Welkoop Set the Data Rules Before It Picked a PIM

Welkoop set the data rules before it picked a PIM. Product data sat in several applications, with no clear owner. PIMvendors defined the processes and the definitions, drew the integrations, and wrote a roadmap that changes one step at a time so the shops keep trading. The PIM that followed was not one of the Big Five. It was a system already in use in Germany and little known in the Benelux.

Client Introduction

Welkoop is a Dutch retail chain for garden and animal products. The aim was more accurate, more consistent product information.

The Challenge

Product data was spread across several places in Welkoop's applications. Nobody clearly owned it. The result was inconsistencies, and a lot of work to assemble a correct set for each output channel.

The Solution

PIMvendors worked on three things. The processes and the data definitions came first. Then a new application setup, with the integrations that setup needs. Then a step-by-step roadmap, so the move does not stop day-to-day trade. Alongside that, PIMvendors guided the PIM selection. The recommendation was not a Big Five system. It was a lesser-known option in the Benelux that had already been used in Germany.

The Results

The result is the framework: clear goals, and work broken into steps the project team could finish while the shops kept trading. The PIM was already in use in Germany, which is why it was put forward. The lesson is the sequence.

The trade-off of a step-by-step roadmap is that the old inconsistencies stay in place longer. One channel remains wrong while the definitions are fixed. A single cutover would be faster on paper and riskier for a chain that has to keep the shops open.

The sequence is the part that transfers. Ownership and definitions, then the integrations, then the tool. The commerce stack is who owns which system when product data is spread across several applications. Product data quality and governance is the ownership Welkoop did not have at the start. How to select a PIM is the selection step, and in this project it came after the definitions were written down. The PIM implementation guide is how a roadmap of small steps sits inside an implementation, instead of one cutover.