Why integrate Akeneo PIM?
Akeneo is a PIM (Product Information Management) with an open source edition and paid editions. BMITZ implements and integrates Akeneo with eCommerce platforms to centralize and enrich product information across all channels.
Key features
- Open source and enterprise
- Data Quality Insights
- Asset management (DAM)
- Enrichment workflows
- Multi-channel and multi-language
- Native connectors
Akeneo as the master catalogue: what it manages and what it doesn't
Akeneo is where product information is created and enriched: technical attributes, descriptions, translations, images and documents, category classification and relationships between products. From there it is published to the online store and, through it or directly, to marketplaces and other channels.
What Akeneo does not usually govern is customer-specific pricing, stock or orders, which stay in the ERP. The usual split is that the ERP creates the item with its reference and logistics data, Akeneo completes it with everything it needs to be sold, and the store receives from each system what belongs to it. Setting that split at the outset stops two systems editing the same field.
For the teams, the change is clear: product records are no longer edited in the store's back office or in spreadsheets, but maintained in a single place, with role-based permissions and a change history. The store becomes one more channel that receives the finished catalogue.
How a catalogue is modelled in Akeneo
Akeneo's data model is based on families, which group the attributes of each type of item, and on product models with variants for items that change by size, colour, format or other characteristics. The design of families and variants is what most shapes the work that follows, both for whoever enriches the data and for the store integration.
Channels and languages are part of the model: the same product can have different descriptions for your own store and for a marketplace, and each text exists in the languages it is sold in. Akeneo calculates each product's completeness per channel and language, so only what is ready gets published and the team knows what is missing from each record.
Before migrating, we review the existing catalogue: which attributes are really used, which are duplicated under different names and which values should be normalised into closed lists. It is work nobody sees, but it is what enables good filtering in the store and feeding marketplaces without redoing product records.
How we connect Akeneo to the store and marketplaces
Akeneo offers a REST API for reading products, product models, categories, attributes and media files, with separate credentials for each system that connects to it. The integration publishes to the store the products that are complete for its channel, creates or updates variants and categories, and uploads the images linked to each record.
For Adobe Commerce (Magento), Shopify and other platforms there are connectors already available, and for simple catalogues they may be enough. When attributes are transformed on publication, rules differ by store or language, or product volumes are high, we build a dedicated connector that syncs only changes and logs every transfer.
The usual flow runs from the PIM to the store and from there to marketplaces: the store receives the catalogue from Akeneo and publishes it to its sales channels. When each marketplace requires its own format and classification, it may be better for Akeneo to feed those feeds directly. We decide based on how many channels you have and who manages each one.
How we run an Akeneo project
The project starts with a workshop with the people who create and maintain product records today: product, marketing, purchasing and, where they exist, the teams in each country. It produces the data model, the split of responsibilities between ERP, Akeneo and store, and the enrichment workflow: who creates the item, who completes it, who translates it and who approves it before publication.
We migrate the current catalogue, cleaning it along the way, set up permissions by team and channel, and train users on their own catalogue, not on sample data. We test publication in a store test environment before switching on synchronisation in production.
Akeneo integrates with Adobe Commerce (Magento), PrestaShop, Shopify and VTEX, as well as with custom B2B portals, where a well-structured technical catalogue is especially important so buyers can find the exact item by its characteristics.
Integration services
Everything you need to connect Akeneo PIM with your eCommerce
Ideal for your industry
Integration with Akeneo PIM is especially useful for companies in these industries looking to optimize their operations.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Akeneo if I already manage the catalogue in the store or the ERP?
It depends on the size of the catalogue, the number of languages and channels, and how many people maintain it. When product records are edited in several places, translated in spreadsheets, or each marketplace asks for a different format, a PIM such as Akeneo brings order to the process. With a small catalogue and a single channel, the store is usually enough.
Which Akeneo edition suits us, open source or a paid one?
The open source edition covers catalogue management and publication, but you have to host and maintain it. Paid editions add features designed for larger teams and catalogues and can be contracted in the cloud. We assess it with you based on volume, users and how much infrastructure you want to manage.
How often is the store updated with changes made in Akeneo?
Synchronisation usually runs every few minutes or in scheduled batches, sending only the products changed since the last run. Full catalogue loads are kept for go-live or for structural changes, such as a new product family.
Can a catalogue currently held in Excel and in the store be migrated to Akeneo?
Yes, and it is the most common starting point. We merge the sources, remove duplicates, normalise attributes and load the result into Akeneo before connecting it to the store. Records that cannot be completed automatically are flagged as incomplete so the team can finish them.
Ready to integrate Akeneo PIM?
Contact our experts to design the perfect integration for your business.
Talk to an expert