Automating Product Updates on BigCommerce with Catsy PIM

Saving Time and Reducing Errors

Introduction: The Data Dilemma for BigCommerce Merchants

Running a BigCommerce store? That’s no small feat! With hundreds or thousands of SKUs, constant product changes, and seasonal launches … not to mention new channel requirements and pricing updates, you’re stuck in a cycle or manual data management.

Inefficiency like this is much more than a hassle. It creates bottlenecks across the entirety of your business. Your teams are wasting valuable time duplicating efforts and double checking details.

Errors creep in, as is common with human processes. These mistakes eventually reach your customers, causing confusion and leading to returns.

You need automation, powered by Catsy PIM. Catsy empowers merchants to save hours of work through automation of clean, customer-focused data.

In this guide, we’re going to talk about how automation works and why it’s critical to the growth of your BigCommerce shops. Then, we’ll go over step by step strategies to implement Catsy PIM into your own business.

Why Automating Product Updates Matters for BigCommerce

The Complexity of Product Data

Often, BigCommerce stores like yours deal with:

Multiple product attributes like size, color, material, or technical specs
Digital assets such as your images, videos, or manuals
Variant combinations and bundles of your products
Marketplace-specific data requirements for Amazon, Walmart, and others

If you’re still manually updating your information across BigCommerce, you’re introducing errors and wasting payroll hours. Just one type or outdated field can quite literally break the buying experience.

Customer Expectations Are Higher Than Ever

Today’s shopper expects accurate, current product content. If your BigCommerce shop shows outdated pricing or incorrect product images, customers will lose trust. This will lead to abandoned carts and higher return rates.

Multi-Channel Complexity

Most BigCommerce merchants aren’t limited to selling on their storefronts. Many will also syndicate to Amazon, Google Shopping, and others. Each of these platforms has a unique set of requirements for formatting, and without automation it’s impossible to keep pace.

Manual Work Is Costly

If your team spends ten minutes updating each product you own, and you have 5,000 SKUs, that equates to over 800 hours of manual work. Now, multiply that by each seasonal change, new launch, or even compliance update. Your labor costs are going to skyrocket!

Automation is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity for efficiency and scalability.

How Catsy PIM Automates Product Updates for BigCommerce

Catsy’s PIM was designed with automation in mind. Rather than forcing you to manage your data manually, BigCommerce merchants like yourself can use our platform to centralize, enrich, and automatically push your content – whenever and wherever it’s needed.

Here’s how:

Centralized Product Information Hub

The Catsy PIM system is your single source of truth. All of your product attributes, digital assets, and metadata live within one centralized system. So rather than updating your products across multiple spreadsheets, your team can now update in Catsy – just once.

Automated Data Sync to BigCommerce

With Catsy’s BigCommerce integration, updates are automatically synced in real time. If you were to, say, change a product description or adjust a price, Catsy will accept the change and push it directly to BigCommerce. There’s no manual re-entry required!

Bulk Updates at Scale

Imagine that new seasonal pricing requires you to update over 500 SKUs – fast! Catsy enables this with bulk pricing updates in just minutes. Whether you’re updating specs or replacing outdated images, Catsy’s automation ensures that your customers never see incorrect data.

Workflow Automation

Catsy automates your workflows with a focus on product readiness:

Validation rules will check for missing or inconsistent data.
Approval processes will route your products through marketing, compliance, and merchandising.
Automated notifications will flag incomplete data before it goes live, prompting your teams to act.

What does this mean for BigCommerce merchants? Faster launches with fewer errors.

Multi-Channel Syndication

Even beyond BigCommerce, Catsy will automate syndication to other marketplaces – Amazon, Walmart, and Google Shopping are a few examples, Each of these platforms’ requirements are automatically mapped. There’s no need to spend time reformatting your data.

Digital Asset Automation

Your assets like your PDFs and user manuals are automatically linked to products within Catsy. The same is true for your spec sheets, videos, and images. Once this data is updated in Catsy, the changes will be reflected instantly on your customer-facing portals.

Step-by-Step: Automating Product Updates on BigCommerce with Catsy PIM

Are you ready to streamline your product updates? Here’s a practical, step by step guide to doing just that.

Step 1: Centralize Your Product Data in the Catsy PIM

Import all of your product attributes, descriptions, and assets into Catsy, ensuring that your data is clean and accurate.
Create standardized fields to ensure consistency across your entire catalog.

Step 2: Map Fields Between Catsy and Your BigCommerce Platform

Define how Catsy product fields will sync with BigCommerce fields.
Ensure that attributes like SKU, GTIN, dimensions, and pricing will map correctly.

Step 3: Set Up Appropriate Validation Rules

Use Catsy’s automated validation to catch errors in your product information.
For example, you may require each product to include at least three images, a 100+ word description, and accurate shipping dimensions.

Step 4: Automate Your Workflows

Assign workflows to your teams – some for product creation, some for approval, and others for your publishing processes.
You may choose to automate notifications within the Catsy system to alert you to incomplete or outdated data.

Step 5: Enable Automated Syncing if Desired

Connect Catsy directly to your BigCommerce store.
Set updates to push automatically on a schedule you choose, such as daily, hourly, or in real time as your information is updated.

Step 6: Monitor and Optimize Your PIM’s Performance

Use Catsy’s reporting to track completeness scores across each of your product listings and sales channels.
Continuously improve your product content based on performance metrics.

Benefits of Automating Product Updates with Catsy PIM

Time Savings

Your manual efforts will be reduced dramatically through automated syncs and bulk updates. Centralized workflows also save payroll hours. This means your teams can focus on strategic growth, not entering data.

Reduced Errors

Automating your data pushes will eliminate the most common mistakes. These include data duplications, missing fields, incorrect pricing, or mismatched images.

Faster Time-to-Market

You can launch new products or update your seasonal catalogs in just hours – not weeks. Agility like this gives BigCommerce merchants a huge competitive edge.

Consistent Customer Experience

Each and every shopper will see accurate and current product information whether they shop on BigCommerce, Amazon, Google, or any other platform you use.

Scalability

Your catalog is growing and your PIM should scale with you. Catsy does. Now, managing 500 SKUs or 50,000 SKUs requires the same amount of effort.

Common Use Cases

Seasonal Updates: You can automatically adjust content like prices, descriptions, and promotional offers for your seasonal products and collections.
Compliance Changes: Update your labeling, warnings, or regulatory fields across all products at once to remain in compliance with international regulatory requirements.
New Product Launches: Push enriched data and digital assets to BigCommerce… instantly.
Multi-Storefront Management: Keep your storefronts aligned with consistent yet tailored product information.

Comparing Manual vs Automated Product Updates

Aspect	Manual Updates	Automated with Catsy PIM
Time per update	5–10 minutes per SKU	Seconds (bulk update)
Error risk	High (human typos, missed updates)	Low (validation rules, automation)
Scalability	Difficult beyond 1,000 SKUs	Effortless for 50,000+ SKUs
Multi-channel updates	Requires reformatting	Automated syndication
Cost	High labor costs	Reduced costs, higher ROI

The Strategic Impact: Beyond Time Savings

Automation is about much more than just saving time. It’s about transforming your entire BigCommerce operation. Here are the changes you’ll notice:

Improved SEO: Rich, accurate product data boosts your search rankings.
Reduced Returns: Customers see the right specs and images, lowering their dissatisfaction… and your return rates.
Stronger Brand Trust: Put simply, if your stores deliver accurate product information, your brand will be more trustworthy to your customers.
Revenue Growth: Faster updates mean quicker launches, more campaigns, and more revenue opportunities for your BigCommerce stores.

FAQs

1. Can Catsy PIM integrate directly with BigCommerce?

Yes! Catsy will integrate directly with BigCommerce to automate the syncing of your product data – in real time.

2. How does Catsy ensure data accuracy?

Catsy uses validation rules, completeness scoring, and workflows to ensure that all of your product data meets quality standards before publishing.

3. What about multi-channel updates?

Catsy syndicates your product information to BigCommerce and external marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and Google Shopping. Your data is automatically formatted for each channel.

4. How does Catsy handle digital assets?

Catsy links your images, videos, and PDFs directly to your products. When you update an asset in Catsy, it will then update automatically on BigCommerce.

5. Is Catsy scalable for large catalogs?

Absolutely! Whether you’re managing a hundred SKUs or tens of thousands, Catsy will automate seamlessly.

Conclusion: Automate, Scale, and Grow with Catsy PIM

In today’s fast-paced e-commerce landscape, your manual processes can’t keep up. BigCommerce merchants who are still relying on manual product updates will fall behind the competition, burdened by errors and inefficiency.

Catsy PIM for BigCommerce offers a smarter way forward. When you automate your product updates, you save hundreds of hours in manual efforts and you eliminate costly errors. Your customers will have a consistent and trusted experience, and you can scale your business without additional complexity.

If growth is your goal, automation is foundational. Catsy provides the tools you need to streamline and scale your data management while you future-proof and expand your business.

Call to Action

Are you ready to stop wasting time on manual updates? See how Catsy PIM can automate your BigCommerce product updates, taking your e-commerce success to the next level.

👉 Book a demo today and discover how Catsy makes automation effortless.