Retail PIM with KatanaPIM: A Different Record Than Wholesale

Retail product data is a different job from wholesale or manufacturing, and the PIM you shortlist should show that. Raoul Straathof of KatanaPIM and Chris Jobse spent this episode on the difference.

The recording:

The takeaways, in plain language:

• You need a system once product information is too scattered to keep consistent by hand. In retail that shows up as the same product described differently on each channel.
• Vendors fit different shapes of business. A shortlist copied from a wholesaler or a manufacturer misses the retail constraints. A retail shortlist misses the factory's.
• Management has to back the project. A tool rolled out without that cover stalls at the first argument about who may change an attribute.
• Usability, and a data model you can still change, were named as the features that matter. PIM features and capabilities is the longer list, so a demo has more to prove than a tidy screen.
• The Digital Product Passport was called out as a sustainability requirement retailers should collect for early, before a rule asks for a field you never stored. The DPP guide says which fields that usually means.
• Governance is what keeps the record from drifting once several departments write to it. Product data quality and governance is the operating version of that point.
• The departments have to work in the same model. A PIM that each team fills alone recreates the spreadsheets it was bought to replace.

How to select the right PIM is the path once you know you are buying for retail, not for the factory.