System 02
PIM system
Product Information Management: one place holding everything about a product, from which it flows to your webshop, your marketplaces, your catalogue and your customers. Without anyone retyping the same description five times.
The problem of five truths
Without a PIM, product information lives in several places at once: in the webshop, in a spreadsheet for the marketplaces, in the ERP and in the supplier photo folder. When something changes it has to change everywhere, and so somewhere it does not.
The cost of that is quiet but real. Wrong specifications drive returns, missing attributes get marketplace feeds rejected, and duplicate entry burns hours nobody is counting.
How the system fits together
One source, several outputs, and an AI layer for the work that otherwise never gets done.
- 01
One product source
All attributes, copy, images, prices and relations in one place, with a clear owner per field and visibility of what is missing.
- 02
Importing supplier data
Supplier files arrive in varying formats. Those get mapped automatically to your attribute structure, with a review step for whatever does not fit.
- 03
Enrichment with AI
Missing descriptions, translations and attributes are proposed based on what is already known. Proposed, not published automatically: someone approves.
- 04
Pushing to channels
Feeds to webshop, marketplaces and shopping engines, each with their own demands on fields and formats.
How it gets built
- 01
Settle the attributes
Which fields do you genuinely need per product group, and which exist only because someone once created them. This is the dullest and most important part.
- 02
Fill and connect
Migrate existing data, import supplier files, and put the first outgoing feed live. Usually that starts with the webshop.
- 03
Add channels
One channel at a time, in order of revenue. Each has its own demands, so it goes step by step.
What the system does
Product information is recorded once and arrives everywhere, with visibility of what is still missing before a channel rejects it.
- One place where product data is maintained
- Supplier files imported and mapped automatically
- Visibility of missing fields per sales channel
- Feeds that satisfy each channel on its own terms
What it costs
What an engagement costs depends on its scope and on how many systems are involved. I work with a fixed price per phase rather than open-ended billing: you know what a phase costs before it starts, and you decide after each one whether to continue.
I only quote a figure once I know what we are talking about. That takes a half-hour conversation, at no charge.
Whether this fits
This works well when
- you carry more than a few hundred products
- you sell on more than one channel
- suppliers deliver data in varying formats
- product information is currently maintained in several places
This fits less well when
- you sell a small, stable range on a single channel
- your webshop already serves as the only source and that suffices
- nobody can be made accountable for data quality
Questions about PIM
Buy or build?
With a standard range and common channels an existing package is usually cheaper and faster. Building becomes interesting when your product structure is unusual, when you have very specific supplier formats, or when package licence costs run away at your volumes. The attribute analysis answers that, and the answer is regularly "buy a package".
How reliable is AI-generated product copy?
Good enough to serve as a proposal, not good enough to publish unseen. The model invents specifications when it does not know them, and with products that is dangerous. So there is always an approval step, and specifications are only carried over from source fields you designated yourself.
What happens to our existing product data?
It gets migrated, and during migration it almost always becomes clear how much is missing or contradicts itself. That is uncomfortable but useful; it is usually the first time anyone sees the whole picture.
Let's discuss how I can help your business grow
A short call is enough to tell whether there is a good fit. No sales pitch, just an honest read on what is possible.