How Akeneo Improves B2B Buyer Confidence with Complete, Accurate Product Information

In the manufacturing and distribution industries, product information is the backbone of sales operations, partner communication, and digital commerce. Manufacturers produce large volumes of complex products with intricate specifications, while distributors are responsible for accurately conveying this information across multiple sales channels and partner networks. In such a context, outdated or inconsistent product data can lead to order errors, regulatory issues, partner dissatisfaction, and lost revenue.

Akeneo offers a purpose-built Product Information Management (PIM) software solution to help manufacturers and distributors centralize, standardize, and enrich product data. It provides a single source of truth that ensures product content is always accurate, compliant, and aligned across all digital platforms and business systems.

This article explores how Akeneo supports product data excellence for manufacturing and distribution businesses, builds buyer and partner confidence, and drives digital growth by leveraging advanced product information management solutions.

For manufacturers and distributors, managing product data is a daily challenge that directly impacts revenue and operational efficiency. If your business handles any of the following, you likely need a product information management system:

• Thousands of SKUs or product variants
• Complex technical specifications and certifications
• Sales across multiple regions or languages
• Distribution through partner networks, marketplaces, or eCommerce
• Regulatory requirements and compliance documentation
• High volume of catalog updates or frequent product launches

Unlike spreadsheets or siloed systems, a PIM platform like Akeneo centralizes product information into a structured, scalable environment. This not only reduces manual effort but also improves speed to market, ensures content accuracy, and enhances collaboration across departments.

For manufacturers, PIM means better control over product content from engineering to marketing. For distributors, it means consistency in data shared across vendors, retailers, and customers. In both cases, PIM supports a scalable, digital-first strategy that meets evolving customer expectations.

Manufacturers and distributors face unique challenges when managing product data:

1. Complex Product Hierarchies

Manufacturers often produce large product families with varying configurations, materials, and technical features. Distributors must interpret and publish such information clearly across diverse channels. Managing this complexity manually can lead to inconsistent or incomplete data.

2. Fragmented Data Sources and Data Silos

Data often originates from engineering teams, ERP systems, supplier files, or even spreadsheets. Without centralized control, such information becomes inconsistent, outdated, or duplicated across systems. These data silos create barriers to efficient product data management and can cause errors in product descriptions and technical data. Integrating Akeneo PIM with master data management (MDM) and digital asset management (DAM) systems helps ensure users have access to high-quality, unified product data.

3. Channel-Specific Requirements

Different sales channels—whether it’s a distributor’s website, Amazon, a retailer’s B2B portal, or printed catalogs—require different formats, descriptions, and image resolutions. Managing all of these manually is resource-intensive and error-prone. Akeneo’s PIM system helps tailor product content to meet the specific needs of each marketing channel and mobile apps, ensuring consistent and optimized product pages.

4. Compliance and Regional Regulations

Products often require documentation such as safety data sheets (SDS), CE certifications, or REACH declarations, depending on the target market. Ensuring accurate, region-specific compliance data is available and visible is vital to avoid fines, delays, or legal risks. A robust PIM solution supports data governance by managing and validating all compliance-related product information.

5. Time-to-Market Pressure

For both manufacturers and distributors, launching or updating products across multiple platforms quickly and accurately is a major competitive advantage. Delays caused by manual data entry or disconnected teams can cost valuable market opportunities. Akeneo’s PIM streamlines workflows and reduces repetitive tasks, accelerating product launches and updates.

Akeneo is an enterprise-grade product information management system designed to simplify and centralize how manufacturers and distributors manage product content. It acts as a centralized platform that aggregates data from multiple internal and external sources such as ERP, PLM, suppliers, and content providers and transforms it into complete, channel-ready product information.

With Akeneo, product and marketing teams can enrich data with marketing copy, technical specifications, images, translations, compliance files, and more. This data enrichment process ensures product data quality and consistency across multiple channels. Once approved, this content can be distributed to any digital channel, marketplace, or customer portal all from one single platform.

Akeneo’s flexibility and user-friendly interface enable both technical and non-technical teams to contribute to product content, accelerating time to market and improving data quality at scale. Its seamless flow of product-related data integrates smoothly with existing systems, avoiding data silos and ensuring all stakeholders have access to the latest product information

1. Centralized Product Data Hub

Aggregate all your product data attributes, SKUs, specs, certifications into one central location. Eliminate the chaos of spreadsheets and disconnected systems. This centralized platform empowers ecommerce managers, marketing teams, and IT professionals to access and manage product data efficiently.

2. Product Content Enrichment

Create detailed product descriptions, add multilingual translations, manage technical documentation, and attach media assets like videos, CAD files, and installation guides. Akeneo supports digital asset management (DAM) systems capabilities, enabling teams to store and organize rich media content alongside product data.

3. Automated Data Quality & Validation

Leverage AI-powered rules and workflows to detect incomplete, duplicated, or outdated data. Artificial intelligence helps maintain high product data quality standards across product records, reducing manual errors and ensuring compliance with industry standards.

4. Multi-Channel Syndication

Format and distribute product information tailored for each channel—distributor portals, retailer platforms, B2B eCommerce sites, marketplaces, and mobile apps—without duplicating effort. This omnichannel approach ensures consistent and engaging content reaches customers wherever they shop.

5. Compliance Management

Ensure your product data complies with regional standards and certifications. Track expiration dates, upload compliance documents, and flag missing requirements before products go live. This supports data governance and regulatory compliance.

6. Supplier Data Onboarding

Distributors can onboard supplier catalogs directly into Akeneo, standardizing formats and ensuring compatibility with internal product structures and customer-facing platforms. This reduces repetitive tasks and speeds up data integration.

7. Collaborative Workflows

Enable sales, marketing, and technical teams to collaborate on product content with built-in roles, approvals, and task management streamlining operations and improving operational efficiency.

For manufacturers and distributors, buyer confidence is built on product clarity, reliability, and trust. Akeneo enhances this in several key ways:

• Accurate, rich product data helps industrial buyers understand specifications, use cases, and benefits reducing pre-sale friction and uncertainty.

• Consistent messaging across platforms builds trust, especially when selling through indirect channels like partner portals or marketplaces.

• Regulatory readiness ensures buyers can access safety sheets, certifications, or industry labels they require before making a purchase decision.

• AI-driven validation tools catch issues before they reach customers preventing misinformation, returns, and reputation damage.

• Improved product discoverability via structured categorization, filters, and search tools speeds up buyer decisions and reduces time spent navigating large catalogs.

• Sales enablement is strengthened by providing sales reps with complete, up-to-date product content empowering them to have confident conversations with clients.

By ensuring data consistency and simplifying content delivery, Akeneo improves the customer experience across every B2B touchpoint:

• Streamlined Sales Processes: Sales teams no longer waste time searching for specs or correcting outdated PDFs. They access a single, trusted content repository.

• Faster Product Launches: New SKUs can be introduced faster across digital and traditional sales channels reducing time-to-market and increasing competitiveness.

• Localized & Personalized Catalogs: Tailor content by region, language, customer segment, or product line enabling distributors to meet global needs with local relevance.

• Self-Service Experiences: Distributors can offer customer portals with searchable, accurate, and complete product content empowering buyers to act confidently and independently

• Increased Sales & Reduced Errors: Fewer mistakes in product descriptions mean fewer returns, improved buyer trust, and stronger conversion rates.

• Strengthened Partner Relationships: By delivering accurate product data consistently, manufacturers ensure that partners, resellers, and distributors can sell with confidence.

• Lower Operational Costs: Reduce repetitive data entry, manual updates, and content duplication freeing up teams to focus on innovation and strategy.

• Improved Speed to Market: Launch products faster with automated workflows, streamlined approvals, and centralized access to product content.

• Future-Proofing Through Digital Transformation: Adapt easily to evolving eCommerce models, omnichannel selling, and regulatory landscapes with a scalable, modern PIM infrastructure.

Marketing Teams

Akeneo PIM solutions empower marketing teams to craft compelling product descriptions and enrich product content, ensuring alignment with customer expectations. This not only enhances the overall customer experience but also boosts SEO performance by improving product data quality and relevance.

Sales Teams

Sales teams benefit from immediate access to accurate and up-to-date product information, enabling them to deliver personalized recommendations and close deals more efficiently. With comprehensive product data at their fingertips, sales efforts become more targeted and effective.

IT Teams

By centralizing product data and integrating seamlessly with existing systems, Akeneo reduces data silos and strengthens data governance. This streamlining allows IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives rather than managing fragmented product information.

Ecommerce Managers

Ecommerce managers experience faster product launches and maintain consistent product information across all digital channels. This consistency enhances customer satisfaction, supports a seamless omnichannel approach, and drives increased sales performance.

Manufacturers and distributors operate in a high-stakes environment where product information must be accurate, compliant, and available across an ever-expanding set of channels. Akeneo offers a robust product information management system that simplifies this complexity—helping organizations centralize data, reduce manual errors, enrich product content, and enhance the buyer and partner experience.

By implementing Akeneo, manufacturers and distributors can streamline operations, meet evolving market expectations, and build long-term trust with customers and channel partners alike.

For a better understanding of how Akeneo’s PIM software solution can transform your organization, contact our experts today and start providing customers with the consistent, engaging product information they expect.