At their core, most problems with products are problems of product data. It could be stock appearing available when it isn’t, prices failing to match invoices, new product ranges taking much too long to appear online, and many, many more.
We authored this article to give you a concise overview of how connecting your PIM and ERP creates a clean product data flow that avoids those traps.
Why PIM and ERP need each other
PIM and ERP both work with product data, but for quite different reasons.
- ERP is your business’s operational core. It cares about costs, stock levels, units of measure, suppliers, fulfilment, and finance.
- PIM is your commercial front line. It provides the management backbone for descriptions, images, attributes, translations, SEO, and channel-specific content.
If you try to set up your digital commerce enterprise using ERP alone, you can pretty much guarantee that you’ll end up with sparse, dry, and minimalist product listings which end up persuading precisely no-one. At the other extreme, try to run operations from PIM alone and you very quickly lose control of stock, prices, and margin.
The real power and synergy comes when the two systems don’t compete but collaborate through a structured data flow deploying complementary features.
What goes where in your product data
The first step is vital: decide where each piece of information officially lives. Without this clarity and separation of powers,’ every integration risks being the constant subject of arguments and wrangling over spreadsheets.
Typically, ERP should own:
- SKU and product IDs
- base cost and list price
- inventory levels and warehouse locations
- supplier, purchasing and manufacturing data
- core logistical details (weight, dimensions, pack size)
PIM should own:
- product names and long descriptions
- images, video, manuals, and data sheets
- attributes used for filters and comparison
- translations and local market variations
- SEO fields and channel-specific copy
Agreeing this “who owns what” model enables you to build a flow where each system does its job, instead of fighting over which fields belong where.
Designing the product data flow
Once you have clear ownership, you’re in a position to design the route your data takes from onboarding to channel and sale.
Commonly, it looks something like this:
- Product shell created in ERP
New items are set up in ERP with IDs, basic operational details, and commercial status. This gives finance, supply chain, and procurement stable information to work with.
- Core data sent to PIM system
Integration: Through an API, connector or iPaaS tool, those records then flow into PIM. The PIM now has the skeleton: ID, price, stock status, logistics and supplier.
3. Enrichment in PIM
eCommerce and marketing teams add everything a buyer needs to see imagery, attributes, comparison tables, “ideal for…” use cases, local language content, and channel-specific tweaks for compliance.
- Syndicated from PIM to multiple channels
The PIM syndicates the enriched “golden record” to websites, marketplaces, print, apps and sales tools, reshaping fields to fit each channel’s template.
- Feed operational updates back from ERP
As prices, stock and lead times evolve in ERP, these updates then flow back to the PIM so your channels always show accurate and real-time status, not last month’s position.
It depends on your volumes and systems whether you run these flows in near real time or in frequent batches, but the pattern is the same:
- ERP sets the operational facts
- PIM turns them into a sellable story
BOTH stay in sync.
What happens when PIM and ERP do not connect
If this flow does not exist, you’ll soon know about it:
- Manual reworking… everywhere: Various teams download CSVs from the ERP, patch them in Excel, and then upload them to all your sales channels. At every stage, there’s a new opportunity for human error, whether it’s mistyping an SKU code or entering a mistaken price.
- Catastrophically slow launches: New ranges are in limbo while your teams chase down data, copy and approvals across departments. It’s the early bird that catches the worm, and your competitors ship first!
- Contradictory information: Your website displays “in stock,” but the warehouse says “back-ordered.” The sales team has one price list; your Amazon marketplace lists another. In this day and age of high customer expectations about the product experience, All this gets noticed.
- Channel sprawl: Each new marketplace or reseller demands a different template. Without PIM as the hub for product information, every channel launch becomes its own ‘mini-project’ (with its own version of the data).
In a sentence, you’re basically relying on guesswork rather than using a shared, definitive view of the truth. Let’s face it, guesswork just doesn’t cut it nowadays (if it ever did).
Confused by PIM Vendors?
With 100s of PIM software vendors worldwide, choosing the right PIM solution can be a daunting & confusing task.
Use our guide to assess PIM solutions against the right capabilities to make an objective and informed choice.
The benefits of a ‘double pivot’ for your product information
When PIM and ERP are working in conjunction, you’re dealing with a much more attractive scenario:
- Cleaner and quicker launches
Once ERP has created the product, PIM can enrich and publish it everywhere in days rather than weeks.
- Far fewer mistakes
Price, stock, and basic logistics always come from the same place, so there is far less scope for misalignment and error-strewn listings. That means fewer returns and fewer (lost) opportunity costs.
- Excellent customer experience
Customers see rich, detailed, accurate, up-to-date, and persuasive information wherever the touch point with your products. Their confidence in your brand increases when it comes to a purchasing decision, and so does your conversion rate.
- Easier omnichannel growth
Adding a new territory, marketplace or partner becomes a matter of mapping fields, not reinventing the wheel.
- More reliable reporting
Because operational and commercial data are aligned by ID and lifecycle status, analytics about range performance and margin is far more reliable.
This is what “the ultimate product data flow” really means: not something fancy, just a steady, predictable, and reliable movement of information that everyone across the business can trust.
Final thoughts
If your teams are still stitching spreadsheets between ERP and ecommerce, you are overdue for a proper product data flow. Start with Data helps retailers, distributors, and manufacturers design PIM–ERP integration that reflects how they actually trade: clear ownership, clean mappings, and robust governance.
From data model design to connector implementation and ongoing optimisation, at Start with Data we can cover all your bases: Get in touch with us today to discuss in more detail how we can help you get your product data flowing round your organisation so you can perform at an optimum competitive level.