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Custom Pricing Extension: Override NetSuite’s Pricing Rules in SuiteCommerce

Custom Pricing Extension - UnlockCommerce

Key Takeaways

  • Native SuiteCommerce evaluates price rules on the following levels: Item Pricing, Group Pricing, default Price Level.
  • The Custom Pricing Extension adds Contract Pricing at the very top, so negotiated rates override every native rule.
  • It links customer groups to pricing groups, without needing to make changes individually per customer per item.
  • If no Contract, Item, or Group price is found, the storefront falls back to the customer’s default Price Level (base price).
  • Because the logic runs inside the ERP, every channel—sales rep, EDI feed, public storefront—quotes the same number.
  • Result: fewer overrides, cleaner books, and a checkout that never contradicts the invoice.

When the Storefront and ERP Speak Different Languages


Nothing stops momentum like a bad price on screen. The buyer pauses, the rep drafts a “correction” email, and finance wonders which total is real.

The root cause is simple: SuiteCommerce can only see native price levels, while many NetSuite accounts hide negotiated figures behind custom logic.

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Why Native NetSuite Pricing Isn’t Enough

Why Native NetSuite Pricing Isn’t Enough

Out of the box NetSuite gives you three levers: a default Price Level on the customer record, Group Pricing by segment, and one‑off Item Pricing. Oracle’s own docs confirm Group Pricing beats the customer default, but both fall behind a hard‑coded item rule. That hierarchy works for simple catalogs.

For distributors juggling thousands of SKUs, dozens of product families, and contract‑level deals, the ladder twists fast. Duplicating price levels for every account burns time and breeds mismatches between the ERP and the storefront.

Mapping Buyers and Goods

SuiteCommerce reads those same three levers, then stops. Extras—volume tiers, trade discounts, seasonal matrices—live only in NetSuite. Unless staff copy data by hand, the site falls back to base price.

Inside NetSuite three facts already exist:

  1. Customer Group – shorthand for contract type.
  2. Pricing Group – an item field that tags the product family.
  3. Price Levels – the actual dollar or percentage rates.

What was missing was the bridge: a lookup that sees both the buyer and the item family, then selects the correct price level automatically.

Streamlined Cart Interaction​

Warning Signs Your Pricing Model Is Straining

  • Spreadsheets full of secret price breaks no one else understands.
  • Daily “price override” emails from reps fixing web orders.
  • Buyers who call for quotes because they don’t trust the cart.
  • Admins burning hours realigning price levels across 40,000 items.

The Custom Pricing Structure—One Engine for Every Scenario

Our solution wires the storefront to the same rules that drive NetSuite quotes. No duplicate maintenance. No external price file.
 
What you can do now
  • Show the right price per customer or customer group.
  • Trigger automatic volume breaks without extra code.
  • Re‑use existing Price Levels or add new ones on the fly.
  • Pass the correct figure from product page to invoice.
  • Run promo codes that outrank standard logic once, then vanish.
The Custom Pricing Structure—One Engine for Every Scenario
The Four-Tier Pricing Ladder

The Four-Tier Pricing Ladder

  1. Contract Pricing (via Custom Pricing Extension) – If a customer is mapped to a product group through the custom record, the negotiated contract price takes top priority. This logic is powered by our Custom Pricing Extension and overrides all native SuiteCommerce pricing rules.
  2. Item Pricing – A custom rate for one customer on one specific SKU.
  3. Group Pricing – A shared discount applied to a defined customer segment.
  4. Assigned Price Level – A general price level assigned to the customer.
 
The first rule that matches wins. If a promo code is active, it takes precedence at checkout but does not affect the pricing shown on product pages.

Example: Building the Customer-Product-Group Matrix

Here’s a concrete example of what the Custom Pricing Extension can do: it creates a custom record that pairs every customer group with the price level that applies to each product group.
 
Customer Group
Lighting
Control Gear
Switchboards
Trade Partner
Trade‑A
Trade‑B
Trade‑B
OEM
OEM‑A
OEM‑B
OEM‑A
Web‑Only
Web‑A
Web‑A
Web‑A
 
Pricing hinges on two independent facts—who is buying and what they’re buying—one axis of the matrix lists customer groups while the other lists product (pricing) groups. At every intersection you record the price level that should apply when that specific type of buyer picks that specific family of items.
 
When a cart or sales order is built, a lightweight SuiteScript:
  1. Detects the users’s customer group.
  2. Reads the item’s pricing group.
  3. Queries the matrix for the matching price level.
  4. Overrides whatever price level was pre‑loaded.
 
Because the rule sits inside the ERP, it remains channel‑agnostic. Mobile reps, EDI feeds, and public users all run the same calculation.

How It Works Behind the Scenes

Fieldsets expose every price level

SuiteCommerce’s Commerce API surfaces native and custom levels, letting the site request them in one call.

One‑time retrieval, local cache

On first visit the store pulls all relevant prices—matrix hits, group rates, item specifics—and caches them, so pages stay snappy.

Lightweight pricing module

Product, Cart, and Checkout templates share a tiny script that walks the ladder, recalculating on quantity changes.

Order & quote validation

A User Event Script re‑runs the ladder when the order saves, guaranteeing back‑office parity with what the buyer saw online.

Overriding SuiteCommerce’s Default Behaviour

By default, SuiteCommerce starts with the Item Pricing, Group Pricing and the Assigned Price Level. Our Custom Pricing Extension reverses this order by introducing a pricing logic layer above the native stack.
 
It first checks the custom record for any contract-specific pricing rules. If a match is found, the contract price is applied immediately—bypassing all other pricing levels. If no match is found, the system falls back to SuiteCommerce’s standard pricing behavior.
 
This ensures customers automatically see their negotiated pricing without manual adjustments.
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Industry Snapshots—Three Wins

Industrial Distributor

Four price tiers per customer plus anonymous fallback. Now item, group, and level rates show automatically; public users see “Log in for price.”.

Medical Supplies Vendor

Quantity breaks were spread across two price levels. A consolidation script keeps everything in NetSuite; SuiteCommerce displays the result, ending bulk‑order disputes.

Safety Equipment Retailer

Trade‑only pricing had to stay hidden from casual browsers. Front‑end HTML masks prices until login; back‑end validation applies the trade level at checkout.

Industry Snapshots—Three Wins
Progress overview

Day‑to‑Day Impact

  • Sales stop second‑guessing cart totals.
  • Finance audits one table, not 40,000 item records.
  • IT ships fewer patches; the same SuiteScript serves every channel.
  • Customers trust the number they see.

Implementation Roadmap

  1. Audit current paths – list every override and script.
  2. Define the ladder – lock precedence in plain language.
  3. Configure fieldsets – expose needed levels in SuiteCommerce.
  4. Install the extension – drop‑in module and cache.
  5. User‑profile testing – mimic VIP, wholesale, and bulk buyers.
  6. Go live & monitor – watch margin and support tickets trend up.
Need help from our team?

Future‑Proof from Day One

Need a fifth tier next quarter? Add it to NetSuite and the matrix—no code rewrite. Running a seasonal sale? Launch a promo level that expires on schedule.
Are you done patching spreadsheets and firefighting override requests? Let’s discuss your project! Schedule a demo to see the Custom Pricing Extension in action—and put those hours back into growth.

Let’s discuss your project.

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