Report

What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM

Name: What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM
Creator: WISEPIM
Published: 2026-10-10

We measured 50 product catalogs as they arrived in WISEPIM: about 58,000 products, of which we analyzed about 20,000. Read the figures as a baseline: product data at import, before enrichment.

Snapshot: October 10, 2026. Every figure is an aggregate across catalogs, and each catalog counts once.

Key findings

median quality score: 56.6
of products have no image: 36%
words in the median description: 25.5
of products sit in no category: 64%

Shares are averages across catalogs, with each catalog counted once. Scores and word counts are medians.

Quality scores

WISEPIM scores every product on completeness, channel readiness, search discoverability and conversion potential, then grades it from A to F. The bars show how products spread over the grades.

In the average catalog, 59% of products score below 60, the line for an F.
The median catalog's median product scores 56.6.
In fewer than 10 catalogs did we find any product that scores 80 or higher.

Show the figures

Products by quality grade
Bucket	Share
F (0-59)	59%
D (60-69)	33%
C (70-79)	8%
B (80-89)	Fewer than 10 catalogs
A (90-100)	Fewer than 10 catalogs

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<figure>
  <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026"><img src="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026/charts/qualityScore.svg?lang=en&theme=light" alt="Products by quality grade. What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM, WISEPIM" width="760" loading="lazy" /></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026">WISEPIM, What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Attribute fill

For every attribute a catalog uses, we measured the share of its products that hold a value. Only catalogs with at least one attribute value count here. The bars show how attributes spread over fill levels, so the unit is attributes, not products.

32 catalogs use attributes. In the median one, the median attribute is filled on 1.9% of products.
Averaged across those catalogs, 81% of attributes are filled on less than a quarter of products.

Show the figures

Attributes by fill level
Bucket	Share
0-24% of products	81%
25-49% of products	Fewer than 10 catalogs
50-74% of products	Fewer than 10 catalogs
75-99% of products	Fewer than 10 catalogs
Every product	Fewer than 10 catalogs

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<figure>
  <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026"><img src="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026/charts/attributeFill.svg?lang=en&theme=light" alt="Attributes by fill level. What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM, WISEPIM" width="760" loading="lazy" /></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026">WISEPIM, What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Description length

We counted the words in each product's main description after removing HTML. Where a reviewed description exists, we counted that one.

In the average catalog, 25% of products have no description at all.
The median catalog's median description runs 25.5 words.

Show the figures

Products by description length
Bucket	Share
No description	25%
1-49 words	28%
50-149 words	21%
150-299 words	13%
300+ words	13%

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<figure>
  <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026"><img src="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026/charts/descriptionLength.svg?lang=en&theme=light" alt="Products by description length. What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM, WISEPIM" width="760" loading="lazy" /></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026">WISEPIM, What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Images per product

We counted the gallery and DAM images linked to each product. A product with only a main image URL counts as having one image.

In the average catalog, 36% of products have no image and 46% rely on a single image.
The median catalog's median product has 1 image.

Show the figures

Products by image count
Bucket	Share
No image	36%
1 image	46%
2-3 images	5%
4-6 images	6%
7+ images	7%

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Paste this HTML into your article. The image links back to this report as the source.

<figure>
  <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026"><img src="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026/charts/images.svg?lang=en&theme=light" alt="Products by image count. What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM, WISEPIM" width="760" loading="lazy" /></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026">WISEPIM, What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Category depth

For each product we took the deepest category it is assigned to and counted its level from the top of the category tree.

In the average catalog, 64% of products sit in no category at all.

Show the figures

Products by category depth
Bucket	Share
No category	64%
Level 1	11%
Level 2	7%
Level 3	8%
Level 4+	11%

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<figure>
  <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026"><img src="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026/charts/categoryDepth.svg?lang=en&theme=light" alt="Products by category depth. What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM, WISEPIM" width="760" loading="lazy" /></a>
  <figcaption>Source: <a href="https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026">WISEPIM, What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM</a></figcaption>
</figure>

Press summary

Free to quote with a link to this page. The figures below are the headline results.

We measured 50 product catalogs, about 58,000 products, as they arrived in WISEPIM. The figures are a baseline at import, before enrichment.
In the average catalog, 59% of products score below 60 on WISEPIM's quality score. The median catalog's median product scores 56.6.
Averaged across catalogs, 36% of products have no image and 25% have no description. The median description runs 25.5 words.
Averaged across catalogs, 64% of products sit in no category.
In the 32 catalogs that use attributes, the median attribute is filled on 1.9% of products.

Cite as: WISEPIM (2026), What 50 product catalogs look like when they arrive in a PIM, https://wisepim.com/reports/state-of-product-data-2026

Questions about the data? Contact us.

Methodology

Population: Catalogs (WISEPIM projects) with at least 20 live products on the snapshot date. Variants are counted through their parent product. Archived and demo products are left out.
Exclusions: We excluded WISEPIM's own accounts, staff accounts, test, evaluation and benchmark projects, cancelled projects and demo data.
Sampling: Per catalog we analyzed an even sample of about 2,000 products, spread across the catalog's whole history. Smaller catalogs were analyzed in full.
Weighting: Every catalog counts once. A share is the average, over catalogs, of the share within each catalog, so a few large catalogs cannot dominate. Medians are the median over catalogs of each catalog's median.
Privacy: Every figure rests on at least 10 catalogs; a group that fewer catalogs fall into is suppressed. The query returned aggregates only: no product, customer or catalog can be identified from the results. Totals are rounded down.
Translations: Not enough multilingual catalogs to report yet: no target language besides the main one is used by 10 or more catalogs in the sample.
Caveats: This is a small sample, and WISEPIM catalogs are not a random sample of e-commerce. We read the figures as a baseline at import; catalogs that teams had already started to enrich on the snapshot date are included as they stood. Quality scores follow WISEPIM's scoring model; other tools weigh criteria differently.