Dynamic pricing is the practice of changing prices in real time or on a frequent basis rather than keeping them fixed. Prices shift in response to signals such as demand, available inventory, competitor pricing, time of day, or which customer segment is buying. It stands in contrast to static pricing, where a product carries one published price until someone manually changes it.
How it works
A dynamic pricing setup usually combines a set of inputs (stock levels, order volume, competitor feeds, buyer type) with rules or an algorithm that maps those inputs to a price. Simple versions are rule based, for example a 10 percent discount once a customer clears a monthly spend threshold. More advanced versions use demand forecasting or machine learning to reprice automatically.
Why it matters
For retailers, dynamic pricing can protect margin when costs move and capture more revenue when demand is high. It also carries risk: aggressive or opaque changes can frustrate buyers and erode trust, especially in B2B, where relationships and predictability matter.
How it applies to B2B quoting on Shopify
In B2B, dynamic pricing rarely means a single storefront price that fluctuates by the hour. It more often shows up as account specific pricing: negotiated rates, volume breaks, and contract terms that differ per buyer. A quote is where these variables get resolved into one agreed number for a specific order. Rather than publishing a live-changing catalog price, many merchants keep a list price and adjust it per deal through quotes, which keeps pricing flexible without exposing every buyer to constant change. See the B2B quoting glossary for related terms, or pricing for plan details.
Example
A distributor lists a pump at 400 dollars. A buyer ordering 50 units asks for a quote. Based on volume and the buyer’s account tier, the seller returns a per unit price of 340 dollars for that order, then converts it to a checkout-ready order.