Taxonomy: definition and role in PIM

In PIM practice, companies work with several taxonomies at once. An internal taxonomy organises the range for product management. Navigation taxonomies drive the webshop menus. External taxonomies, such as ETIM, ECLASS, UNSPSC and marketplace category trees, define how partners and channels classify the same products.

Illustrative example: one LED panel sits in the internal group Lighting and the webshop category Ceiling lights. It also sits in an ETIM class for luminaires and a marketplace category for indoor lighting. The PIM holds all four assignments and the mappings between them.

In a selection, buyers should list every taxonomy they need to maintain and the mapping effort between them. A PIM that supports several parallel classifications, with mapping tools and attribute inheritance per class, reduces manual work. Taxonomy design belongs in the data layer, before tooling is selected.