RRP Meaning and Pricing Rules for Online Stores

RRP means recommended retail price: the price a manufacturer or supplier suggests a retailer charges for a product. You can sell above or below it. Showing an RRP beside your lower price also makes a claim about the saving customers can get.

For an Australian online store, the comparison needs a genuine market basis. A supplier’s price list alone doesn’t establish that customers actually buy the product at that price.

What RRP Means

RRP is a suggested retail price, so it helps identify the supplier’s price recommendation without setting your selling price. Your store sets what customers pay.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s guidance on minimum resale prices distinguishes recommending a price from enforcing a minimum. Suppliers generally can’t stop retailers discounting below their recommendation. A separate maximum-price restriction can still apply.

When customers see “RRP $200” beside “Our price $100”, they read the gap as a saving against that reference price. These are hypothetical Australian dollar amounts, including goods and services tax (GST). The RRP label must describe the basis of the comparison accurately.

RRP, MSRP and Other Price Labels

Manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) is the United States term for the same suggested-price idea as RRP. The Federal Trade Commission uses MSRP for a manufacturer’s recommendation. An imported MSRP needs the appropriate Australian currency and tax treatment before it becomes a local price comparison.

An RRP displayed to Australian consumers must include applicable GST. A business-only price can exclude GST, but label it “excluding GST” so the basis is clear. On a consumer page, an excluding-GST label alone doesn’t replace the required GST-inclusive price. The ACCC’s price-display guidance explains the consumer and business-only distinction.

“50% off RRP” means the selling price is half the stated RRP. With the hypothetical $200 RRP and $100 selling price, the saving is $100, or 50%. Both figures use the same currency and GST basis. Accurate arithmetic still needs a genuine RRP.

An RRP is the supplier’s recommendation, while a “was” price claims your store’s own former selling price. Read the guide to price displays and drip pricing for the other product-page price rules.

Comparing Your Price With an RRP

An RRP comparison must reflect a price at which the product is genuinely sold in the relevant market. A figure created only to enlarge a discount can mislead customers under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).

The ACCC warns against RRP comparisons where the product was never sold at that price or lacked a reasonable selling period before the sale. Its advertising and selling guide also explains why an RRP must reflect a current market price.

Consider these hypothetical product-page examples. All amounts are Australian dollars and include GST.

• Compliant comparison on these facts: “RRP $200. Our price $100. Save 50% off RRP.” The supplier recommends $200, and documented recent market sales substantiate that reference price.
• Misleading comparison: the page makes the same claim, but $200 exists only on a supplier list and the product has never sold at that price. The displayed saving has no genuine basis.

Keep the supplier’s recommendation and the exact product or variant it covers. Retain dated market sales evidence, your comparison calculation and a copy of the product-page claim. Record the currency and GST basis alongside the evidence. The ACCC guide recommends keeping records to substantiate two-price claims.

Stop displaying the RRP when the supplier withdraws it or it no longer reflects the market. If all sellers consistently discount below it, remove the comparison until you have a supportable reference. A long-standing figure in your catalogue doesn’t make the saving genuine.

RRP Comparisons Your Agent Can Quote

An AI shopping agent connected to your catalogue can repeat its RRP and saving figures in chat. Treat those answers as price claims, with the same evidence behind them as the product page.

Keep the current selling price separate from the comparison price. In Shopify, the fields are “Price” and “Compare-at price”, with values set for individual variants where needed. The compare-at field doesn’t establish that a value is an RRP. Preserve whether your reference is a supplier RRP or your own former price in the data supplied to the agent.

For a custom feed, use clearly defined fields for selling price and RRP, plus currency and GST treatment. Document the mapping if your feed calls its comparison field compare_at_price or uses another name. Avoid importing every higher comparison value as an RRP by default.

Before launching a sale, run these checks in order:

1. Match the RRP evidence to the exact variant and Australian market.
2. Recalculate the saving from the selling price and supported RRP on the same tax basis.
3. Sync the product page and agent feed, including any removed comparison values.
4. Ask the agent for the price and saving. Compare its answer with the selected variant’s product page and checkout selling price.

If the agent quotes a removed RRP, clear the stale comparison data and repeat the check. The guide to product feed optimisation explains how to keep catalogue updates consistent. Publish the saving only when the product page and chat can support the same claim.