PIM: the details
The ERP keeps what’s needed to buy, store and invoice: code, cost, price, stock. What’s needed to sell—the description that persuades, the dimensions, the materials, the photos, the listing in three languages—usually ends up scattered across spreadsheets and folders. The PIM is the single home for that content, with review workflows and tracking of what is still incomplete.
From there it feeds the online store, the marketplaces, the printed catalog and the files distributors ask for, each in its own format. It makes sense above a certain volume or when you sell across several channels and languages; with a small catalog and one channel, the online store itself is usually enough.