July 23, 2026
A leading global e-commerce marketplace platform wanted to improve the performance of its DIY (Do-It-Yourself) category in one of its key European markets. The company observed declining category sales and needed a data-driven strategy to improve pricing competitiveness, increase seller participation, and drive higher Gross Merchandise Value (GMV).
THE CHALLENGE
In one of the company’s key European markets, the category managers noticed that sales in the DIY segment had been declining over several years. However, it was unclear whether the decline was occurring across all sub-categories or was concentrated in a few specific segments. The company had also introduced changes to commissions and pricing, and stakeholders wanted to understand their impact on sales and GMV. In addition, there was limited visibility into how the marketplace’s pricing compared with competing platforms. To address these challenges, the organization needed an analytics partner to analyze historical sales trends, identify the key drivers of the decline, evaluate pricing competitiveness, and recommend strategies to improve sales and GMV.
THE SOLUTION
The Prescience team analyzed historical sales trends across the DIY category and its sub-categories to identify the root causes of the decline. One-time anomalies caused by external events were removed to normalize the data, revealing a consistent drop in category performance. Further analysis showed that higher-priced products and premium brands were affected the most, while comparative benchmarking confirmed that prices on the company’s marketplace were often higher than those on competing platforms.
Based on these insights, the team recommended targeted promotions and a revised slab-based pricing model to improve price competitiveness and encourage sellers to list higher-value products. The effectiveness of these pricing and promotional strategies was continuously monitored, allowing the team to measure results and refine recommendations over time.
Technologies used:
- SQL
- Python
- Microsoft Excel
THE IMPACT
The updated pricing strategy improved competitiveness against other marketplaces and encouraged greater seller participation in higher-priced product segments. As a result, the DIY category achieved a 12% uplift in sales and a 12% increase in GMV, while premium SKUs gained 15% higher visibility in search and listings. The company also gained better visibility into category-level performance drivers, enabling a more effective, data-driven pricing and promotion strategy.
