Ask buyers how long their PIM implementation took and few give a time for the whole thing. What they time is one piece of it: a custom connector to the storefront in three or four months, a ready-made one in about two weeks, one pilot market in many months, every market with its people trained in some years. Two things stand out in PIM projects. The storefront can wait for the PIM: one apparel retail chain's move to a new commerce platform was put off by six to nine months while it built the connection from its PIM. And go-live does not always finish the rollout: in several accounts, brands kept loading after launch and retailer connections were added or reworked in later phases; one company had syndication at go-live and set out to replace it within the year. This page covers PIM systems and the connections made from them; moves between product-syndication networks are not covered, and a replatform's own length is on ecommerce replatforming timelines. The companion reads are why brands switch PIM systems and what PIM buyers wish they'd known, where the ratings live.
What a PIM implementation spends its time on
The program around it sets the date
A PIM is sequenced with the ERP, the PLM or the storefront, and its date moves with them. One retailer's PIM keeps slipping: “Every year, it just keeps getting pushed because PIM is related to PLM and also related to several other tools that you are using internally.” Another company has not evaluated a PIM for “probably two years because we're doing an ERP upgrade.” A distributor took everything on at once: “We took on PIM and DAM at the same time, and the re-design and re-platforming of the B2B side.” Once a PIM project starts, other work can wait for it: at one company a PIM overhaul “basically puts a lot of other projects on hold and freezes our roadmap until it can stabilize.” As with CRM implementations, other work waits; the case of a storefront waiting on the PIM is below.
Named in this context: Salsify · Akeneo · Image Relay
The connection to the storefront is its own build
Buyers describe the connector between the PIM and the commerce platform as a project of its own, often built by hand. One company's custom connection to its commerce platform “took like, I don't know, three or four months to create”; a second, ready-made connection to a different platform took “like two weeks, something like that.” Those were different implementations on different platforms, so the gap shows how much connector work varies by project, not which vendor is faster or what connectors exist today. At a consumer brand, the PIM sat on the launch's critical path: “we were reliant on Salsify, so it was a dependency for GoLive,” and, asked whether it could have derailed the launch, “Correct, it could have really thrown almost the entire project off.” As with commerce replatforms, the integrator sets the pace; what the connector costs is on what buyers actually pay for a PIM.
Named in this context: Shopify · Salsify · Jasper
The data cleanup outlives go-live
Why the data work comes first is on what PIM buyers wish they'd known; what these interviews add is when it happens. Before: a multi-brand manufacturer starting its PIM found that “messy data and dirty data become a big challenge.” After: a retailer says “We just integrated it a few months ago,” and hopes to “get more into that next year when we have the resources to fix some of this PIM step data.” And after leaving one: “So after using it for probably a year and a half, we moved away from it and stopped using it, and we're still in cleanup mode because of it.” The payoff, from an outdoor apparel company: “clean data means you can actually do those things.”
Named in this context: Salsify · Stibo Systems
Going live is the start of filling it
A PIM is only as full as the people who load it, and buyers measure that in brands and products rather than go-live. A consumer goods group puts it plainly: “You can create a PIM all you want, but if people don't actually add images and add copy and do all that stuff, they're pretty useless.” At another company, years after go-live: “It'd be some brands used it, some products were in there, some fields were filled out,” and “Over the last two years or so, there's been a big push to have better product information in there.” A lifestyle brand's leader says “a PIM can be a great thing if it is adopted broadly, and it just hasn't been,” and gives it about another year to prove itself. As with CRM implementations, people have to put the data in. The one buyer practice close to fixing it: a consumer brand hired someone who “not only was leading program managing the launch, he is now running the operation.”
Named in this context: Salsify · Jasper
Many brands and markets mean waves
Global and multi-brand companies roll a PIM out brand by brand and market by market. An outdoor apparel company, a year and a half or two years in: “It's still in the process of rolling out across the whole of the enterprise.” The pace follows the product calendar: “The brands are complicated and big and do it for the next season kind of thing.” Global companies describe a pilot market that took many months to get working, and every market live with its people trained only after some years. As with CMS migrations, many sites become waves; the complaint form of a slow stand-up is on top complaints about PIM platforms.
Named in this context: Salsify · Akeneo
The clock starts before the build
Budget, priorities and an integration partner come first. A distributor “went through months of research and a lot of meetings with a lot of different PIMs DAMs,” then dropped its first choice about three months into setup and went back to the runner-up. Elsewhere a selection is done and waiting on finance, a request for proposals has run for a year, and one buyer says of a PIM that “they've been working on that or discussing that for like two or three years.” As with loyalty programs, the clock starts before the build; why a PIM project gets pushed is on why brands switch PIM systems.
Named in this context: Akeneo · Salsify · Image Relay
How long does a PIM implementation take?
These interviews do not establish a typical duration. Buyers time individual milestones rather than a PIM implementation from start to finish: about two weeks for a ready-made connector and three or four months for a custom one; many months to get one pilot market working; some years to put a PIM into every market with its people trained; a go-live within a few months of signing, before any syndication; one connection to the company's own content system inside the year it was planned; and one retailer connection that took a long time, then the next much faster. Other accounts measure a delay or time spent on unfinished work rather than a finished implementation: a storefront launch put off six to nine months, about a year loading a handful of brands into a PIM still called a proof of concept, and a homegrown system replaced and still rolling out brand by brand after a year and a half or two years. These figures measure different work to different endpoints, so they should not be combined into a typical range. Two more projects were still running: an in-house PIM built from scratch, six to seven months so far, and a PIM inside a replatform still running after four years.
Can a replatform wait on the PIM?
Yes, and in these interviews it has. In a 2023 interview, an apparel retail chain moving to a new commerce platform, which had managed its catalog inside the old one and needed a real PIM for the new one, said building the connection between them pushed its launch back six to nine months, a story told below. A consumer brand describes its PIM as a dependency for go-live that could have thrown the whole project off. That is one sized case and one described one: they show a PIM connection can sit on a replatform's critical path, not how often that happens or whether the same gap exists in today's connectors. The other direction is common too: PIM projects are pushed by the ERP, PLM or replatform beside them, as with CDPs.
When is a PIM implementation finished?
Not necessarily at go-live. Running a working PIM, loading the brands and products it is meant to hold, and getting usable product information to each retailer and channel are separate milestones, and in these interviews they came at different times: brands kept loading for a year or more, and retailer connections were added or reworked after launch. A multi-brand manufacturer went live within months of signing and within the year was evaluating a replacement for its syndication, a story told below. A consumer goods group, a year in, called syndication its next big phase. An apparel manufacturer that connected Amazon first says that took a long time, and “It's been much faster to get Walmart up.” One global company's pilot market still had retailer connections that did not work two years on. The complaint form of this, syndication lagging behind retailers, is on top complaints about PIM platforms; what syndication is, on what is product content syndication. This rests on five companies, and the first connection being the slowest is one company's account, not a rule.
Do PIM projects stay on schedule?
These interviews give too few plan-versus-outcome comparisons to answer. Where a buyer made the comparison, the project ran long: one replatform launch slipped six to nine months on the PIM connection, and a consumer goods group describes its pilot running much longer than it expected, a story told below. Before the build, several PIM projects were pushed or paused for budget, an ERP upgrade or new leadership; the retailer whose PIM is pushed every year says “It was supposed to be done this year. We pushed it again next year.” None of this shows how often PIM projects finish early, on time or late.
Due for a stack physical?
Book mine →The stories behind the timelines
The counter-current: the projects that went quickly
The quick ones here share a shape: a narrow milestone and, in one case, a ready-made connector. A multi-brand manufacturer went live within a few months of signing; a ready-made connector took about two weeks; a connection from a PIM to a company's own content system went live inside the year it was planned; and one global rollout's go-live is described as going as expected. None was a whole implementation, and the fastest go-live was followed within the year by a second project for syndication. They say nothing about which vendor is faster, and none establishes a PIM project finishing early against its plan.
What this means for your PIM plan
In these interviews the length of a PIM implementation is set by the program around it, the connections out of it and the people who fill it more than by the software. Our recommendations, not practices buyers describe: if a replatform needs a new PIM, build and test the connection to the storefront before you set the launch date; if the ERP or PLM is changing too, decide which goes first and date the PIM from that; plan the data cleanup before go-live and budget for the cleanup that continues after it; name an owner for loading content, as one consumer brand did, and measure progress in brands and products loaded rather than go-live; and list the retailers and channels the PIM must reach and date each connection as its own milestone. For why teams move or stay, see why brands switch PIM systems.
Common questions
How long does a PIM implementation take?
These interviews do not establish a typical duration. Buyers time individual milestones rather than a whole PIM implementation: one custom connector to the storefront took three or four months to build and a ready-made one about two weeks; one pilot market took many months; putting a PIM into every market took one global company some years. Other figures are delays or time spent on unfinished work, such as about a year loading a handful of brands into a PIM still called a proof of concept, so they should not be combined into a typical range.
Why do PIM projects take longer than planned?
Buyers point to the program around the PIM, such as an ERP, PLM or replatform that sets its date; the connection to the storefront, often built by hand; data that has to be cleaned before and after go-live; the people who have to load content; and retailer connections made one at a time. Too few buyers compared the outcome with a plan to say how often PIM projects slip.
Should you implement a PIM during an ecommerce replatform?
Buyers often do, and the replatform can end up waiting for it: in a 2023 interview, one apparel retail chain said its launch on a new commerce platform was put off by six to nine months while it built the connection from its PIM. Others push the PIM back a year at a time because it is tied to the ERP or PLM. Building and testing the PIM-to-storefront connection before setting the launch date is our recommendation, not a practice buyers describe.
When is a PIM implementation finished?
Not necessarily at go-live. Running the PIM, loading the brands and products it is meant to hold, and getting usable product data to each retailer and channel are separate milestones, and in these interviews they came at different times: buyers kept loading brands for a year or more, added or reworked retailer connections after launch, and kept cleaning data; one company went live within months and was evaluating a new syndication tool within the year. Dating each of those as its own milestone is our recommendation, not a practice buyers describe.
Do PIM projects stay on schedule?
Too few buyers compared a PIM project with its plan to say. Where a buyer made the comparison, the project ran long, and several PIM projects were pushed or paused before they started, for budget, an ERP upgrade or new leadership. That cannot show how often PIM projects finish early, on time or late.
A physical for your tech stack
Peer-powered: built from hundreds of verified buyer interviews, and fitted to the tools you already run. You get a shortlist for your stack and your next steps.
Book my stack physicalFree · no password · your answers are anonymized before they inform research like this.