PIM or ERP for product data: which system should own descriptions, attributes and channel content

The problem with product data

Companies selling through several channels often discover that product information is maintained in spreadsheets, copied between systems and edited in each sales channel separately. Descriptions differ between the website and marketplaces, translations are incomplete, technical attributes are missing and images are outdated.

The consequences show up as poor conversion, marketplace listing errors, returns caused by inaccurate information, slow product launches and difficulty meeting requirements such as product safety information on listings.

What the ERP is good at

Enterprise resource planning systems manage operational and financial data: article numbers, units, purchase and sales prices, stock, suppliers, bills of materials, tax classifications and logistics data such as weights and dimensions. They are the system of record for what the company can sell and at what cost.

ERP systems are usually not designed for rich marketing content. Long descriptions in several languages, many images and videos, channel-specific texts, attribute sets that differ by category and approval workflows for editors are awkward or impossible in many ERP setups.

What a PIM adds

A product information management system centralises the information needed to present and sell products. It typically receives core identifiers and operational attributes from the ERP and enriches them with content, then publishes complete product information to shops, marketplaces, catalogues and partners.

Attribute models

Category-specific attributes, such as dimensions for furniture or ingredients for food, with validation.

Localisation

Translations and market-specific content managed with completeness tracking per language.

Digital assets

Images, videos and documents linked to products, sometimes through a separate digital asset management system.

Workflows

Enrichment and approval steps for product managers, editors and translators.

Channel feeds

Output mapped to each channel’s requirements, such as marketplace attribute formats.

Completeness

Scores showing which products are ready to publish in which channels and languages.

When a PIM is worth it

A PIM tends to pay off when a business has many products with rich attributes, sells in several languages or countries, uses multiple sales channels such as its own shop plus marketplaces and distributors, has several people or teams maintaining content, or launches products frequently.

For a single-language shop with a few hundred products and one channel, the shop platform’s own product management, fed with operational data from the ERP, may be sufficient. Introducing a PIM adds licence, implementation and maintenance costs, and it only works if someone owns the data model and processes.

Deciding who owns each field

Whatever systems are used, define ownership field by field. A useful rule is that each piece of information has one system of record where it is created and edited, and other systems receive it. Editing the same field in two places guarantees conflicts.

Typically the ERP owns identifiers, prices, stock and logistics data; the PIM owns descriptions, marketing attributes, translations and assets; the shop owns presentation such as merchandising and landing pages; and channels receive mapped data. Global Trade Item Numbers from GS1, where products have them, should be managed carefully because marketplaces and search platforms rely on them to identify products.

Compliance fields deserve explicit ownership. Manufacturer and responsible person details under product safety rules, energy labels, hazard information, warranty terms and country-specific information must be complete and correct across channels.

Implementation lessons

Start with the data model, not the software. Define product families, attributes, required fields per channel and language, and ownership. Clean existing data before migration, because importing inconsistent spreadsheets into a PIM only centralises the mess.

Integrate in stages: ERP to PIM, PIM to the main shop, then marketplaces and other channels. Measure progress by completeness and publishing speed. Train the people who maintain content and give them clear responsibilities, because a PIM is an organisational change as much as a system.

Where this sits in what we do

This article covers one decision inside a wider engagement. The solution page sets out how that engagement runs, what it includes and what it costs to find out.

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