If you’ve been hanging around Amazon seller groups lately, you’ve probably seen the same questions pop up over and over. How do I get that red strikethrough List Price on my listings? Why does my List Price keep dropping the more I run promotions? And why did my perfectly stable strikethrough price vanish out of nowhere last week?

I’ve been tinkering with this exact feature on an older listing of mine for the past few months, and I’ve worked through most of the kinks. Between that experience and years of launching new products, I’ve put together a fully compliant, white hat process for getting and keeping a solid List Price that actually moves the needle on conversions. No sketchy hacks, no risk of getting flagged, just steps I’ve tested myself.

For new listings, the process is surprisingly straightforward as long as you map out your pricing structure before you hit publish. When I launched a new 3C accessory last quarter, I wanted my List Price to sit at $29.99. The day I uploaded the listing, I set both my Your Price and the tax-inclusive price field to $29.99, and left every other pricing field completely blank. I didn’t try to run sales at that full price, obviously. I added a $5 coupon to keep conversions steady, and let the listing run. Every order that comes through at that $29.99 pre-coupon price tells Amazon’s algorithm that this is a valid, marketable price point for the product.

I learned the hard way not to mess with this initial price structure early on. On a previous launch, I dropped the price drastically to run Amazon Vine reviews right after listing. A handful of organic orders came through at that lower price, and the algorithm locked that in as the reference price. I spent nearly a month running higher-priced orders just to undo that mistake. Now I run all Vine reviews on seed listings instead, so they never touch the main listing’s pricing history and mess up my List Price plans.

How many orders you need to get the algorithm to recognize your List Price varies by category. In home goods, I’ve seen it happen in as few as 10-15 orders. In more competitive 3C categories, it might take 20 or more. There’s a simple way to check when it’s locked in. Try to create a Prime-exclusive discount for the listing. If you get an error saying the listing has no reference price, keep running orders at the higher price point. Once you can create that Prime discount without errors, your List Price is set. That’s when you can drop Your Price down to your regular, long-term selling price. Leave all other pricing fields as they are, and the strikethrough will show up almost immediately. Some sellers prefer to leave Your Price at the higher level and set a long-term sale price as their regular rate instead. I’ve had success with both methods, so test both to see which keeps your List Price stable longer.

Whenever you run future promotions, only adjust the sale price and promotion dates. Never touch your core Your Price or List Price fields, or you’ll risk throwing off the algorithm’s reference price tracking.

It’s worth putting in the work for this. I’ve run side by side tests on identical listings, and the one with a visible strikethrough List Price and red percentage off badge consistently converts 20% better or more. Think of it like when a new iPhone launches with an $899 MSRP, then retailers sell it for $799 a month later. Shoppers immediately feel like they’re getting a deal. Amazon shoppers react the exact same way. When they see a product marked down from $29.99 to $19.99 with a big red 33% off badge, they’re far more likely to click buy. Just make sure you build enough buffer into your regular price for future promotions. I always calculate my base price to account for 15% off Lightning Deals, 20% off Best Deals, and the extra 5% off Amazon often requires for Prime Day or holiday events. If you don’t build that buffer in early, you’ll either lose money on promotions or get locked out of them entirely.

Older listings take a bit more work to reset or add a List Price, and the biggest mistake you can make is jacking up the price all at once. I had an older home goods listing that had been selling at $20 for two years, and I wanted to get its List Price up to $30. My first attempt was a disaster. I raised the price directly to $30 overnight, lost the Buy Box immediately, and my ads stopped spending entirely. I had to drop it back to $26 to win the Buy Box back before I tried again. The second time, I raised it in three small increments, $3 each, waiting 3-4 days and getting 10+ orders at each new price point before raising it again. I hit $30 without losing the Buy Box at all.

One issue you’ll run into with older listings after a price hike is that coupons won’t work. Amazon’s system pulls the lowest historical price for coupon eligibility, so after a big increase, you’ll get locked out. I was stuck on this for a week until a fellow seller tipped me off to using promo codes instead. I ran targeted codes to my existing audience and social followers to keep conversion steady while I built up order history at the new higher price. Other sellers have had luck reaching out to support with links to the same product listed at your desired higher price on other retail platforms, to prove the higher price is legitimate.

I ran into another issue with that same older listing recently. My List Price vanished entirely after a few months of running back to back promotions. The algorithm had pulled the median of all my sale prices as the new reference point, so the strikethrough disappeared. This is a super common problem for sellers who leave coupons running for weeks at a time. If your listing is always on sale, shoppers stop noticing the discount, and Amazon’s algorithm just assumes that lower sale price is your actual regular price. I’ve adjusted my promotion schedule now. I run at full price on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, when traffic and conversion rates are usually highest across most categories. I only run small 10% off promotions on Thursdays, Fridays, and weekends. That keeps my profit margins higher on the busiest days, and the fluctuation in pricing keeps the algorithm from locking in a lower reference price. I’ve seen so many sellers run nonstop discounts, only to end up with a List Price lower than their intended regular price. They end up with zero room for promotions, stuck in a race to the bottom on pricing until they have to clear out their inventory and move on.

A fellow seller sent me a US marketplace listing a while back that sells over 10,000 units a month, with a List Price that’s stayed steady at $11.99 even though their regular deal price is $9.97. It took me a minute to figure out how they pulled it off. They have a secondary account listing under the same ASIN, priced at $12.37. That account gets a few dozen orders a month, which adds just enough higher-priced order history to keep the 90-day median price high enough for the $11.99 List Price to stick. I noticed a top seller in my category lost their 2-year stable List Price recently, and I’m almost certain it’s because they ran out of inventory and had a gap in sales. Their higher-priced order history dropped off, so the algorithm reset the reference point.

At the end of the day, this isn’t a set it and forget it tactic. Don’t set your List Price so absurdly high that it looks fake to shoppers. A $200 List Price on a product you regularly sell for $100 will just make customers suspicious, not excited about a deal. If you run the process for a week and still don’t see your List Price, reach out to support, or use the bulk upload tool to refresh your pricing fields. That usually fixes any kinks.

And if you’re running coupons and still not getting enough orders to lock in your List Price? Don’t waste time trying to force the price point. Take a hard look at your product and your listing first. A great List Price won’t save a product no one wants to buy.