The State of Product Data in UK Construction 2026

Confident today, unprepared for tomorrow: UK construction’s product data gap

We asked 80 senior people at UK builders’ merchants and building product manufacturers how good their product data really is. Almost all of them said it was in good shape. Then we asked what it costs them every week.

Independent Research Prepared by

Download The State of Product Data in UK Construction 2026 Report

"*" indicates required fields

Key takeaways

92%

face at least one product data challenge

26 hrs

lost to product data problems every week

34%

have lost or missed sales because of it

42%

have no PIM system in place

photo of Martin Balaam, CEO and Founder of Pimberly

Every board I speak to has e-commerce on the agenda; almost none of them talk about the product data it runs on. You can’t win at one without the other.

Martin Balaam Founder and CEO, Pimberly. From the foreword.

Three core industry findings

This industry is shifting quickly and the data shows it.

Confidence runs ahead of readiness

98% of the sector says it is confident in the quality of its product data, and 96% in its accuracy. Only 20% describe their approach as very advanced today, and 79% expect to be there within five years. That five year figure reads as appetite rather than forecast, and the distance between the two is what the report is about.

The cost sits inside the working week

Merchants lose 29 hours a week to product data problems and manufacturers 24, an average of 26 hours across the sample. At £30 to £40 an hour that is roughly £40,000 to £55,000 a year, and it counts only the time people know they are losing. A third of the sample has also lost or missed sales.

Regulation is closer than the data is

95% know about Digital Product Passports and 22% say they are ready for them. For the Code for Construction Product Information the split is 96% and 29%. Meanwhile 68% still manage product data across several systems and only 30% manage it centrally.

Eight chapters, and what each one gives you

Every chapter should answer a question you will be asked the next time you try to get product data onto the agenda. Here is what is in each one.

  1. A sector that knows change is here – p6
  2. Confident today, not ready for tomorrow – p9
  3. The gap: the silent cost of poor product data – p13
  4. The barriers: what is actually getting in the way – p20
  5. What actually solves it, and where a data pool fits – p23
  6. Who is acting now, and how they are benefiting – p26
  7. The merchant view and the manufacturer view – p30
  8. Conclusion: the path forward – p32
Download the full report

Also in the data

  • The three things blocking investment: proving return on investment (58%), in-house expertise (53%) and budget (51%).
  • Who owns product data today. Data and IT teams hold it in 45% of businesses, commercial teams in 10%.
  • 73% rank PIM among their top five technology investments, while 42% have no PIM at all.
  • Where merchants and manufacturers diverge, starting with the 29 hours a week merchants lose against 24 for manufacturers.

Contributions from sector experts

Alongside the survey, we interviewed leading digital experts at merchants, manufacturers and the bodies that set the standards.

Tim Brennan

Will Hickman

Jamie Johnson

Rob Saunders

Steve Collinge

 John Godwin

Amanda Long

Callum Budd

How the research was done

MRA Research surveyed 80 senior decision makers at UK builders’ merchants and building product manufacturers with turnover above £25m, split evenly between the two groups. Fieldwork ran from April to May 2026. 65% of respondents sit in IT, data or technology roles. Eight depth interviews ran alongside the survey.

How to cite it

MRA Research for Pimberly, The State of Product Data in UK Construction 2026 (n=80, UK construction and building materials, April to May 2026).