One of the most effective ways that you can populate your sales catalogue with product data using a PIM, is to employ standardized catalogue formats such as BMEcat or DataNorm, and standardized classification systems such as ETIM. Pimics supports all the mentioned formats plus others, allowing you great flexibility in effectively using data sources to your advantage while minimising manual intervention in the process of enriching the product data for the items that you sell. In this article our focus will be on how BMECat and Pimics work together to ensure you present rich and accurate product data to your customers.
BMEcat, a format for conveying catalog data, is an open standard developed and maintained by Bundesverband Materialwirtschaft, Einkauf und Logistik e. V., the German association for materials management, purchasing, and logistics. BMEcat is an extension of XML.
The BMEcat standard supports the following:
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Product description and features
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Multiple images and thumbnails
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Related documents such as product information sheets or user manuals
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Related items, including similar items, mandatory items, and optional accessories and spare parts
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Minimum order quantities and quantity intervals
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Tiered pricing
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Price flags that indicate whether duty, insurance, freight, or packing are included in the price of an item
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Date-dependent pricing
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Defined keywords for search
BMECat also works well with classification systems such as ETIM, making for a powerful tool in importing complex and accurate catalogue data from vendors that support these standards.
Importing BMECat data to Pimics is as easy as 1-2-3-4. Please see below an illustration of the 4 steps involved in the data import:
- Selecting the XML file to import:
- Specifying import settings:
- Setting repository type for digital assets, classification and mapping for specific BMECat versions
- Instructing Business Central on how to process the file:
After data are imported, they sit on the Vendor Items section of Pimics. There the items can be reviewed and edited if necessary. Depending on the use case, the vendor items can either be employed as such in an e-shop and only be activated at the time of sale, or they can be activated to regular items for use in Business Central and be managed by Pimics.