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How a PIM-Centric Architecture Accelerates Market Expansion and Vendor Onboarding

 

In modern digital commerce, the ability to quickly enter new markets, onboard new suppliers, and publish high-quality product catalogs across multiple channels defines competitive advantage. Companies stuck in traditional ERP- or Excel-based product management face bottlenecks, data inconsistencies, and long time-to-market. A Product Information Management (PIM) system eliminates these issues by providing a single, structured, governed source of truth for all product data.

December 9, 2025 ·

1. PIM as the Engine of Rapid Market Entry

1.1 Centralized, Localizable Data Model 

 

Entering a new country typically means: 

 

  • Translating and localizing product descriptions 

  • Adapting taxonomies to the target market 

  • Meeting regulatory documentation requirements 

  • Adjusting attributes like packaging, ingredients, deposit systems, allergens, etc. 

  • Preparing images, marketing texts, and certificates in the target language 

 

Without a PIM, each of these tasks must be done separately for every channel and every market—slow, repetitive, and error-prone. 

With a PIM: 

 

  • Localization happens once, centrally 

  • Every channel retrieves the same validated, consistent data 

  • New markets are just additional “views” or “channels” of your existing product master 

  • Compliance, translations, and taxonomy variations are versioned and reused 

 

Result: 
A market rollout becomes a configuration task, not a technical project. 

2. Fast Vendor Catalog Acquisition Through Standardized PIM Pipelines

Onboarding a new vendor typically involves inconsistent spreadsheets, mismatched attributes, wrong units, manual copy/paste, and unscalable maintenance. 

 

With a PIM: 

 

2.1 Attribute Mapping Templates 

You create reusable mapping rules from vendor schema → your internal taxonomy. 

 

2.2 Automated Data Quality Validation 

PIM enforces: 

 

  • Required fields 

  • Units and measurement normalization 

  • Category mapping 

  • Image documentation standards 

  • Attribute completeness levels 

 

2.3 Repeatable Import Pipelines 

Once the template is built for the first vendor, adding the next 20 vendors becomes a routine operation—not a new project. 

 

Outcome: 
What previously took weeks can now be accomplished in hours. 

3. Example: Expanding From Germany Into Poland Using PIM + B2B Commerce

A German company expanding into Poland, using a central PIM and a modern B2B platform. 

 

Traditional approach (without PIM/B2B): 

 

  • Product data exists only in German 

  • ERP holds limited fields (SKU, price, VAT rules) 

  • Sales team manually creates Polish price lists and PDFs 

  • No localized attributes (ingredients, allergens, certificates) 

  • No self-service ordering for Polish customers 

  • Sales rep must send emails to confirm stock 

  • Launch requires building a new localized webshop from scratch 

 

This approach requires multiple hires (sales, back-office, IT, translators) before the market can even be launched. 

Shape 

With PIM + B2B Commerce: Market Rollout to Poland in Record Time

 

1. PIM handles all localization centrally 

 

  • Polish descriptions, attributes, ingredients, allergens, documentation 

  • Mapping to Polish category structures 

  • Ensuring compliance with Polish legal requirements (e.g., alcohol disclosures, packaging info) 

  • Multi-currency (PLN), multi-price list structure 

 

No need for manual adjustments in ERP or webshop. 

 

2. B2B platform handles all sales workflows

 

  • Polish customers browse a localized catalog 

  • They see market-specific price lists 

  • Real-time stock is available 

  • They can place orders directly 

  • They can download Polish product sheets and marketing materials 

  • Credit limits, payment terms, group pricing—all handled automatically 

 

3. Agent-Based Expansion: You Only Need One Person to Start the Entire Market 

This is the biggest strategic advantage. 

 

Because the PIM and B2B system handle all catalog, logistics, pricing, and workflows, entering Poland requires only: 

→ Hiring or assigning ONE local agent. 

 

That agent can: 

  • Prospect customers 

  • Register accounts in the B2B portal 

  • Place orders on behalf of their clients 

  • Manage customer-specific conditions 

  • Support customers using fully localized product data and documentation 

 

Everything else—product availability, logistics workflow, catalog updates, compliance data, translations, and pricing—is already done centrally by PIM and B2B. 

This means your operational overhead per new market drops to almost zero. 

 

4. Logistics and processes remain unchanged 

Because the system already manages: 

 

  • Order routing 

  • Invoicing flows 

  • Warehouse logic 

  • Packaging and shipping rules 

  • Product compliance and documentation 

  • Return workflows 

  • Customer classification 

…expanding to Poland does not require new internal processes. 
The only new element is market-facing: someone to sell. 

4. Why This Modern Approach Outperforms Traditional Expansion

 Area 

 Traditional   (ERP/Excel/Manual) 

 PIM + B2B Architecture 

 Product data 

 Fragmented, inconsistent 

 Centralized, structured, governed 

 Localization 

 Repeated per system 

 Once in PIM → distributed everywhere 

 Catalog setup 

 Manual per market 

 Channel-based distribution 

 Sales entry 

 Requires full team 

 1 agent can activate a market 

 Costs 

 High operational overhead 

 Near-zero marginal cost per added  market 

 Time-to- market 

 Months 

 Days or weeks 

 Scalability 

 Very limited 

 Infinite (new markets = new channels) 

Shape 

Final Summary 

 

A PIM integrated with a modern B2B commerce platform transforms your company into a scalable product-selling machine. It enables: 

 

  • Lightning-fast international expansion 

  • Seamless onboarding of new vendors and catalogs 

  • Clean and consistent data across all channels 

  • Automated compliance and localization 

  • Customer-specific pricing and agent-based workflows 

  • Market rollouts that require one person instead of an entire team 

 

In short: 
With a PIM + B2B architecture, entering a new market becomes an operational decision—not an IT or organizational challenge. 

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