Skip to main content

Understanding different pricing models (fixed vs dynamic pricing)

Pricing zones apply a consistent pricing strategy across multiple countries using either dynamic or fixed pricing. This article covers how both models work, including importing fixed prices from Shopify, the currency selector, and tax strategy settings.

Written by Guido Kaspers

ℹ️ For step-by-step instructions on creating a pricing zone, see Managing Pricing Zones.

Pricing models

Swap supports two pricing models within a Pricing Zone: Dynamic Pricing and Fixed Pricing. You can select the model when configuring a Pricing Zone.

Dynamic pricing

Dynamic Pricing adjusts product prices using a coefficient and tax strategy. Prices are calculated dynamically per country and synced to Shopify as price adjustments.

Coefficient

Use a pricing coefficient to increase or decrease the base price of products in the selected zone. This is applied before tax and duty calculations.

For example, a +10% coefficient will raise a $100 product to $110. This adjusted price is then used for tax calculation.

Dynamic Pricing is the default model when creating a new Pricing Zone.

Fixed pricing

Fixed Pricing lets you set exact prices per product variant, either by uploading a CSV file or importing them directly from an existing Shopify catalog. These prices override any dynamic pricing configuration.

  • You can download the current fixed pricing list for any zone as a CSV. This shows all product variants with fixed prices and when they were last updated.

  • Only the variants included in your uploaded CSV or imported catalog use fixed pricing. Others fall back to dynamic pricing.

  • Each Pricing Zone requires its own CSV or catalog import. Fixed prices are not shared across zones.

  • Each upload fully replaces the previous fixed pricing list. Partial updates are not supported.

  • Importing from Shopify: instead of uploading a CSV, you can import fixed prices directly from an existing Shopify catalog by selecting one from a searchable list. This pulls prices straight from the catalog's price list, without needing to export, reformat, or re-upload a file. CSV upload and Shopify import are mutually exclusive — use one or the other for a zone, not both.

  • Currency selector: once you've selected a Shopify catalog or uploaded a valid CSV, a Currency field appears below. If importing from Shopify, this shows the catalog's own currency for reference — it isn't editable, since the catalog's price list defines it. If uploading a CSV, choose Local Currency (default) to apply values as-is per country — for example, uploading a fixed price of '20' to a pricing zone containing United Kingdom and Netherlands applies 20 GBP for United Kingdom and 20 EUR for Netherlands — or select a specific currency (for example EUR, GBP, or AED) to treat all uploaded values as that one currency, with Shopify converting the price for each storefront.

  • Compare At Price: the fixed pricing CSV template includes a Compare At Price column alongside the regular Price column — fill it in to sync strike-through ("was") prices to Shopify price lists for international storefronts. Tax adjustments (for example, VAT-inclusive pricing) apply automatically to both columns. Leave Compare At Price empty or set it to 0 to skip it for a variant. CSV templates downloaded before this update don't include the column — download a new template to use it.

  • If no new CSV or catalog import is applied when updating a zone, the store will retain and apply the existing fixed prices for that zone.

Advanced settings

Under Advanced settings, you can indicate whether your prices already include taxes and duties. The checkbox is labelled "Back calculate and adjust the cost of product prices," under "Taxes already included in the product prices (optional)."

How it behaves depends on whether you are using Fixed Pricing or Dynamic Pricing:

  • Fixed Pricing

    • You upload or set product prices manually (e.g. via CSV).

    • The checkbox tells Swap whether those fixed prices already include VAT/duties.

    • Checked → Swap treats your provided prices as inclusive, and will not add VAT/duties on top.

    • Unchecked → Swap treats your provided prices as exclusive, and will add VAT/duties at checkout according to the selected tax strategy.

  • Dynamic Pricing

    • Swap calculates prices for you based on base price + rules.

    • The checkbox controls whether taxes/duties are added or back-calculated:

    • Unchecked → Swap adds taxes/duties on top of the calculated base price (e.g. £100 + taxes/duties).

    • Checked → Swap back-calculates taxes/duties from the calculated base price, treating it as already inclusive (e.g. £100 including taxes/duties).

To learn more about tax strategies, which interact with fixed and dynamic pricing strategies in important ways, see Understanding different tax strategies.

Related Articles
Did this answer your question?