In November 2025, the State Duma of the Russian Federation received a legislative initiative aimed at introducing a single mandatory unit of weight measurement for retail in Russia. The proposal, submitted by Yaroslav Nilov, chair of the State Duma Committee on Labor and Social Policy, calls for all retailers and marketplaces to indicate product weights in grams or kilograms only, as reported by Izvestia. At present, stores often use both kilograms and hectograms (100 grams) to display prices, sometimes within the same product category—leading to inconsistencies and confusion for shoppers. The legislative appeal, directed to the Ministry of Industry and Trade and Rospotrebnadzor, seeks to eliminate these discrepancies and make pricing transparent, thereby reducing misleading practices and protecting consumers. The initiative has garnered support from public advocacy groups, who argue that it could prevent manipulative marketing techniques such as varying price units for similar goods, e.g., “per pack” versus “per 100 grams,” which are widely used in the Russian retail sector.
Industry experts, however, highlight potential operational challenges and costs associated with the initiative. Unification of measurement standards may require changes in price tags, updates to IT infrastructure and catalog systems, and the retraining of staff. Some analysts point out that consumers are already adept at making conversions and comparing prices, suggesting that the regulation could have a limited effect on buyer awareness but potentially increase the retailers’ workload and expenses. The discussion around the bill reflects a broader trend in regulatory efforts to standardize trade practices, echoing international experiences with metrication and the establishment of unified cataloging standards in e-commerce.
Implications for E-commerce and Digital Content Infrastructure
The move toward a single weight-based pricing standard holds substantial consequences for the digital commerce ecosystem and underlying content processes. The most direct impact pertains to product data management and syndication across retail platforms.
Product feeds—automatically updated data streams that populate marketplaces with SKU attributes, prices, and availability—rely on the consistency of input data. The coexistence of multiple weight units in Russian retail has necessitated elaborate data normalization routines: product cards may label cheese as “per kg” on one platform, but “per 100g” on another, complicating comparison shopping and automation. With regulatory enforcement of a single measurement unit, these normalization steps would be dramatically simplified. Feed generation tools, both custom and SaaS-based, could standardize the “unit of measure” attribute, improving the reliability of automated price comparison engines and digital shelf analytics.
This change is especially relevant for marketplaces and aggregators. Many employ algorithms to match, deduplicate, or rank offers from different sellers. Disparities in units have required fuzzy matching, rule-based normalization, or even manual data moderation—resource-intensive processes that are often a pain point for e-commerce operations at scale. A universal weight standard would significantly streamline integration and reduce catalog maintenance overhead, benefiting both retailers and third-party service providers. For more on the role of product feeds, see our article on Product feed - NotPIM.
Effects on Cataloguing Standards and Product Cards
Cataloguing standards define how products are described and structured in database systems. The forced unification of weight units will necessitate updates to data schemas and validation logic both in proprietary and off-the-shelf Product Information Management (PIM) platforms. Product cards—central to the consumer decision process—would become more consistent: user experience (UX) researchers have long criticized mixed-unit displays for introducing decision friction and eroding trust, especially for variable-weight goods like produce, cheese, or deli items.
Harmonized measurement fields in product cards could also facilitate automated enrichment workflows. E-commerce platforms using AI-driven enrichment (for example, extracting structured attributes from images, packaging, or text descriptions) stand to benefit from a more predictable and uniform data universe. AI models trained on clearer, unit-standardized data can achieve higher precision in attribute extraction and display. This, in turn, enhances search relevance, faceting, and recommendation algorithms, all of which are material drivers of online conversion.
Speed of Assortment Onboarding and Automation
The introduction of a binding measurement standard could accelerate assortment onboarding for both traditional retailers pivoting into e-commerce and pure-play online sellers. Currently, onboarding new SKUs into large catalogs often triggers manual reviews or the deployment of custom scripts to parse and convert unit fields across supplier data feeds. With only one allowed unit, bulk uploads become simpler, and the risk of operator errors or mispriced products falls.
No-code platforms, which have gained popularity for enabling business users to manage digital sales processes without IT intervention, are likewise affected. Tools for configuring digital storefronts, creating filters, or setting up dynamic pricing workflows are rooted in predictable data structures—the more uniform the data, the more leverage no-code tools provide to non-technical managers. The regulatory push could thus increase the ROI for retailers investing in no-code and low-code automation solutions, as their utility expands with every reduction in catalog complexity. To learn more about this, check out our article on Artificial Intelligence for Business - NotPIM.
AI-based tools, widely used for both competitive intelligence and automated merchandising, also rely on clean, standardized product data. Applications ranging from dynamic repricing to personalized promotions use machine learning for optimization, and their efficacy improves when data ambiguity is removed at the regulatory level.
Risks, Costs, and Reservations
Industry feedback, as captured in the initial media publications and expert commentary, points to pitfalls as well. The need to update digital and physical price tags, retrain staff, and potentially rewrite business logic in POS (Point of Sale) and catalog systems could drive up operational expenses, which might then be reflected in consumer prices. Each retailer’s data infrastructure varies in maturity, so the cost of compliance could range from modest (for chains already well-automated and using centralized PIMs) to material (for legacy retailers, wholesalers, or smaller market players with fragmented product information landscapes).
There is also the risk of temporal catalog desynchronization: during the transition to standardized units, marketplaces and suppliers might temporarily display both old and new units, introducing noise into price comparison workflows. History shows that standardization efforts in other markets—such as metrication in the UK, which remains an ongoing process despite being officially adopted for trade governed by weights and measures—have required concerted educational efforts and phased technical rollouts (Metrication - Wikipedia).
Finally, some analysts question the underlying assumption that consumers are systematically misled by unit inconsistencies, noting the Russian public’s reported ability to quickly compare and understand pricing differences across stores. However, data-driven studies on the actual consumer impact of unit standardization remain limited, and ongoing monitoring will be necessary to measure the regulation’s effect on price transparency and market dynamics. For a deeper understanding of this, take a look at our article on Data Integration Challenges: What’s Holding Your Online Store Back? - NotPIM.
Outlook
The legislative proposal to enforce a universal sales weight unit marks a significant step toward supply chain and digital commerce harmonization in Russia. The initiative represents an intersection of consumer protection, technological modernization, and regulatory alignment with international standards. Its final shape and market impact will depend substantially on the specifics of implementation, the timing of compliance, and the adaptability of Russian retail’s digital content infrastructure. Industry players and ecosystem stakeholders are advised to audit their catalog management processes, plan for schema and interface updates, and monitor regulatory guidance as the initiative progresses through legislative review and potential enactment.
For more on the broader metrics of retail standardization and the international context, see Metrication - Wikipedia.
At NotPIM, we recognize the importance of consistent and reliable product data. This legislative initiative underscores the need for robust product information management solutions. For e-commerce businesses affected by this change, NotPIM can simplify the transition by streamlining product feed synchronization, standardizing product attributes, and automating catalog updates. This ensures data accuracy, reduces operational overhead, and helps our clients maintain a competitive edge in an evolving market. This is where a Price list processing program - NotPIM can be a huge help.