If you’re a digital commerce merchant with genuine aspirations for growth, a PIM system is a must-have suite of tools for effectively managing your product data in a fast-moving and ever-changing operating environment. Moreover, selecting which solution is) solution is an endeavour in itself. The acid test comes when you try to plug it into your ERP, eCommerce, marketplaces and logistics systems without the risk of messing up your tech stack.
Our article examines one key decision in particular – whether out-of-the-box connectors are sufficient for your needs, or and if it’s more effective to implement custom PIM integrations.
Why your PIM integration strategy matters
Ultimately, a PIM solution lives or dies on how well it can exchange data with the rest of your ecosystem: So, that means things like product information coming in from ERPs and suppliers, and enriched content being syndicated to digital channels (like the aforementioned marketplaces).
If integrations are botched in any way, you run the serious risk of ending up with:
- Out of sync product data across multiple channels
- Constant manual rekeying of substandard data, “just while we fix the issue”
- Delayed product launches due to IT having to firefight broken feeds
The question is not so much “Can we integrate this PIM?” but more “How ‘opinionated’[1] should those integrations be?”
Out-of-the-box integrations: fast, opinionated, good enough?
Out-of-the-box (OOTB) integrations are pre-built connectors available from the PIM vendor’s app store, or from partners for standard systems like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Shopify, Adobe Commerce or Amazon.
Where OOTB shines
- Time-to-value – Good, because they can be connected and configured in a matter of weeks, not months, so you see the benefits of a single product data hub quickly.
- Lower upfront cost – You pay for configuration rather than development from the ground up.
- Vendor-backed – When Shopify or your ERP updates its API, the connector is on the vendor’s backlog for changing, not yours (it’s part of a standard SLA (Service Level Agreement).
- Built on common patterns – Data mapping reflects broadly accepted industry best practices for PIM solutions.
If you’re, say, a mid-market retailer running Shopify and a cloud ERP with fairly standard rules for your product catalogue, OOTB is usually the smarter move. You get clean product information flowing, multi-channel syndication working, and can revisit edge cases[2] later.
Where OOTB cracks start to show
- If your ERP data model is heavily customised, it may not interact well with your off-the-shelf solution.
- Your mix includes niche platforms such as custom B2B portals, or you’re using long-lived legacy apps.
- You need to deploy complex workflows rather than simple synchronisation for data fields.
In these cases, and more, you end up bending your business processes to fit what the connector can do (or insist on doing!) or having to build awkward workarounds outside the PIM.
Custom integrations: designed and built for how you actually work
A custom PIM integration uses APIs and bespoke middleware[3] to reflect exactly how your organisation handles onboarding and processing of product data, content enrichment, approvals for access, and syndication to channels.
Where customisation shows its value
- Complex B2B products: Rich engineering attributes, configurables, and approval flows that simply don’t map to a standard connector.
- Legacy and proprietary systems: On-premise ERP systems, home-grown pricing engines, or configurators that no vendor will ever think of building an app for.
- Differentiating workflows: Your way of managing product data fits your particular circumstances, and is part of your competitive edge, not an inconvenience.
As an example, think of a global manufacturer with a customised SAP ECC instance and a proprietary quoting portal. A generic SAP connector won’t be able to understand the custom tables, configuration rules or compliance fields, whereas a mindfully-designed custom integration can, and can automate flows which are currently stitched together manually by humans, using spreadsheets.
Trade-offs
With customisation, you gain control, but you also inherit.
- Higher upfront spend
- Longer project timelines
- An ongoing maintenance obligation whenever APIs or internal systems change
If your IT team is already stretched, that matters, but it’s also best to gain complete clarity regarding the extent of any service level agreement you may reach with the PIM vendor (maintenance, upgrades, fire-fighting).
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.
Cost, risk and the hybrid middle ground
You may be tempted to compare only the licence fees, but the real question is total cost of ownership (TCO) over the next three to five years: You should factor in subscriptions, implementation, internal effort and the risk of brittle or unstable integrations. As a broad-brush guide:
- OOTB connectors
- Lower implementation cost and effort
- Higher and predictable subscription component
- The vendor carries much of the technical risk
- Custom builds
- The upfront investment is higher
- Variable (and often underestimated) maintenance cost
- You control the roadmap…but your internal resources also own the responsibility
Many organisations end up opting for a hybrid approach: In other words, out of the box connectors for mainstream platforms (commerce, standard ERP) alongside targeted custom integrations where legacy systems or proprietary processes justify it. That way you don’t have to reinvent the wheel everywhere, but neither are you constrained where it matters most.
Cloud-native PIM and switching providers
The large majority of modern PIM platforms are cloud-native, using the SaaS (Software as a Service) model, so it is easier to change than it was in the all-on-premise era: you’re not ripping out servers or wrestling with bespoke infrastructure. However, bear in mind that “easier” doesn’t mean painless. The real lock-in isn’t really the hosting; it’s your data model, integrations, and user adoption. Transferring from one cloud PIM to another will still probably mean:
- Re-mapping attributes
- Rebuilding key workflows
- Retesting feeds
- Retraining teams
Cloud-native gives you flexibility at the platform level and faster go live times but remember – you’ll still need a clear migration strategy if you do ever plan to switch horses mid-race.
How to decide: questions to ask before you build
If you are not technical, you do not need to understand APIs to make a good decision. You just need to ask the right questions:
- How standard are our systems?
Do we use fairly common platforms (for example, mainstream ERP and ecommerce) with only light customisation? If yes, out-of-the-box integrations will probably cover most of what you need.
- Where is our real complexity?
Is it in the products (such as configurables, heavy regulation), or the approval process? If your “special sauce” sits in these details, you may need custom integration to support it properly.
- What would be the worst thing to get wrong?
What’s more painful? A product description missing for a day, or wrong price or compliance data? Your answer tells you where you can live with standard connectors and where you need something more tailored.
- Do we really want to own technical code long term?
If you don’t have a strong internal tech team (or a long-term partner), heavy custom work can become a time-occupying pain for them. If that might be the case, you might want to consider favouring out-of-the-box and keep things simple.
- What are we likely to change in the next three years?
If you’re planning a new ecommerce platform, to enter new regions, or acquire another business, your business ecosystem will inevitably undergo changes. Be mindful of considering approaches which are both easy to adjust and avoid very rigid, tightly coupled custom builds.
The most suitable answer is generally the one which minimises any regret two years down the line, not the solution which looks the cheapest in a slide deck today!
Final thoughts
If you are weighing up customised versus out-of-the-box PIM integrations, while every vendor you see claims that their approach is “best practice”, it’s a massive help to have independent, vendor-agnostic expertise fighting your corner.
That’s where Start with Data enters. We work with retailers, distributors and manufacturers to map product data flows, assess risk, and design integration patterns suitable for your reality, as opposed to a one-solution-fits-all template. If you would like to sanity-check your options before committing budget, get in touch today and we can discuss your needs and walk you through a pragmatic integration plan for your PIM project.