Scalability Issues: Your PIM Shouldn’t Hold Your Business Back

Your eCommerce business is growing fast — more SKUs, more sales channels, maybe even international expansion with its local regulations and standards.

But suddenly, your PIM starts struggling. Products don’t sync properly, your team is stuck manually updating listings, and marketplaces keep changing requirements. Instead of supporting growth, your PIM has become a bottleneck.

Sound familiar? Many businesses outgrow their PIM way faster than expected.

How PIMs Fail at Scaling

• Limited SKU capacity – Some PIMs aren’t built for growth. If your system was designed for a few thousand SKUs and now you’re managing hundreds of thousands, it might slow down or crash.
• Slow data processing and syncing – As your business expands to multiple sales channels, your PIM must sync product data in real time. If syncing takes hours (or even days), you’re losing valuable time-to-market.
• No support for multi-language or multi-region data management – Selling globally? You’ll need translations, different currency settings, and region-specific product attributes. Many PIMs lack built-in localization tools, forcing businesses to manage international data manually.
• Lack of automation – If your team still updates SKUs manually, your PIM isn’t doing its job. A scalable system should handle bulk updates, automated data syndication, and AI-powered product content enhancements.

How to Future-Proof Your PIM?

#1. Plan for Growth from Day One

Your PIM should easily scale with more SKUs, attributes, and sales channels. If adding new products slows down your system, it’s time to switch.

#2. Make Sure It Handles Marketplace Changes

Amazon, eBay, and other marketplaces update their product listing requirements frequently. A good PIM should automatically adapt to these changes so you don’t have to fix formatting issues manually.

#3. Automate What You Can

Updating thousands of SKUs manually? No thanks. Look for a PIM with built-in automation that updates product details, syncs pricing, and adjusts descriptions based on market trends.

#4. Check Global Readiness

If you plan to sell internationally, your PIM must support:

• Multi-language content (so your descriptions match local markets).
• Currency conversion (for accurate pricing across regions).
• Localized attributes (size charts, compliance labels, regional keywords).
• Compliance with regulations and standards (GDPR; GDSN; EPREL; ETIM; PI-Standard, etc.

#5. Test for Performance Under Pressure

Before choosing a PIM, test how fast it processes bulk data. If importing or updating thousands of SKUs causes crashes or slowdowns, it’s a red flag.

4 min read

Yuliia Honcharova

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The Bottom Line? Your PIM Should Scale With You

As your business expands, so should your PIM. The right system will handle growth effortlessly, sync product data in real-time, and automate repetitive tasks — so your team can focus on sales, not spreadsheets.

Gepard is built for growing businesses. No limits, no headaches. Just simple, scalable product data management. Try the free demo today!