Retail & convenience
The right price and the right label, from one product record
In a convenience store the shelf edge ticket and the PPDS label are six metres apart, printed by the same colleague on the same shift. Dill holds one record per product, so the price on the shelf and the allergens on the pack are both right, and both stay right when the record changes.
Last reviewed: 28 August 2026
Does this apply to your shop?
Under 280 square metres? That exempts you from unit pricing on pre-packaged goods in constant quantities, and on bread. It exempts you from nothing else.
It does not cover anything sold from bulk, which the law defines as products that are not pre-packaged and are weighed or measured at the request of the consumer. Your deli counter, your loose bakery and your loose produce all need a unit price whatever your floor area.
And it does not touch the new multiple-pricing rule at all. If you run a member price, a symbol group price or a loyalty offer, the rules on showing more than one price apply to you at any size.
Source: Price Marking Order 2004, article 1 (definitions) and article 5 (exemptions).
Walk the shop
Pricing law does not live in one place in a convenience store. It lives on every fixture, and the hardest cases are the ones where pricing and allergens meet on the same product.
Shelf edge
The law
Pre-packaged goods need a selling price and, in most cases, a unit price so shoppers can compare.
What goes wrong
Tickets drift out of date against the till, and the CMA found 60 percent of errors charged more at the checkout than the label showed.
What Dill prints
The price prints from the same record the till uses, so the ticket and the till agree.
Loose bakery
The law
Sold from bulk, so it needs a unit price whatever your floor area. The small shop exemption does not reach it.
What goes wrong
Loose items are the ones most often left with no unit price, because operators assume the 280 square metre exemption clears them.
What Dill prints
Unit pricing calculated and printed from the product record, per item.
Deli counter
The law
The legally hardest fixture: a loose deli item needs a unit price and full allergen information, so both regimes land on the same product.
What goes wrong
Two systems, two labels, two chances to be out of date, usually maintained by hand.
What Dill prints
One record drives the counter ticket and the allergen declaration together.
Food-to-go chiller
The law
Prepacked for direct sale, so it needs the name of the food and a full ingredient list with the 14 allergens emphasised, plus its price.
What goes wrong
Handwritten wrap labels, missing allergens, a price sticker that does not match the shelf.
What Dill prints
The PPDS label and the price come off one record, printed to Brother hardware at the counter.
Meal deal and loyalty pricing
The law
Where a product is available at more than one price, you must show each selling price and each unit price, and show that the price depends on conditions being met.
What goes wrong
Member and app-only prices shown without the standard price, or without the conditions, at any shop size.
What Dill prints
Both prices and the condition print on the ticket, from the record, so the multiple-pricing rule is met by default.
What changed on 6 April 2026
The Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2024 rewrote parts of the Price Marking Order 2004. It was due to come into force on 1 October 2025, then the Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2025 moved that date to 6 April 2026. So the changes are recent, and most small operators have not acted on them yet.
The headline change is a new rule on multiple pricing. Where a product is available at more than one price, article 7A requires you to show each selling price and each unit price, and to display the conditions for the lower price clearly and close to the product. Member pricing, symbol group pricing and loyalty offers are all caught, and this rule has no small shop exemption.
Enforcement now has more behind it. Trading Standards can prosecute, and under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 the CMA can fine a business the higher of 10 percent of global turnover or 300,000 pounds for consumer law breaches.
And the regulator has already looked. In a review of 139 shops between November 2023 and February 2024, the CMA found non-compliance was highest in symbol group convenience stores, at 14.4 percent, with whole shelves sometimes carrying no prices. That is the segment most exposed, named in a government finding.
Sources: Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2024 (article 7A), Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2025 (commencement moved to 6 April 2026), CMA price marking accuracy review (139 shops, symbol groups 14.4%), Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (penalties).
What a compliant shelf edge ticket shows
The same product, done right and done wrong. The brand is fictional.
Cola 500ml
£1.35
27.0p per 100ml
Wren Rewards
£1.00
with a Wren Rewards account
WREN & SONS
A compliant shelf edge ticket
The selling price
The price everyone pays, shown clearly.
The unit price
Price per 100ml so shoppers can compare. Required for most pre-packaged goods.
The member price shown alongside it
Article 7A: where a product has more than one price, you must show each selling price and each unit price.
The condition, shown clearly and close by
“with a Wren Rewards account”, so the shopper can see what the lower price depends on.
Barcode and SKU
Not required by the Price Marking Order, but they keep the ticket matched to the till, which is where errors start.
Cola 500ml
Wren Rewards
£1.00
WREN & SONS
The same ticket, not compliant
Only the member price is shown
The standard selling price is missing. Article 7A requires each selling price to be shown, not just the lowest.
No unit price
Nothing lets a shopper compare it against another pack size.
No condition shown
A customer cannot see that the £1.00 depends on a Rewards account.
It will not match the till for a non-member
The CMA found 60 percent of pricing errors overcharge at the checkout, which is exactly this.
Printed or electronic?
Electronic shelf labels are being pitched hard, often on the compliance argument. Here is the honest version, because the honest version is the one that helps you decide.
Capital cost and install
An ESL is a battery-powered screen per facing, plus gateways and fitting. Printed tickets run on hardware you already have.
When a price is wrong at 6am
An ESL updates centrally in seconds, which is its real strength. A printed ticket is reprinted in seconds too, but by someone on site.
Battery and refresh
ESLs are a fleet to power, monitor and eventually replace. Tickets are consumable and do not fail silently.
What an ESL does not solve
The label on the food still has to exist. An ESL prices the shelf, it does not put an ingredient list and allergens on the pack. That is a separate, printed job.
Where ESL genuinely wins
Large estates with frequent, central price changes across thousands of facings. For most convenience and forecourt sites the maths does not land there yet.
One product record, both regimes
A shelf edge ticket and a PPDS label look like different jobs. In a convenience store they are six metres apart, printed by the same colleague on the same shift, and they are both wrong for the same reason when they are wrong: the product record behind them was out of date.
Dill holds one record per product. The price goes to the shelf edge, the ingredients and allergens go to the pack, and both update when the record does. Pricing compliance and allergen compliance stop being two systems and two problems.
Trusted on the shop floor
Convenience, forecourt and grab-and-go operators run Dill across their estates.
Frequently asked questions
Does the 280 square metre small shop exemption clear my shop of unit pricing?
Do member and loyalty prices need special labelling now?
Do I need electronic shelf labels to comply?
Can Dill do the price ticket and the allergen label from the same data?
Does this cover my deli and loose bakery counters?
What are the penalties for getting pricing wrong?
See it on your own shelves
We will show you the price ticket and the allergen label printing from one product record, on your own products.
Book a DemoLast reviewed: 28 August 2026
Reviewed against legislation.gov.uk, the CMA price marking review and gov.uk guidance.
Sources
- Price Marking Order 2004
- Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2024
- Price Marking (Amendment) Order 2025
- CMA price marking accuracy review
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024