What is keystone pricing?

Point of Sale (POS) Glossary

Keystone pricing is a retail strategy where the merchant doubles their acquisition price to set an item’s sale price. For instance, if a merchant’s wholesale price of an object were $5, the price at the point of sale register would be $10. The POS price is always twice the shop’s cost of an item when using keystone pricing.

Keystone pricing may assure a business of a solid profit on many items, but on some things, it might not account for overhead and other expenses. In other cases, keystone pricing might not generate competitive enough pricing. For these reasons, a merchant might choose to use keystone pricing for some items and another strategy for others. Sales and promotions may also be applied to keystone pricing at POS checkout.