Celebrating the 3rd Year of ETIM

1. Celebrating ETIM’s 3rd anniversary

February marks the third anniversary of ETIM, an essential tool to help manufacturers and their partners avoid ambiguities when sharing technical product information. Basically, they use the following six entities for product descriptions:

1. Product groups
2. Product classes (categories)
3. Synonyms (alternative keywords)
4. Features (product attributes)
5. Values
6. Units

These entities create a more comprehensive, structured template that makes sharing complex technical information easier. In addition, it has several applications, including:

• Advanced product categorization for distributors to easily collect sales and purchasing information.
• Information to enable distributors to develop pricing models.
• Collecting sales information to improve industry accuracy across platforms.
• Enhancing e-commerce search and product categorization.
• Improving accuracy for online comparison tools.
• Simplifying multi-lingual site information translation and accuracy.

This singular form of technical product classification also makes it easier to expand into other technical areas. In turn, ETIM can leverage the input of over 50 product expert groups for continued success in producing consistent product information.  Now included are:

• 5,554 Classes (2,941 electrical)
• 33,684 Synonyms
• 16,728 Features
• 15,656 Values

2. The 2023 Focus

ETIM International’s new exchange format will facilitate the exchange of data in JSON and other structures. As a result, they will now focus on refining product categories to serve its membership better. Additionally, they will recruit new members to improve segment coverage.

Expansion of other electrical Product Expert Groups such as lighting, boxes and fittings, tools and testers, and other electrician supplies will represent a broader percentage of sales for electrical distributors. In fact, raising awareness about ETIM and how it serves the electrical industry is also a priority. Education helps stakeholders understand how this simple product classification system represents the best interests of the electrical industry.

3. Pimberly and ETIM

As the only system with worldwide acceptance, ETIM’s standardized format makes it easier for manufacturers and distributors to share product information. However, these outdated modes of sharing still rely heavily on manual updates. A PIM (product information management) software fully automates new product and new product information updates, enabling you to:

Classify products

Placing products into a relevant class within a uniform grid structures and organizes your product data for clarity and easy product comparisons.

Avoid conversions

Because the interface is standardized, you can avoid the mess and fuss of conversions.

Improve accuracy

As your single source of truth for product data, your information is accurate, reducing errors, duplications, misinformation, etc., through all supply chain touch points.

Automate translations

Using automatic translations, you can create a multilingual presence in international markets with minimal effort.

Improve content

Accurate data drives sales, builds trust, and makes technical information easier to understand.

Become more agile

Whether it is compliance, changing market conditions, buyer sentiment, technology advancements, and more, you can become more agile to adapt to changes across all channels effortlessly.

Save time

ETIM’s reusable template makes it easier to access content and adapt it for different uses, saving time wasted on manual duplication.

Analyze product information

Standardized product information enables you and your customers to make apples-to-apples comparisons to prepare easy-to-understand reports based on accurate statistics.

Have a centralized hub

From internal approvals to sharing data with distributors, you have a centralized hub with all your up-to-date product information ready to share. Whether it is from department to department, wholesaler to distributor, or manufacturer to wholesaler, everyone uses the same description, streamlining your internal and external processes.

You also only need a single platform, making cleansing, enriching, updating, and optimizing your product data and digital assets more accessible.

Improve customer experience

You can maintain control of your product data for consistent product information across all sales channels and customer touch points. As a result, you become a trusted brand, improve customer experiences and build brand loyalty. For instance, reliable high standards in sharing specific information give customers the information they need based on what you want them to know about your brand sourcing, ethical manufacturing processes, commitment to sustainability, etc. As a result, your brand becomes transparent, trustworthy, and recognizable across all channels.

While we celebrate the anniversary of ETIM, we also recognize that a PIM is the best tool to maintain ETIM standards across your product data and assets. In essence, Pimberly can store, share, and update product data and assets using ETIM standards, eliminating inefficient manual processes that slow time to market and disrupt the user experience.