How Pimberly is helping retailers turn product data into performance

From structure to experience

When Martin Balaam founded Pimberly in 2015, the goal was functional: consolidate product data scattered across ERPs and spreadsheets. Within a year, the company had paying customers using its platform as a central source of truth.

But what began as backend hygiene quickly evolved. Clients wanted to manage more than structured data. They wanted images, videos, certifications, even AR content—all aligned under a single interface. Today, Pimberly is as much about enabling product storytelling as it is about keeping data clean.

Every few months, Balaam said, the definition of “product information” expands. And with it, expectations rise.

Two challenges shaping demand

Across sectors, retailers face consistent pressures. The first is operational: how to bring on supplier catalogs at speed. Especially for multi-brand retailers, onboarding has become a bottleneck that limits assortment and slows time-to-site.

The second is creative: how to present product content in ways that feel relevant, even personalized, to the shopper. This shift has accelerated with AI, which is lowering the cost of experimentation and unlocking new ways to tailor content by customer, region, or use case.

Personalization at commercial scale

The cost barrier that once limited creative variation is shrinking. Balaam noted that retailers can now use generative tools to develop thousands of content permutations—image sets, copy variants, feature highlights—without relying on manual workflows or repeated photo shoots.

Rather than delivering static product pages, platforms like Pimberly allow teams to configure flexible digital packaging that changes with context.

From time-saving to revenue-driving

Efficiency was once the core value proposition for PIM platforms. Today, more buyers are measuring impact by uplift. That means connecting content performance with clickthrough, conversion, and category-level lift.

Balaam described how clients are beginning to test and refine page content based on downstream sales data. Once a product description is live, it's not finished. It’s a variable. And it can be adjusted based on what the data says next.

Building for what's next

Infrastructure decisions are being shaped by what’s unknown as much as what’s proven. Buyers want systems that can integrate quickly, accommodate rapid team adoption, and adapt to fast-changing AI capabilities.

Increasingly, retailers are rejecting fragmented systems for asset and data management. They want one platform that governs both—with structured and unstructured data unified under a single framework.

As Balaam sees it, the brief has changed. What matters now isn’t just having the right data. It’s being able to reshape it, redirect it, and measure its impact without waiting.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with Shoptalk.

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