Channels

In brief: Channels are all the routes through which product information reaches customers and partners: online shops, marketplaces, apps, catalogues, checkouts, dealer portals and, increasingly, AI assistants. A PIM system supplies every channel from a single data source.

What types of channels are there?

• Owned digital channels: Website, online shop, app, customer portal.
• Third-party digital channels: Marketplaces such as Amazon or Otto, retailers’ online shops, price comparison sites, data pools.
• Print: Catalogues, price lists, data sheets and flyers.
• In person: Stores, point-of-sale systems, electronic shelf labels, field sales.
• Machines and AI: Interfaces, feeds and AI agents that query product data directly.

Why channels shape PIM

Each channel has its own requirements for fields, formats, image sizes, text lengths and languages. Without PIM, data is copied and adapted for each channel, leading to inconsistencies. A PIM system stores the data once and generates channel-specific outputs from it. This makes it possible to connect new channels with manageable effort.

Example

A tool manufacturer supplies information about the same cordless drill to its own online shop (long description, 10 images), Amazon (mandatory fields specified by Amazon), specialist retailers (BMEcat with ETIM attributes) and the print catalogue (short text, one cut-out image). In the PIM system, this is a single product with channel-specific text and media. For more on output, see Product Data Distribution.

See also

• Product Data Distribution
• Catalogues
• Customer Experience
• PIM for E-Commerce
• PIM and Marketplaces