In Part 1 of our ROI series, we broke down the basics of what Product Information Management (PIM) ROI is and why it matters. Now, we’re getting practical—with real numbers, financial examples, and tools to help you build a data-backed business case.
Whether you’re seeking budget approval or evaluating your current investment, this guide shows how to calculate the ROI of a PIM system in both quantitative and qualitative terms.
Because before you invest in PIM — or scale it — you need to know what you’ll gain: in cost savings, in time, and in measurable business results.
ROI Framework: What to Measure and Why
You can measure the ROI of a PIM system in two ways — quantitative (numbers) and qualitative (real-world but harder to measure benefits).
Quantitative ROI (tangible benefits)
This side is about clear financial gains:
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Sales growth
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Cost savings
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Efficiency improvements
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Faster product launches
ROI is typically shown as a percentage: (Net Profit from Investment ÷ Cost of Investment) × 100
Qualitative ROI (strategic benefits)
Not every benefit shows up straight away on a balance sheet. PIM also drives real value by:
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Improving customer experience
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Strengthening brand image across channels
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Enabling better collaboration across teams
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Building resilience and flexibility into your digital commerce stack
Even if these benefits aren’t measured immediately in cash, they significantly impact long-term growth and competitiveness.
Quantitative ROI Metrics That Matter
Let’s take a closer look at the key areas where a modern PIM system makes a real financial impact.
1. Cost Reductions
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Fewer manual tasks: Automate attribute entry, enrichment, and localisation
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Lower return rates: Accurate data = fewer disappointed customers
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Reduced error correction: Centralised product info prevents mistakes
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Lower IT costs: SaaS-based PIM reduces infrastructure and upgrade needs
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Lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): Fewer legacy tools, less duplication, better resource use
2. Revenue Uplift
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Faster time-to-market: Launch products faster, maximise selling days
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Higher conversion rates: Rich, accurate product content boosts sales
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Global market entry: Multilingual product data helps you scale into new regions quickly
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Channel readiness: Meet marketplace and partner requirements sooner
With cleaner, standardised data ready to push into new marketplaces, you spend less time adapting to channel requirements — and get seen by more customers, sooner.
How to Calculate Key Metrics
Example Estimation
Our hypothetical company, RE-TAILER, plans to onboard, enrich, and distribute 1000 new products in Q1 of the upcoming year. Last year, this process took a total of 30 days.
However, with the implementation of a PIM system this year, they will reduce the time required by half, resulting in 15 additional selling days.
If we expect the Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU) for those products to be $10, then the total revenue generated can be calculated as follows: 1000 units × $10 ARPU × 15 days = $150,000.
Time-to-Market Reduction
Estimate your current product launch time vs. post-PIM:
Example:
1500 hours (without PIM) – 750 hours (with PIM) ÷ 1500 = 50% faster launch cycles
Sales Velocity Increase
Sales velocity represents the rate at which a company's products are sold within a specific period of time. Since PIM enables you to introduce more products to the market faster, it is reasonable to expect an increase in the total number of sales within a given time period.
Example:
You introduce more SKUs earlier in the year and boost revenue.
If Q2 revenue is $500,000, a 5% sales boost = $25,000 additional revenue—just by launching faster with PIM.
Faster and Easier Market Expansion
A modern PIM system helps you:
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Accelerate time-to-market in new countries or regions
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Synchronise product data across all channels automatically
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Import raw supplier data once and enrich it centrally
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Localise content for language, measurement units, and compliance
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Maintain accuracy across geographies and sales platforms
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Translate and adapt product descriptions using built-in AI tools
If you’ve identified market potential and estimated a revenue target — say $10 million over the next 12 months — a strong PIM system can help you start selling sooner. Even launching just four months earlier could significantly increase your sales window and competitive advantage.
In short: PIM doesn't just support market expansion — it makes it scalable, repeatable, and sustainable.
Calculate Your ROI With This Calculator
If you want to get a quick, reliable estimate of how much time and money you could save with a PIM system, Bluestone PIM offers a free ROI Calculator and it’s a great place to start.
Instantly estimate your ROI with our interactive calculator.
ROI Of PIM Summary Result
Number of Products
How many products or SKUs do you need to onboard and/or enrich?
Average Number of Attributes per Product
How many attributes do you need to input or edit per product or SKU?
Average Time Spent on Each Attribute (in seconds)
Average Hourly Net Labour Cost (for employees handling data work)
Languages
Number of languages in which your product data will be available.
Sales Channels
Number of sales channels you plan to sell on.
STEP 1 SUMMARY
Your Current Cost of Manual Data Handling
Number of attirbute fields you need to update manually
Time spent on manual work
Your cost of manual work
- 0%
- 25%
- 50%
- 75% 100%
- Underperforming or outdated PIM
- Multi-purpose, or generic centralization Systems like ERP / MDM are used with their limited connectivity and enrichment features
- Basic tools, partial data centralization Simple ecommerce catalog, very limited data exchange, many manual updates
- Manual process, scattered data
STEP 2 SUMMARY
(With an average of 20 working days a month and 8 hours a day, saving hours annually is equivalent to the work of full-time jobs over the course of a month.)
(The average monthly full-time salary in the EU is €3,166 gross, so a saving of $ x.xx is roughly equivalent to full-time jobs.)
You want to launch
How long to launch 23,772 products without Bluestone PIM?
What is your Average Revenue Per Unit (ARPU)?
How much money does your company expect to earn on average from selling a unit of a product?
What is your average Daily Unit Sales Per Product?
On average, how many units of a product do you sell each day?
STEP 3 SUMMARY
100 products x 5 sales each per day = 500 sales/daily.
500 sales for $
Summary of Step 1 + Step 2 + Step 3
Your Combined Savings and Revenue Increase with Bluestone PIM
$ x.xx cost savings + $ revenue increase
You're one step away from knowing the real ROI your business can unlock with PIM.
Do you want to maximise the ROI with Bluestone PIM even further?
Elevate your savings with Bluestone PIM's advanced AI features
See what you’re spending on copywriting — and how much you could save with AI in PIM
Calculate your translation costs and discover the savings with AI Linguist in PIM.
Number of Products Needing Descriptions
Average Word Count per Product Description
Number of Attributes per Product
Attributes Length Characters
Your Manual/Human Copywriting Cost per Word
Your Current Human Copywriting Cost
to create product attributes and descriptions for products
The AI calculates costs based on the number of input and output tokens, with each token representing approximately four characters. The cost per token varies depending on the model used.
Basic GPT Model: Less powerful, lower cost, produces simpler or less detailed responses, and might be faster due to smaller size or fewer computations.
Advanced AI Model: More powerful, higher cost, produces higher-quality and more detailed responses, but could be slower because of increased computational complexity.
Pricing for AI models often decreases with each new release, making advanced processing more cost-effective over time.
Your AI Enrich Cost Estimation
Number of Products Requiring Translation
Number of attributes per product
Attributes Length Characters
Average Word Count per Product Description
Number of Languages
Your Human Translator Cost per Word
Your Current Human Translator Cost
to translate product attributes and descriptions for products in languages
The AI calculates costs based on the number of input and output tokens, with each token representing approximately four characters. The cost per token varies depending on the model used.
Basic GPT Model: Less powerful, lower cost, produces simpler or less detailed responses, and might be faster due to smaller size or fewer computations.
Advanced AI Model: More powerful, higher cost, produces higher-quality and more detailed responses, but could be slower because of increased computational complexity.
Pricing for AI models often decreases with each new release, making advanced processing more cost-effective over time.
AI Linguist Cost Estimation (SUMMARY)
This tool is designed to provide a comprehensive analysis of potential efficiency gains, cost savings, and revenue growth that a PIM system can deliver.
Watch this video to see how this PIM ROI calculator works:
Step 1: Assess Manual Work
Start by filling in some key figures:
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Number of SKUs — how many products you currently manage.
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Average number of attributes per SKU — such as size, weight, material, colour, etc. and the time spent on each.
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Number of languages — how many language versions you maintain for each product.
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Number of sales channels — from e-commerce platforms and marketplaces to partner platforms and print catalogues.
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Average hourly net labour cost — for employees handling data work.
This helps calculate the total number of product fields that require ongoing updates and maintenance.
Step 2: Evaluate Current Data Management
Assess your existing product data management setup to determine potential improvements:
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Manual processes: if your data management relies heavily on spreadsheets and manual updates, there's substantial room for improvement.
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Basic tools: using simple e-commerce catalogues with limited data exchange capabilities indicates moderate potential for efficiency gains.
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ERP/MDM systems: employing multi-purpose systems with limited connectivity suggests some opportunities for enhancement.
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Outdated PIM: an underperforming or outdated PIM system may benefit from modernisation.
Based on your selection, the calculator estimates the percentage improvement in time-to-market and associated cost savings achievable with Bluestone PIM.
Step 3: Simulate Growth
Planning to expand your product range or enter new markets?
The calculator lets you model growth. You can adjust how fast your SKU count increases annually, and the tool will show how your workload (and costs) will scale with it.
This is especially helpful for long-term planning — and for showing stakeholders what’s coming if you don’t make improvements now.
Step 4: Explore Your Savings Potential
Finally, the tool estimates how much time you could save by implementing a PIM system. You’ll see:
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Reduced hours of manual work.
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Potential labour cost savings.
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How PIM helps you stay efficient as your product range grows.
This output gives you a realistic view of what PIM could deliver — whether you're building a business case or validating your current investment.
Integrating AI to Improve PIM ROI
Bluestone PIM's AI features like AI Enrich and AI Linguist can further drive ROI:
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AI Enrich: automates the creation of product descriptions, reducing reliance on manual copywriting.
Discover the cost difference between manual product data enrichment and AI-driven enrichment.
Number of products requiring description
Average Word Count per Product Description
Manual/Human Copywriting Cost per Word
Your Current Cost Estimation:
$ for human copywriting of words to create product descriptions.
You are just one step away from discovering how much you can save with AI in PIM!
The AI calculates costs based on the number of input and output tokens, with each token representing approximately four characters. The cost per token varies depending on the model used.
Basic GPT Model: Less powerful, lower cost, produces simpler or less detailed responses, and might be faster due to smaller size or fewer computations.
Advanced AI Model: More powerful, higher cost, produces higher-quality and more detailed responses, but could be slower because of increased computational complexity.
Pricing for AI models often decreases with each new release, making advanced processing more cost-effective over time.
Bluestone PIM AI Enrich estimation
- AI Linguist: streamlines the translation process for product information across multiple languages.
See the real cost of manual product data translation. Discover how AI-powered PIM can cut expense.
Number of Products/SKUs Requiring Translation
Average Word Count per Product Description
Number of Languages
Manual/Human Translation Cost per Word
Your Current Cost Estimation:
$ for human translation of words required for product descriptions in languages.
You are just one step away from discovering how much you can save with AI in PIM!
The AI calculates costs based on the number of input and output tokens, with each token representing approximately four characters. The cost per token varies depending on the model used.
Basic GPT Model: Less powerful, lower cost, produces simpler or less detailed responses, and might be faster due to smaller size or fewer computations.
Advanced AI Model: More powerful, higher cost, produces higher-quality and more detailed responses, but could be slower because of increased computational complexity.
Pricing for AI models often decreases with each new release, making advanced processing more cost-effective over time.
Bluestone PIM AI Linguist Estimation
Ready to See What PIM Can Really Do?
When you’ve got the right data, real examples, and the tools to test your assumptions, the conversation shifts.
It’s no longer “Should we invest in PIM”?
It becomes “Why haven’t we already”?
Use the ROI Calculator — it’s simple, easy, and often eye-opening.
Or if you’d rather talk it through, book a demo. We’ll show you what’s possible.
