Launch pricing runs in two stages. Stage 1 (launch): price at a break-even or undercut level relative to competitors, to compensate for having no reviews yet and to win price-sensitive buyers who would otherwise choose a better-reviewed competitor. Stage 2 (ramp): once reviews accumulate (or after a set time period), gradually raise price in increments toward the target/profit-maximizing price — increasing slowly enough, and checking competitor pricing closely enough, that the listing does not lose the Buy Box during the climb.
The trigger for each price increase can be either review-count-based (raise price after crossing a review threshold) or time-based (raise price on a fixed schedule regardless of review count). This differs from Strikethrough Price & Coupon Badge Engineering, which is about how a given price point is visually merchandised (coupons, sale badges) rather than how the price point itself moves over time.
Instead of pricing ~20% below the top-20/30 competitor average, a launch price can instead be set at break-even: the sum of manufacturing cost, shipping-to-Amazon cost, and Amazon fees, with no profit margin. This avoids the risk that an aggressive undercut signals low quality, but leaves no buffer for ad spend — PPC costs must be budgeted separately during this stage.
A zero-review listing competing against entrenched competitors with 100+ reviews can use a steep discount or coupon specifically to overcome that trust gap and generate the first wave of orders and reviews — the resulting per-unit loss on those early orders is treated as an expected launch cost, not a mistake. Pairs with Amazon Vine Program as a second, non-discount lever for the same cold-start problem.
Concrete timing example: launch the listing at full price with no strikethrough/discount, then introduce a discount roughly one month after launch specifically to activate the strikethrough price display. The one-month delay lets the listing accumulate organic sales and reviews at full margin before the discount visual starts pulling in price-sensitive, comparison-shopping traffic. Separately, as an unbuilt wishlist feature, the same seller wants keyword-specific pricing — e.g. a 50%-off price shown only to shoppers arriving via a 'hero' non-branded keyword, without extending that discount to shoppers searching the brand name directly — which no current Amazon or Helium 10 tool supports.
One concrete instance of the pattern: launch a new listing at full price, then apply a discount roughly a month later specifically to trigger Amazon's strike-through price display. The point is sequencing — establish the listing at full price first, and only later engineer the visual discount signal, rather than discounting from day one. See Strikethrough Price & Coupon Badge Engineering for the badge mechanics this timing sets up.