Unit Price - Purpose

Purpose

Price per unit metrics allow marketers to "calculate meaningful average selling prices within a product line that includes items of different sizes."

Many brands or product lines include multiple models, versions, flavors, colors, sizes, or — more generally – stock-keeping units (SKUs). Brita water filters, for example, are sold in a number of SKUs. They are sold in single-filter packs, double-filter packs, and special banded packs that may be restricted to club stores. They are sold on a standalone basis and in combination with pitchers. These various packages and product forms may be known as SKUs, models, items, and so on.

The information gleaned from a price per statistical unit can be helpful in considering price movements within a market. Price per statistical unit, in combination with unit price averages, provides insight into the degree to which the average prices in a market are changing as a result of shifts in 'mix' – proportions of sales generated by differently priced SKUs – versus price changes for individual items. Alterations in mix – such as a relative increase in the sale of larger versus smaller ice cream tubs at retail grocers, for example – will affect average unit price, but not price per statistical unit. Pricing changes in the SKUs that make up a statistical unit, however, will be reflected by a change in the price of that statistical unit.