Mastering the chaos: why your product data is the key to digital success

In digital commerce, consistency is everything. A customer sees a product on Instagram, clicks through to your webshop, and suddenly the title, images, or description don’t match. That moment doesn’t just cost you a sale, it costs trust.

Recently, Stefan Spijkers and Chris Jobse (co-founders of PIMVendors) sat down with Luc Smeets (Managing Director of KatanaPIM) to talk about moving from data mess to digital success. Here are the key takeaways.

1. The spreadsheet trap and the single point of failure

Most companies start with spreadsheets. It feels quick, flexible, and “good enough.” Until growth hits.

Product data spreads across Excel files, ERP exports, webshop backends, supplier sheets, and random Google Drives. And the bigger it gets, the more fragile it becomes.

The biggest risk is the single point of failure: one spreadsheet that’s packed with hidden rules, formulas, and exceptions, and only one person really understands it. If they’re on holiday, sick, or leave the company, everything slows down or breaks.

2. PIM is not just a tool, it’s a strategy

Product information isn’t “just data.” It’s cross-team by default.

Marketing needs content. Sales needs specs and USPs. Operations needs packaging and logistics details. E-commerce needs channel-ready fields. Because everyone needs different pieces, the info gets split across systems and people.

That’s why implementing a PIM is a strategic decision. A PIM becomes your single source of truth: one central place where product data is collected, enriched, and validated, with clear ownership per field. So every team and every channel gets the right info, without copy-pasting between tools.

3. AI follows one rule: garbage in, garbage out

AI can do a lot: generate product texts, improve titles, translate content, even support localisation for new markets.

But it only works when the input is clean.

If your product data is messy, AI will simply scale the mess faster. But if your foundation is solid, AI becomes a real growth lever, helping you move from basic translations to market-specific content that actually fits your German, French, or UK audience.

4. Preparing for the Digital Product Passport

Better data isn’t only about selling more. It’s also about being ready for what’s next.

Regulations like the Digital Product Passport are pushing companies to provide more structured and transparent product information. That means product data needs to be traceable, complete, and easy to share, not scattered across files and inboxes.

Even if you’re “just” selling online today, commerce is becoming more digital across the board. Having your product data in order now prevents last-minute stress later.

5. From months to days: scaling at speed

Without a central system, launching a new product line or onboarding a new supplier often takes weeks or months of manual work. It’s slow, repetitive, and hard to scale.

With a PIM, you reduce time spent on searching, fixing, and formatting product info. The result: shorter launch cycles, smoother collaboration, and a faster time to value.

If you feel like revenue is being left on the table because you don’t have the internal capacity to push product data to new channels like marketplaces or new countries, it’s probably time to centralize.

Ready to level up?

Digital commerce is moving fast. Whether you want to automate workflows, improve content quality, prepare for new rules, or make AI actually useful, it all starts with clean product data.

The first step is simple: create a single source of truth.

Don’t let your data slow you down. Make it your biggest asset.