MAP (minimum advertised price)

MAP, or minimum advertised price, is the lowest price a manufacturer allows a reseller to advertise a product for, set to protect margin across a distribution network. It matters for e-commerce data because MAP is only enforceable if someone can prove a reseller advertised below it, which requires a timestamped record of the price each reseller actually showed. Manufacturers use MAP monitoring data, SKU-level advertised prices compared against the MAP they set, to catch violations and raise them with resellers. MAP applies to the advertised price only; a reseller can still sell below MAP at checkout under many policies, so the data needs to distinguish the advertised price from the final cart price wherever that's possible.

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