Methodology

From raw listing to trusted signal.

A market dataset is a set of decisions about what counts. These are the ones we make, the rules we hold to, and the things the data does not claim.

Four stages

What happens between a listing and a record.

01
Observe
Prices and availability are observed continuously, online and at store level. Every observation carries a UTC timestamp.
02
Resolve
Each listing is matched to one canonical product with structured specifications, so the same part is the same record everywhere.
03
Normalize
Prices are normalized per unit and per channel, and the same offer seen through different sellers is recorded once.
04
Validate
Implausible values are screened out, and a change is checked against history before it counts as a signal.

Principles

Public sources only. Publicly listed prices and availability: what any shopper can see. Nothing behind a login, nothing private.
No personal data. The dataset describes products, prices and shelves. It contains no information about people or their purchases.
Traceable. Every data point links back to where and when it was observed.
Consistent. One schema and one clock (UTC) across every segment and source.
Independent. Pricify is not owned by a manufacturer or a retailer. Signals are computed from observations, and nothing else.
Honest about limits. What we don't observe, we don't estimate and present as fact. Modules that aren't ready say so.

Limits

Knowing where a dataset stops is part of being able to use it. These are the edges.

We observe what is offered for sale. We don't see inventory behind the listing, and we don't estimate it.

The dataset records prices any buyer can take. Contract and volume pricing are not in it.

Other markets are not covered today, and no figure here should be read as global.

When a source can't be observed for a while, its last values age visibly: every data point carries its time.

Definitions

Product (SKU): One canonical record for one manufacturer part, with its specifications and identifiers, whatever each seller calls it.
Offer: One seller's price and availability for a product at one venue (a retailer's online channel, or one physical store), in one condition.
Observation: A timestamped reading of an offer. The history of a price or a shelf is its series of observations.
Event: A change worth acting on, derived from observations: a price drop, a restock, a sell-out.
First-party seller: The retailer selling in its own name. Third-party marketplace sellers on the same site are recorded separately.
Availability depth: In-stock offers per tracked product in a segment, online and in store. Lower means scarcer.
Venue: Where an offer can be taken: a retailer's online channel, or a named physical store.

Ask. We would rather explain a definition than have a figure misread.