If you have ever listed a product on SolarMarket and wondered why buyers see a higher number than what you typed into the price field — or if you are a buyer wondering why a product costs more than the seller seems to be advertising — this post is for you. Let us walk through exactly how offer pricing works on the platform from the moment a seller sets their price to the moment a buyer pays at checkout.

The Price You See as a Seller

When a seller creates an offer on SolarMarket, the number they enter in the Price field is their selling price — the amount they want to keep per unit sold. This is not the retail price. It is the seller's net intake before the platform takes its cut.

This is an important distinction. In many informal market arrangements, a seller might quote a price and then negotiate downward, factoring in their margin privately. SolarMarket works differently. The seller states the net amount they want. The platform adds its fee transparently on top and presents the result to the buyer. No hidden negotiations. No padding to account for commissions the seller has to reverse-engineer.

This matters for sellers especially: enter the amount you genuinely want to receive, not a number you've inflated to pre-absorb the commission. The platform handles the arithmetic for you.

Where Commission Fits In

SolarMarket charges a commission on each sale. The commission is calculated as a percentage of your price (after any discount you have applied) and is added on top — not deducted from what you receive.

Commission rates are resolved dynamically — not stored on the offer itself — by a priority ladder:

1. A per-seller, per-category rate if SolarMarket has set one for your shop
2. A shop-level override rate agreed between your shop and SolarMarket
3. The platform's standard commission rule (which may be seller-based, category-based, or a flat rate)
4. A default rate if none of the above applies (currently 10%)

For most sellers on the standard plan, the commission is a straightforward 10% of your offer price. Sellers in specific categories or with negotiated accounts may have different rates.

The Full Pricing Chain

Here is how the buyer-payable price is constructed, step by step:

Note that the commission is added after any discount. If you offer a discount, the commission base reduces too — so a discount benefits the buyer and slightly reduces the absolute commission, without changing the commission percentage.

A Worked Example

Let us walk through a real scenario.

Seller: Grace, solar equipment dealer in Kampala.
Product: 200Ah lithium battery.
Seller's price: UGX 1,800,000

Grace decides to run a mid-year promotion:

• She sets a 5% discount (UGX 90,000 off)
• The platform commission rate is 10%
• She offers free delivery to Kampala Metropolitan
• She charges UGX 30,000 for delivery to Central Uganda (excluding Kampala)

For a Kampala buyer, the price breakdown is:

• Grace's price: 1,800,000
• Minus 5% discount: −90,000
• Price after discount: 1,710,000
• Plus 10% commission: +171,000
• Plus delivery (Kampala, free): +0
• Buyer pays: UGX 1,881,000

Grace receives: UGX 1,710,000 (her price after the discount she chose to offer).
SolarMarket earns: UGX 171,000 (commission on the post-discount price).

For a Central Uganda buyer (outside Kampala), add UGX 30,000 delivery: UGX 1,911,000 total.

The Live Price Preview — Your Sanity Check

Sellers do not have to do this maths in their heads. The offer form includes a Live Price Preview panel that updates in real time as you enter your price, discount, and delivery settings. Before you submit any offer, scroll down to check the "Final Buyer Payable" line. If it looks wrong, adjust your inputs — the preview recalculates instantly.

The preview also shows agent pricing lines (what the WhatsApp AI agent earns and what you net on an agent-assisted sale), so you have full visibility into every scenario before the offer goes live.

What Buyers See

On a product page, buyers see the final buyer-payable price — commission already included. They do not see a breakdown of seller price vs commission. What they see is simply what they pay.

For offers with financing options, buyers also see:

• A "Starting from UGX X upfront" figure for offers with Hire Purchase plans — this reflects the lowest down payment percentage across all HP plans, applied to the commission-inclusive cash price
• An "After RBF subsidy: UGX Y" figure for offers attached to an active government subsidy programme

Discounts: Who Bears the Cost?

A common question from sellers is: "If I offer a 10% discount, does SolarMarket also discount its commission?" The answer is no — the discount comes from the seller's side, not from the commission. However, because the commission is calculated on the post-discount price, the absolute commission amount does fall when you discount. Here is the distinction:

• No discount: You earn UGX 1,800,000. Commission = 10% × 1,800,000 = 180,000. Buyer pays 1,980,000.
• 10% discount: You earn UGX 1,620,000. Commission = 10% × 1,620,000 = 162,000. Buyer pays 1,782,000.

You absorb the discount. The commission rate stays the same, but the absolute amount is lower because the base is lower. The platform's percentage share is unchanged.

Agent Sales and Trade Prices

For sellers who enable the WhatsApp AI agent and trade/B2B pricing, two additional price layers exist:

• Agent price: The retail buyer-payable price is not altered, but the seller designates a commission pool for the AI agent. When the agent closes a sale, it earns from that pool. The buyer still pays the same retail price.
• Trade price: Verified trade buyers (B2B resellers) see a slightly lower price derived from the seller's agent commission discount. This is the wholesale-adjacent price available only to accounts the platform has verified as commercial buyers.

For Buyers: How to Read an Offer Price

If you are a buyer, the price you see on any SolarMarket listing is the price you pay — no hidden fees added at checkout beyond delivery (which is shown separately before you confirm). The commission is already baked into the displayed price. If a financing option is available, you can toggle to see instalment breakdowns before committing.

The price a seller "charges" and the price you pay are different numbers — but the difference is the platform's transparent fee, not a surprise. SolarMarket publishes this pricing structure openly so both buyers and sellers know exactly how money flows.

Summary

• Sellers enter their net selling price — what they want to keep
• Platform commission is added on top (not deducted from seller)
• Discounts reduce both the seller's net and the commission base
• RBF subsidies (government programmes) further reduce buyer price
• Delivery fees are added based on buyer region
• The final number buyers see at the top of a product listing is what they pay at checkout

For sellers who want to dig into each pricing field: the detailed breakdown is in the How to Set Your Offer Price and Understand Commission help article.