A suggestion and a floor.

MSRP is what the maker suggests you charge. MAP is the lowest price your reseller agreement lets you advertise — one anchors value, the other keeps every reseller's margin out of a race to the bottom.

Why brands hold the line

MSRP is the number the manufacturer prints on the line sheet: the price they would like the product to sell for. MAP is a different animal — a clause in your reseller agreement setting the lowest price you are allowed to advertise. The word matters. In most agreements the floor governs only the displayed price, so you can often sell for less once the item is in the cart; you just cannot show it on the shelf.

Brands enforce MAP for channel health. The moment one reseller advertises ten dollars under the floor, every other reseller has to follow or look expensive, margins collapse across the whole channel, and the product starts to read as cheap. Enforcement is unglamorous and effective: a warning letter, then held shipments, then a closed account. Few promotions are worth losing the wholesale relationship that funds the rest of the catalog.

Playing within the lines

The "see price in cart" link exists because of that one word, advertise. The PDP shows the MAP price with a nudge, and the real number appears only after the shopper commits the click — territory most agreements do not reach. It works, but read your own contract first; newer agreements increasingly cover cart prices too.

The friendlier move points the other way. Show MSRP as the compare-at price and let the strikethrough do the anchoring: against a $99 suggestion, your $89 looks considered rather than cheap. Whatever you charge, the gap between price and cost is your gross margin — the ladder above shows how quickly a few advertised dollars move it.