DIY & Trade: Solving Pricing Complexity inSize-Based Products

The Challenge: Inconsistent Sizes, Unclear Prices

The DIY and trade market is filled with high-volume, variable-sized products, from timber to insulation and aggregates. These items are rarely sold in uniform units, making it extremely difficult to track, compare, or respond to competitor pricing.

One UK-based DIY and trade retailer faced this exact problem. Their timber and construction materials came in various lengths, widths, and pack sizes. Competitors often used non-standard measurements or price-per-unit logic that wasn’t easy to decode.

The retailer struggled with:

• Competitor pricing that varied wildly by unit (per metre, per length, per pack)
• Internal confusion around which SKUs were being undercut
• Missed opportunities to respond quickly and strategically

The Impact?

Inaccurate benchmarking. Slower pricing cycles. Lost margin.

The Reaction: Bring Structure to the Chaos

Manual comparison of competitor prices was no longer sustainable. The merchandising team needed a way to normalise size-based pricing, automate unit conversions, and gain clarity across the category.

They needed to:

• Standardise competitor pricing data across varying product sizes
• Compare like-for-like — regardless of pack or unit format
• Reduce the time spent cleaning and aligning data manually

The Solution: Unit-Aware Intelligence from pricechecker

By deploying pricechecker, the retailer leveraged built-in logic for unit-aware price normalisation across complex product types.

pricechecker enabled them to:

• Track and convert prices across different sizes and formats (e.g. per metre, per piece, per pack)
• Automatically standardise SKUs into like-for-like comparisons
• Gain real-time insight into when, where, and how competitors adjusted prices on core materials
• Equip teams with clean data for pricing decisions across timber, sheet materials, and trade products

The Result: Pricing Clarity in a Fragmented Category

With pricechecker in place, the retailer quickly achieved:

• Faster decision-making thanks to standardised data
• Improved price accuracy across timber and trade lines
• Stronger confidence in how to match or lead on key SKUs
• Better internal collaboration between pricing, merchandising and procurement

The Result: Pricing Clarity in a Fragmented Category

With pricechecker in place, the retailer quickly achieved:

• Faster decision-making thanks to standardised data
• Improved price accuracy across timber and trade lines
• Stronger confidence in how to match or lead on key SKUs
• Better internal collaboration between pricing, merchandising and procurement

Why It Worked

• Unit conversion intelligence ensured like-for-like price visibility
• Real-time data standardisation eliminated manual reconciliation
• AI surfaced trends across fragmented formats
• Teams used structured reports to drive consistent pricing strategy

Takeaway: Make Pricing Logic Work for Complex Products

For this DIY & Trade retailer, pricechecker transformed a disjointed category into a controlled, trackable pricing environment, turning complexity into clarity.

Ready to Master Variable-Sized Product Pricing?

If you're losing margin or time due to inconsistent units, let pricechecker structure your competitive data, so your teams can focus on strategy, not spreadsheets.