Write down what’s in every pack you sell: the count, the net contents and the unit. Divide the price by the count, show that sum on the page, and say what one unit means. That could be one sheet, one load at a stated dose, or 100 g. If you sell the same product as a single and as a 3-pack, give each its own line, so nobody has to guess which price the unit price belongs to.
The reason is simple. A shopper asking an assistant for “the cheapest per load” needs a denominator, and most listings don’t supply one. In ten laundry-sheet listings from one Shopify catalog search, the catalog record had no unit-price field at all, and a “load” ranged from half a sheet to three sheets.
Ten laundry-sheet listings, ten denominators
On October 26, 2026 we searched Shopify’s agent catalog for “laundry detergent sheets for sensitive skin” and saved the top 10 results. Each result came back with one variant, its first, and a price in USD. Laundry sheets are a good test because every brand sells the same thing in different counts, and every brand defines a “load” its own way.
Here’s what each first variant said about its contents. “Description” means the merchant’s text. “Generated spec” means a line Shopify generated, which Shopify marks Inferred (possibly inaccurate, not merchant-authored).
| Position | First variant and price | Contents stated, and where | Dose per load (description) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 Pack, $25.00 | 60 sheets (description) | 1 small, 2 medium, 3 heavy |
| 2 | 60 loads, $21.99 | 60 loads (option label); sheet count not stated | 2 for a boost, 3 for extra-large |
| 3 | One scent, $20.00 | Not in description; generated spec says “Up to 60 or 720 loads per 30 sheets” | Not stated |
| 4 | 70 Loads, $14.99 | 70 loads (option label); generated spec says “35 or 70 sheets per box” | ½ regular, 1 large, 2 extra-large |
| 5 | 1 Pack, $21.99 | Not stated | Not stated |
| 6 | 1 Box, $19.99 | Not in description; generated spec says “Up to 320 loads (varies by pack size)” | Not stated |
| 7 | Single Pack, $19.99 | Not in description; generated spec says “30 or 60 sheets per pack” | ½ small, 1 full |
| 8 | No options, $29.00 (list $43.00) | 60 sheets, “60 loads of regular washing or 120 small loads” (description) | 1 regular, ½ small |
| 9 | “3 Pack”, $29.00 | Not in description; generated spec says “Pack Size: 3 sheets” | Not stated |
| 10 | 1 Box - 50 Sheets, $21.29 | 50 sheets (option label); generated spec says “Up to 100 loads per box” | Not stated |
Only three listings (positions 1, 8 and 10) gave a sheet count in the description or an option label. Three more stated a count only through a generated line, which may be a guess. Position 9 is the extreme case: “3 Pack” at $29.00 could mean three boxes or, as the generated line says, three sheets. The 267-character description doesn’t say.
The arithmetic, shown
Here are the unit prices the stated numbers support. Each is price ÷ count, rounded to the cent.
| Position | Per sheet | Per load, as the merchant defines it | Per load at heavier doses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $25.00 ÷ 60 = $0.42 | Small (1 sheet): $0.42 | Medium (2): $0.83; heavy (3): $1.25 |
| 2 | Can’t calculate | $21.99 ÷ 60 = $0.37 | Not calculable without a sheet count |
| 4 | $14.99 ÷ 35 = $0.43, if the 70-load box holds 35 sheets | Regular (½ sheet): $14.99 ÷ 70 = $0.21 | Large (1): $0.43; extra-large (2): $0.86 |
| 8 | $29.00 ÷ 60 = $0.48 | Regular (1 sheet): $0.48 | Small (½): $29.00 ÷ 120 = $0.24 |
| 10 | $21.29 ÷ 50 = $0.43 | $21.29 ÷ 100 = $0.21, only if the generated “100 loads” is right | Not stated |
Read the middle column and position 4 looks like half the price of position 1: $0.21 against $0.42 a load. Read the first column and they’re about the same: $0.43 against $0.42 a sheet. Neither is wrong. They’re different denominators, and position 4’s “load” uses half the detergent of position 1’s.
The 35-sheet figure for position 4 is our inference. The generated spec says “35 or 70 sheets per box”, and 70 half-sheet loads works out to 35 sheets. The merchant doesn’t connect the two, so we flag it.
Even per sheet isn’t a like-for-like cleaning cost, because sheets differ in size and strength. That’s why the honest denominator is one load at the merchant’s stated dose, with the dose written next to it.
Position 1 also offers a subscription: “1 pack every 30 days for $15, which is 40% off”. That’s $15.00 ÷ 60 = $0.25 a sheet. But the first variant the catalog returned was priced at $25.00, and a subscription is a separate offer with its own price. Keep them on separate lines.
The pack and unit-price worksheet
Fill in one row per purchasable variant, not one per product. The worksheet is our proposal; no platform requires it in this form.
| Field | What to record | Example (hypothetical store) |
|---|---|---|
| Variant | The exact option name a shopper selects | “3 boxes” |
| Price and currency | The variant price, with its ISO currency code | 54.00 USD |
| Packs in this variant | How many sealed packs the shopper receives | 3 |
| Units per pack | The count inside one pack, as printed on it | 60 sheets |
| Total units | Packs × units per pack | 3 × 60 = 180 sheets |
| Net contents | Weight or volume, if the product is sold that way | Not applicable (sold by count) |
| Unit definition | What one unit means, including dose | 1 sheet = 1 regular load; ½ sheet for small loads |
| Unit price | Price ÷ total units, showing the sum | $54.00 ÷ 180 = $0.30 per sheet |
| Reference price | Unit price × the base you display | $0.30 × 100 = $30.00 per 100 sheets |
| Offer scope | One-time price, subscription or sale price, plus the dates | One-time; no sale |
| Source and check date | Where each count comes from (packaging, supplier spec) and when you checked | Box label; checked 2026-10-27 |
Then add one comparison line per product, so the saving is checkable:
| Variant | Price | Total units | Per sheet |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 box | $21.00 | 60 | $21.00 ÷ 60 = $0.35 |
| 3 boxes | $54.00 | 180 | $54.00 ÷ 180 = $0.30 |
| Saving per sheet | ($0.35 − $0.30) ÷ $0.35 = 14% |
The store and its prices are a labelled hypothetical. The method is the point: every figure on the page comes from a sum the reader can redo.
Pack, multipack or bundle?
Keep these words separate, because the platforms do:
- A manufacturer’s pack is one sealed item that holds several units, like a box of 60 sheets. Google says not to use its multipack attribute for this. Instead, put the count in
unit_pricing_measure. - A retailer-defined multipack is identical items that you group. Three 60-sheet boxes sold as one product is a multipack of 3, and Google counts three 20-packs grouped together as 3.
- A bundle is a main product sold with different products for one price, like a detergent box with a stain spray. Google’s
is_bundleattribute is for this case. A bundle has no single unit price, so list each item’s count separately.
Where unit prices go on each platform
Checked on 2026-10-27; re-check before acting.
| Platform | What the docs say | Markets and conditions | What we couldn’t verify |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Merchant Center | unit_pricing_measure (number plus unit; count is ct) and unit_pricing_base_measure (bases 1, 10, 100, 2, 4, 8) |
Required for some products in the EU, EFTA, UK, Australia and New Zealand; the sheet and item units only work in Australia and New Zealand |
Which base Google will display; it says it may choose a different one |
| Shopify | Unit price = price ÷ total measurement × base measure; Online Store 2.0 themes display it automatically | One unit type across all markets; a legal requirement in some regions | Whether the admin screen offers a count unit (the Admin API lists COUNT and ITEM); whether the agent catalog returns unit prices |
| Google UCP checkout | Subscriptions and bundled services (warranties, installation) are listed as ineligible for checkout | Select merchants. Google’s pages disagree on markets: one help page names the US, Canada and Australia, while the onboarding pages say the US first, with Australia and Canada to follow | Multipacks and bundles of goods aren’t on the ineligible list. That isn’t confirmation they’re checkout-eligible; rollout, market and account rules still apply |
Two points follow for a US or Canadian store selling laundry sheets. First, Google won’t take sheet as a unit for you, so use ct. For the hypothetical 3-box variant, that’s unit_pricing_measure 180ct and unit_pricing_base_measure 100ct, which Google would read as $30.00 per 100 count. Second, checkout eligibility is a separate question from pricing. A subscription offer like position 1’s $15 plan isn’t checkout-eligible through Google’s UCP route, even though its unit price is perfectly clear. For how a mismatched price between your feed and your page gets caught, see product feed price mismatches.
Write it into the description, too
The catalog response we saved has no unit-price field, in this search or any of the other 161. The Global Catalog reference page we read doesn’t mention one either. So until you’ve confirmed that your platform carries a unit price to the agent you care about, put one plain line in the description of each product:
60 sheets per box. 1 sheet = 1 regular load (½ sheet for small loads). 1 box: $21.00 = $0.35 a sheet. 3 boxes: $54.00 = $0.30 a sheet.
That one line answers the questions the table above couldn’t: how many, what counts as a load, and what each costs. For the rest of a product’s numbers, such as dimensions, weight and units, use the product specification template. To check one product against a shopper’s whole brief, including “cheapest per load”, use constraint coverage.
How we checked
On October 27 we reopened the saved Shopify agent-catalog response for “laundry detergent sheets for sensitive skin” from October 26, 2026: an unpersonalized search, top 10 results, one variant per product. For each listing we recorded the first variant’s options, price and list price. The variant objects carry no unit-price field, and a search of all 162 saved responses found no unit_price or unitPrice key. A script then searched each description for counts of sheets, loads, packs and boxes, and for dose instructions, and printed Shopify’s generated spec lines. We read every match by hand. All unit prices are our arithmetic from the stated numbers, rounded to the cent. Official pages were read on October 27, 2026. We didn’t visit any product page or buy any product.
Your next step
Pick your product with the most pack sizes. Fill in one worksheet row per variant, from the printed packaging rather than memory. Write the dose next to the unit and show the division. Then add the one-line summary to the description, and set the platform unit-price fields your markets need.