Top 10 Biggest PIM Trends For 2026

Over the past decade, digital commerce has expanded far beyond webshops and catalogs. Marketplaces, social commerce, omnichannel retail and AI-driven personalization all depend on high-quality, contextual product data. At the same time, the rise of rich media and regulatory requirements has multiplied both the volume and the complexity of product information.

As a result, organizations are being forced to rethink how they manage, govern, and activate product data. Traditional Product Information Management (PIM) approaches are no longer sufficient. In 2026, Product eXperience Management (PXM) becomes the strategic backbone for digital commerce.

Discover the 10 biggest PIM Trends of 2026:

• 1. From PIM to PXM
• 2. Fit-For-Purpose Product Data Across Channel, Market And Region
• 3. Smart Product Data Onboarding: Data Pool Integration / Supplier Portal
• 4. Increased Focus On Data Quality Management
• 5. Product Data For A Better World
• 6. Data Governance
• 7. PIM To Multi-Domain MDM
• 8. State Of The Art Technology
• 9. From Integrated PIM To Composable PXM
• 10. AI-Driven

   

1. From PIM To PXM  

Where PIM once focused on collecting and distributing product data, PXM focuses on contextualizing and activating that data. Customers expect personalized, relevant and engaging product experiences across every touchpoint.

Modern PXM platforms combine product data with customer and behavioral data to optimize the full customer journey. Technologies such as augmented reality, rich media and Digital Shelf Analytics are becoming the standard instead of the exception.

2. Fit-For-Purpose Product Data Across Channel, Market And Region  

One-size-fits-all product content no longer works. Each channel, market and region has its own requirements. Whether it has to do with data structures and formats or tone of voice and imagery.

Leading PXM platforms enable:

• Channel specific product data and validation
• Localization beyond translation, including cultural adaptation
• Segmentation and personalization for different personas and use cases

This ability to deliver fit-for-purpose product data while maintaining a single source of truth is becoming a critical success factor.

3. Smart Product Data Onboarding: Data Pool Integration / Supplier Portal  

Product data onboarding remains one of the biggest challenges for wholesalers and retailers. While data standards and data pools such as GS1 and ETIM help, they do not cover all needs.

AI-driven onboarding changes the game. Smart mapping, transformation and validation allow organizations to process large amounts of data with far less manual effort. Supplier portals and AI-powered tooling reduce onboarding time while improving data quality from the start.

4. Increased Focus On Data Quality Management  

As product data becomes the foundation for omnichannel commerce, AI-driven personalization, and regulatory compliance, data quality is no longer optional. Organizations are shifting from reactive data cleansing to proactive, first-time-right data quality management, embedded directly into PXM processes.

Key focus areas include:

• Accuracy and consistency across all channels, ensuring reliable and trustworthy product information
• Automated validation and cleansing, increasingly supported by AI, to detect errors, missing attributes, and inconsistencies in real time
• Data enrichment at scale, including AI-generated descriptions, translations, and attribute completion
• Workflow-driven quality control, enabling structured review, approval, and ownership across teams
• Embedded dashboards and analytics, providing immediate insight into data quality status and channel readiness

5. Product Data For A Better World  

Sustainability is no longer optional. Customers and regulators demand transparency, verifiable claims and traceable product data. PXM platforms are increasingly positioned as the backbone for sustainability reporting, Digital Product Passports (DPP) and CSRD compliance.

By connecting sustainability data with product attributes and marketing content, organizations can turn compliance into a source of trust and brand differentiation.

6. Data Governance  

As AI, personalization and regulatory requirements increase, organizations can no longer treat Data Governance as a purely compliance-driven activity. Trusted product data is becoming a strategic foundation for scale and innovation.

Key elements of modern Data Governance are:

• Data principles, policies and standards. Identify key data assets and best practices.
• Structures and communities. Define stakeholders, define what should be decided by whom.
• Roles and responsibilities. Assign data stewards and -owners.
• Managing data quality. Collaborate between data owners, -stewards and subject matter experts to define data quality metrics.
• Culture & change management. Key to successful implementation.

7. PIM To Multi-Domain MDM  

As digital maturity increases, organizations realize that product data cannot be managed in isolation. Customer, supplier and other master data domains are often spread across siloed systems, leading to duplication, inconsistencies and governance challenges that impact analytics, compliance and scalability.

To address this, many organizations are evolving from single-domain PIM solutions toward multi-domain Master Data Management (MDM). Multi-domain MDM applies consistent governance, data quality and security across multiple data domains. At the same time, PIM solutions are expanding toward MDM, while MDM platforms increasingly include PIM and PXM capabilities. This shift reflects the growing need to manage not just product data but also customer, supplier, and other critical data domains in a unified manner.

8. State Of The Art Technology  

Modern PXM platforms are built on state-of-the-art technology and MACH principles (microservices, API-first, cloud-native and headless). This architectural approach enables organizations to scale independently across users, channels and regions while remaining flexible in rapidly changing markets.

Composable PXM platforms allow organizations to integrate best-of-breed solutions and adapt their technology landscape over time. By decoupling core capabilities such as onboarding, data management and syndication, organizations gain agility, lower integration complexity and future-proof their PXM strategy.

9. From Integrated PIM To Composable PXM  

Most PXM platforms have 3 main components where data is stored and managed:

1. The onboarding area, where supplier- and data pool-owned product data is uploaded, validated, and managed via portals or API-based interfaces. Data quality is controlled through dashboards and workflows, increasingly supported by agentic AI to improve efficiency and accuracy across different standards and markets.
2. The data management area, where validated product data is enriched and customized. This includes adding company-specific attributes, defining variants, creating cross- and upsell relationships, and aligning marketing content with the brand’s tone of voice, supported by digital assets.
3. The channel differentiation area, where product data is tailored and distributed to sales and marketing channels. Content is adapted to channel, market, and regional requirements and delivered through outbound syndication, supported by Digital Shelf Analytics (DSA).

10. AI-Driven  

AI is making supplier onboarding and product data management faster and smarter. Chatbots and generative AI guide vendors through onboarding, automate data imports, and ensure accurate categorization. AI can detect missing product features, request updates automatically, and handle responses, reducing manual work and enabling large-scale distribution.

Beyond text generation, AI powers automated classification, data transformation, enrichment, and translation, improving efficiency and e-commerce growth. It extracts data from unstructured sources, generates product descriptions and images, optimizes search, and ensures compliance.

Looking ahead, autonomous AI systems will drive hyper-personalization, continuous data governance, and even AR-enhanced product experiences, helping businesses manage product data smarter, faster, and at scale.

Be Ready For 2026  

The key takeaway is clear: PXM is no longer a supporting system, it is a strategic platform. Organizations what invest now in composable architectures, strong data governance and AI-driven capabilities will be best positioned to deliver trusted, scalable and engaging product experiences in 2026 and beyond.

Want to dive deeper into what 2026 might have in store for your product data?

Squadra has written a full trend report for PIM trends in 2026, in which we dive even deeper into the upcoming PIM developments.

Download Full Trend Report