Unit pricing
Unit pricing shows a price per standard quantity, such as per kg, per litre or per 100 ml, beside the selling price so shoppers can compare pack sizes.
- Unit price
- Price per unit
What it means
A unit price turns different pack sizes into one figure that can be compared. GOV.UK’s price marking guidance gives its purpose: “to enable consumers to compare the price of products per unit of measure, such as kilogram or litre, between similar items”. A 500 g box of cereal at £3 is £6 per kilogram; a 2 kg box at £3 is £1.50.1
A Google Merchant Center feed takes it as two attributes. The unit pricing measure is how much the product contains, such as 750ml. The base measure is the amount the price is shown per, such as 100ml.23 Google says certain products in the UK “must be displayed with the unit price based on local regulations”, including those sold by weight, volume, length or area.2
For the UK, send metric values: Google reads fl oz, pt, qt and gal as US units, “which are different from the imperial units used in the UK”.2
Think of it like this
It is the small line on a supermarket shelf label that says £1.50 per kg. It lets you compare the big bag with the small one without doing the sums.
For example
Why it matters
Where the rules apply, the unit price is part of the listing, not an extra. Send a unit pricing measure with no base measure and Merchant Center reports Missing product measurement.4 A measure in the wrong unit, or in US pints, gives shoppers the wrong comparison.
Not to be confused with
Sources
- GOV.UK. Price Marking Order 2004: government guidance.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Unit pricing measure [unit_pricing_measure].
- Google Merchant Center Help. Unit pricing base measure [unit_pricing_base_measure].
- Google Merchant Center Help. How to fix: Missing product measurement.
- Google Merchant Center Help. Multipack [multipack].