, no fee estimate, Amazon never built the listing) is listed with the reason.
- Apex Repricer → Decisions: the first decision after the listing appears, with “first price” in its reason.
Things that go wrong, and why
| Symptom | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon shows the listing as inactive with a pricing error | The first price sat far above the market, or above a price Amazon considers reasonable for the ASIN | Review the price in Seller Central; lower the strategy’s first-price cap or the floor if the market really is that low |
| The listing never got a price | No cost, no weight, or fees not in | Fix the input; the next push carries the price |
| The listing went up at the floor and does not sell | The market is below your floor | Decide whether the floor is right for that product (cost, margin, vendor cost) |
See also: Connect Amazon · Pricing Strategies · Repricer Settings