As 2026 approaches, companies are facing data fragmentation, stricter compliance, and increasing customer expectations. Learn the ways Akeneo PIM centralizes product information, improves the quality of data, and streamlines workflows to ensure the sustainability of compliance and aptitude in a constantly evolving market.
2026 is expected to be a pivotal year for the world of commerce. The advancement of AI-powered experiences and the rapid evolution of customer expectations have transformed the way businesses work and compete. Our research discovered that two-fifths of consumers are willing to pay around 25 percent more for a customized or customized shopping experience, which shows how vital data-driven interaction has become.
In the same way, new regulations for sustainability and compliance (including regulations for sustainability and compliance — including the Digital Product Passport (DPP) initiative in Europe) are raising the standards in transparency as well as traceability. Customers are now expecting an unwavering, consistent, and reliable experience throughout every interaction, and businesses must manage complex data ecosystems, work with suppliers, and remain flexible in the face of increasing demands from regulators.
In this rapidly changing environment, Product Information Management (PIM) is a basis for digital transformation, helping companies to manage and reactivate product information in a more efficient and controlled manner. In allowing teams to work around the same source of truth and streamlining the flow of data across the company, Modern PIM, built using an API-first framework,k allows seamless data exchange, speedier integrations, as well as the flexibility to expand as your business expands.
As we approach 2026, let’s consider the biggest issues that companies will face and the ways PIM can assist in resolving these problems!
How PIM Can Solve Businesses’ Problems in 2026
To be competitive beyond 2026, companies must address a variety of important data and operational hurdles. Here’s how PIM plays an essential role in addressing these issues:
1. Fragmented and Inconsistent Product Data
The inability to organize and share product information is one of the main challenges to business growth. A lot of companies depend on outdated systems that range from spreadsheets and ERPs to eCommerce and DAMs that result in duplicate data and wasted time. The silos of these systems make it almost impossible to provide exact and consistent product information across different channels, which can compromise the trust of customers as well as operational efficiency. As consumer and regulatory expectations for data accuracy continue increase, the fragmentation of product information is a growing risk.
PIM helps solve this problem by acting as a central repository for all product information and is a single source of truththath unifies data from various systems. It creates a well-organized and controlled environment where teams can enhance, validate, and disseminate the same product information in all ways. Assuring that everyone operates from the same stable base, businesses can reduce duplicate data and improve accuracy for the 2026 year and even beyond.
2. Limited Readiness for AI and Data-Driven Experiences
AI-driven commerce is growing.g In fact, CT SEMrush believes that search powered by AI experiences will be the preferred alternative to traditional methods of searching by 2028. However, here’s the truth: AI relies heavily on high-quality and well-enriched data about products. Without its recommendations engi, engineering chat, bots, and search algorithms can produce disappointing outcomes, resulting in lost opportunities and unhappy customers. Many companies struggle to make their data ready for these new usage scenarios, limiting their ability to provide an experience that is personalized and predictive.
PIM gives the foundational data necessary for efficient AI implementation. Through ensuring that product information is correct and standard, PIM allows AI tools to function at their highest. This results in more relevant results in search results, as well as smarter recommendations and better automatic content creation. With an accurate source of structured information about products, firms can confidently embrace AI technology that can improve the customer experience and efficiency.
3. Slow Product Launches and Time-to-Market Delays
Manual workflows, disconnected tools, and constant data entry routinely hinder the time it takes to launch new products, costing companies precious time in markets that are competitive. When teams from different regions and departments work with diverse databases, the smallest updates can take days or weeks of coordination. These inefficiencies don’t just delay launches but also hamper the ability to react quickly to market trends that change and consumer needs.
Through PIM solutions, companies can speed up product launches by using automated workflows, streamlined workflows, and central collaboration. Teams can enhance information and accept changes in the same platform, easing the process from idea to launch. Through improving visibility and removing redundant tasks, PIM helps brands bring products to market quicker, regardless of whether they are launching new lines or revising existing collections.
Akeneo PIM takes this even further with tools that help make the whole launch process more efficient and efficient. The industry-specific templates for product familiessimplifys catalog modelling by defining specific attributes for particular industries. The teams can streamline repetitive work, including populating shared attributes, and transform data at import time to create categories in massive quantities. The platform also identifies gaps in details and makes sure that each product complies with completeness and standards before its launch. Thanks to these features, Akeneo PIM allows teams to concentrate on what is most important: enhancing product information to deliver engaging experiences that increase conversions. It also assists businesses in achieving an increase in the time-to-market.
4. Rising Sustainability and Compliance Expectations
When regulations such as those of the Digital Product Passport (DPP) fully take the market in 2026, companies need to be prepared to handle product information in a transparent and detailed way. Both regulators and customers alike want access to information about the source of materials, their recyclability, and their carbon footprint. The truth is, the information is usually scattered and difficult to manage. Without a unified system, that is unified the brands are at risk of compliance issues and issues with their reputation.
A PIM solution is a centralization and structuring of all data about products, all in one location,n which makes it simpler to gather information from suppliers, add it with sustainability-related attributes, es and create standard formats for conformance. Teams can track important social and environmental metrics with precision and certainty. Through combining information into one data source, companies increase their visibility across their supply chain and can create an accurate product record prepared to be used in DPP reports.
By using Akeneo PIM, businesses gain an unbreakable base in sustainability management and compliance with regulations. It allows collaboration between marketing, product,uct, and sustainable teams by assuring everyone is part of the same structured data. As regulations change, Akeneo PIM adapts. It enables brands to connect with the latest DPP interfaces and expand across markets without difficulty. With its centralization of structure for sustainability information, Akeneo PIM simplifies compliance and increases trust in brands. It makes businesses appear as honest, responsible, and credible leaders in the changing environment that will be 2030 and even beyond!
5. Complex Multichannel and Omnichannel Management
An engaging and consistent user experience is the expectation of shoppers across all channels, from online stores to brand sand ites marketplaces. But every channel has its own formats, data structures, and content standards,s which makes it more difficult for teams to handle the information about products manually. These issues often result in errors and inconsistencies that can undermine the trust of customers and can negatively impact the user experience.
PIM helps companies to standardize and adjust information to each channel with ease. Teams can modify descriptions and media while ensuring a consistent brand voice and story across all regions and platforms. This process is streamlined to ensure that each channel has the correct product information.
In addition to PIM, Akeneo Activation takes multichannel management one step further by assisting brands in publishing enriched product information directly to major marketplace and retailer sites. When a channel is activated, all attributes, both required and optional,l are visible in Aken,eo which allows teams to connect existing PIM information to each channel’s unique specifications. It is also possible to set the operation to automatically convert PIM data in accordance with the channel’s requirements and eliminate manual labor. This close integration of Akeneo PIM and Akeneo Activation provides a powerful feedback loop that ensures precise data distribution and scalable automation for every digital contact point. The result is a unified and high-performing omnichannel experience that increases conversion rates and loyalty to customers!
6. Poor Product Data Quality and Governance
Incorrect or incomplete product information does not just disrupt internal processes, but also harms confidence in customers. Inconsistent product names and old information can result in lower search results, higher returnss and (as you’ve guessed) loss of sales. Without a clear and consistent governance system to ensure the accuracy of data, it is getting more difficult as catalogs of products expand and change.
PIM offers built-in quality checks that ensure each product meets the specified requirements for completeness and validation prior to publication. The governance framework provides businesses with insight into the state of their data and creates accountability for teams. Through maintaining high standards for the quality of their data, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and maintain consistency long-term when they expand across the globe.
7. Challenges in Global Expansion
Localization. To enter new markets, it is essential to provide an accurate, culturally relevant, and compliant information about products -an undertaking that is overwhelming without the appropriate methods. Teams have to handle various currencies, languages,s measurement systems, and regional regulations, frequently juggling manual and spreadsheet translations. These inefficiencies don’t just limit expansion, but they also risk creating inaccuracies that could damage credibility with local customers.
PIM helps with global expansion by allowing businesses to manage regional and multilingual information on one platform. Teams can easily adapt content to each market while keeping it consistent with the primary source of information in PIM. The system’s flexible model for data accommodates region-specific attributes as well as legal requirements, as well as messages for brands, allowing companies to confidently expand in new territories while preserving the effectiveness and integrity of the brand.
8. Inconsistent Supplier and Partner Data
The data supplied by suppliers often comes in various formats, in varying degrees of completeness and inconsistent quality, which forces teams to devote countless hours sifting and confirming information. These errors cause friction that slows product onboarding and hinders the flow of reliable information throughout the business.
PIM tackles this problem by providing a structured platform in which supplier data can be imported, validated, and then enriched. It ensures that every data being imported to the system is compliant with the data standards of the organization and can be easily published into downstream systems.
To further enhance this, Akeneo Supplier Data Manager (SDM) integrates together in conjunction with Akeneo PIM, enabling suppliers to upload, update,e and improve the quality of their product data directly using a standardized interface. This collaboration consolidates supplier data collection and helps ensure accuracy at the source by highlighting errors in real-time and allowing immediate correction. Through reducing manual intervention and streamlining the process of normalization, businesses can get on board with products more quickly and with greater accuracy! This creates an improved ecosystem where the internal and external teams of suppliers collaborate to ensure top-quality, market-ready product information and all within the Akeneo Product Cloud or as an independent solution.
9. Siloed Collaboration and Inefficient Workflows
When teams dependono manual spreadsheets or update manually, teamwork is slow and prone to errors. Product, marketing departments, as well as eCommerce, are in a silo, duplicate efforts, andare losing the ability to see the entire lifecycle of data for products. This leads to delays and confusion that result inmisseds opportunities to improve customer user experiences!
But PIM eliminates silos by offering a common workspace in which teams can work in real-time. It helps teams navigate the process of enrichment with clearly defined roles, standardized wokf lows ,and task assignments, making sure that everyone understands their responsibilities and is working towards common objectives. It not only improves workflows and improves efficiency, but it also increases the consistency of data across departments, resulting in an efficient and consistent way of working.
Akeneo Shared Catalogs takes collaboration to the next level by making it easier to share data about products and communicate between teams and partners. With a secure online product portal, sales and service teams, as well as distributors and retailers, have access to up-to-date and personalized digital catalogs whenever they want, which are automatically synchronized using Akeneo PIM. By providing teams, both internal and external, with instant access to up-to-date product information, companies can lessen the time spent searching for information, get products to market quicker, er and provide a better customer experience.
10. Inaccessibility of Product Performance of Content
Many companies release product information without understanding the impact it has across different channels. In the absence of visibility into content engagement or the impact on conversion, teams have to work hard to improve their product’s storytelling and make sure that the information is optimized for user requirements.
PIM provides the basis for performance analysis by providing top-quality data on products across every channel. It lets teams monitor the accuracy and completeness of databeforeo publication.
In conjunction with Akeneo PX Insights and Akeneo Business Analytics, companies have a complete understanding of the way content from their products can impact conversions, engagement, and overall efficiency. PX Insights transforms customer behavior signals into actionable information directly inside Akeneo PIM. These insights aid businesses in improving their content based on actual customer interactions and increasing visibility across all channels. In addition, Akeneo Business Analytics, integrated within Akeneo PIM, tracks key metrics like page views, sales, and conversion rates to measure the effectiveness of enrichment and pinpoint potential opportunities for improvement. These tools offer the information needed to continually improve the user experience and ensure steady growth in omnichannel.
Preparing for 2026 and Beyond
As 2026 draws near the date, the capacity to manage the trust and activation of the data of products will ddetermine whichcompanies succeed in the constantly changing digital landscape. The expectations of customers and the emergence of AI change the way that businesses manage their business, and the information on products is at the heart of everything.
Utilizing Akeneo PIM and the broader Product Cloud, organizations can establish one solid, scalable platform for achieving the highest quality of product data. By dissolving the silos that separate data, improving quality, and gaining insights across all channels,s organizations can remain flexible and focused on customers — preparing to lead the new era that is commerce in confidence.
