On this page
The benefits of a PIM system
What a PIM is, is explained in what is a PIM system. This page is about why you would implement one. The benefits of a PIM system are concrete, but you only notice them once the data is in order.
One source of truth
Without a PIM the same bike chain lives in your POS, in a supplier spreadsheet, in your webshop and on a marketplace, each with a slightly different name or price. With a PIM you change the product in one place and the change goes to every connected channel. Nobody has to search for the version that is right.
New products online faster
A new item arrives through your supplier import, automatically gets the category and the rules you set up once, is enriched from its EAN and then appears on your channels. You do the work once instead of once per channel.
Fewer errors and fewer returns
Returns often come from incomplete data: no size, no weight, a wrong photo, unclear compatibility. A PIM with a data quality overview shows which products are missing something before the customer notices.
Ready for marketplaces
Marketplaces ask for more than your webshop: a valid EAN, a category from their own tree, required attributes and, since the GPSR, details of the responsible economic operator. If that is already in your PIM, a new marketplace is a matter of connecting and mapping instead of starting over.
A step by step plan for your PIM implementation
This plan works for a small webshop and for a wholesaler. The difference is the amount of work per step, not the order.
- Map your sources and channels. Where do your products come from (suppliers, wholesalers, POS, a spreadsheet) and where do you want to sell (webshop, marketplaces, Google Shopping)? Note per source what it contains and how often it changes.
- Clean up EANs and categories. Find duplicate and invalid EANs and products without one. Decide on one category tree of your own that matches how your customers search. More about the number itself in what is an EAN code.
- Define the required attributes per channel. Make a list: what does your webshop need, what does each marketplace need? Think of brand, weight, dimensions, colour, size and material.
- Import and convert with rules. Connect your suppliers and POS, or run a one-time import of an XLS, XLSX or CSV file with column mapping and a preview. Set product rules for fields you know better than the supplier, and find and replace rules per import source for recurring errors, such as abbreviations in product names.
- Enrich. Fill in missing names, descriptions, images and categories from the EAN, and let your own AI rewrite the texts if you want. See AI product enrichment.
- Check data quality. Work through the list of products without images, with an invalid EAN, without brand, category, weight or price, or with a low margin.
- Connect channels. Connect your webshop and marketplaces, map your categories to the channel's categories and choose the product selection, price list and stock locations per channel.
- Go live per channel. Start with one channel, check a handful of products and orders, then move to the next.
- Maintain. A PIM is never finished. New products, new channels and new requirements keep coming.
Start step 5 with your best sellers. One complete top category is worth more than a thousand half enriched products.
How long does a PIM implementation take?
Honest answer: it depends mostly on how clean your source data is, not on the software. The table below is a rough indication for someone working on it next to their normal job. With many invalid EANs or no fixed owner it takes longer.
| Phase | Small webshop (a few hundred products, one supplier, one shop) | Wholesaler (thousands of items, several suppliers, shop plus marketplaces) |
|---|---|---|
| Map sources and channels | One day | One week |
| Clean up EANs and categories | A few days | Two to four weeks |
| Define required attributes per channel | An afternoon | One week |
| Import, map and set up rules | A few days | One to three weeks |
| Enrich and check data quality | One week | Ongoing, best sellers first |
| First channel live | After roughly two to three weeks | After roughly six to ten weeks |
| Next channels | A few days per channel | One to two weeks per channel |
Note the difference between the first and the next channels. Most of the work is in steps 1 to 6. Once your data is in order, an extra channel is mainly mapping and checking. What it costs in money is covered in PIM software cost.
Common PIM implementation pitfalls
Importing dirty source data and hoping for the best
A PIM does not make bad data good on its own. Import duplicate EANs and empty brands and they will soon sit neatly structured on every channel. Clean up first, or use rules that correct it on every import.
No owner
When everyone works on the product data a little, nobody feels responsible. Appoint one person who decides on categories, required fields and who may change what.
Skipping the mapping
Your own categories and attributes are not those of a marketplace. Skip the mapping and you will see products rejected or listed in the wrong category. Take the time per channel for category and attribute mapping.
Every channel at once
Going live everywhere at once feels efficient, but every error then multiplies by the number of channels. One channel at a time leaves room to learn.
Do not expect a PIM to handle translations or separate texts per channel if the software cannot do that. StoreLinkr, for example, keeps one set of product texts and no translated content per language. Check such requirements before you choose.
Example: a bike parts wholesaler
Say a bike parts wholesaler has a few thousand items from three suppliers, a WooCommerce webshop and wants to sell on Kaufland. This is how the implementation goes with StoreLinkr.
Phase 1: data in order
The suppliers are connected and an old spreadsheet with own brand items goes in once through a CSV import with column mapping. The data quality dashboard immediately shows the gaps: tyres without weight, chains with an invalid EAN, brake pads without a brand. A find and replace rule on one supplier turns "BRK.PD" into "brake pad" everywhere. For the top sellers the wholesaler locks its own names and descriptions with product rules, so the next import does not overwrite them. Variants, such as an inner tube in five sizes, are grouped automatically.
Phase 2: WooCommerce live
The webshop is connected through the WordPress plugin. The wholesaler maps the imported categories to its own category tree, chooses which products may go to the shop and which stock location counts. One category goes live first, then the rest. Orders from the webshop come back into StoreLinkr and stock stays in line.
Phase 3: adding Kaufland
For Kaufland there is a second connection with its own product selection and its own price list. Categories and attributes are mapped to Kaufland's, and the marketplace title is composed from brand, model and title. For the GPSR, the economic operator details are matched per brand, so Kaufland receives them. Products that would be rejected, such as those without a valid EAN, stay out of the selection until they are right.
Kaufland orders land in the same order overview as the webshop orders, and a sale on one channel lowers the stock on the other. Other channels are listed under integrations; more about the webshop side is in PIM for ecommerce.
PIM implementation checklist
- There is one owner of the product data.
- You have a list of all sources and all channels.
- Every product and every variant has a valid, unique EAN, or you know which ones do not.
- There is one category tree of your own.
- Per channel you know which attributes are required.
- Recurring supplier errors are caught with rules, not by hand.
- Your best sellers are complete: text, images, weight, dimensions, brand.
- For marketplaces, the GPSR details per brand are filled in.
- You go live with one channel and check products and orders.
- You schedule fixed time for maintenance.
Want to see how this works in StoreLinkr? Look at the PIM system, read how to connect your webshop or check the pricing. There is a trial, so you can take the first steps with your own data.
Start your PIM implementation with your own data
Import your suppliers, clean up with rules, enrich from the EAN and go live channel by channel with the StoreLinkr PIM.
