Every distributor we talk to has the same story.
Someone on the team sits behind three monitors copying data from one spreadsheet to another, trying to wrangle product information for tens of thousands of SKUs from hundreds of suppliers.
If the company has grown through acquisitions, it's worse: duplicate part numbers, conflicting attribute schemas, no unified catalog. Everyone on the team is trying to make sense of the data to get their jobs done. And they're usually convinced they can't invest in the initiatives that actually drive revenue until the data is clean and organized.
So when it comes time for B2B organizations to evaluate a PIM, the first question on the checklist is usually: "Does this PIM have a supplier onboarding portal?"
The reasoning here makes sense: if the data problem starts with suppliers, the platform should solve for suppliers. Give manufacturers a single place to submit structured product data and everything gets easier.
“I can’t wait until we have a supplier portal.”
According to 2023 Procurement Key Issues Study1 results by The Hackett Group, only 35% of B2B organizations reported having deployed supplier onboarding/portal solutions as part of their procurement technology stack, indicating limited supplier onboarding portal adoption.
But a portal alone won’t solve data reconciliation issues, nor the negative customer experience that comes from incomplete product data.
Distributors have hundreds, if not thousands, of manufacturers on their line cards. And manufacturers sell through dozens or hundreds of distribution partners.
When both sides have their own portals, schemas and formatting requirements, communication quickly breaks down. Data attributes are not aligned and manufacturers don’t have the resources to keep up as attributes change, leading to low adoption and compliance rates for distributors.
Given these challenges, a supplier portal may actually limit what information a supplier sends about their products (e.g., a price list, a PDF spec sheet, a spreadsheet export from their own PIM).
Starting with What You Have
The conventional wisdom says you need structured data from suppliers before you can build a modern catalog.
Meanwhile, every week that product pages sit with sparse descriptions, missing specs or zero images is a week of lost revenue.
In fact, Deloitte2 reports that suppliers estimate 13% of sales bids are lost due to negative buyer experiences, while buyers say they spend 29% more with suppliers that provide a positive purchasing experience. This means mature digital organizations outperform low-maturity peers by more than double in beating annual sales goals (6.1% vs. 2.9%).
And according to Salsify's 2025 Consumer Research Report3, 54% of shoppers have abandoned a purchase because product information was inconsistent across channels.
But there's another way to think about this: what if you could take the data you already have, in whatever format it exists, and enrich it to the point that it's ready to publish?
That's the approach a growing number of distributors are taking. Instead of waiting on supplier compliance, they're moving forward with what's available and using modern technology and optimized processes to improve it.
Meeting Suppliers Where They Are
Limited adoption of portals today suggests there is a workflow problem rather than a true compliance one; in other words, manufacturers have the data you need, but getting it into the portal is the key challenge.
But asking suppliers to change their workflow is the most challenging part, which is why a different approach is needed.
Rather than forcing a standardized approach, winning distributors are accepting data in the form it exists and then leveraging partners to enrich it within their own workflows.
Together, Kaavio and Salsify help maximize data readiness while allowing supplier behavior to stay as it is.
Kaavio removes friction at the point of supplier submission, meaning:
- Suppliers can submit product data in the format they already have
- Kaavio ingests, enriches and maps this data to the distributor’s data schema
- Distributors can move forward immediately instead of waiting for portal compliance
From there, Salsify is the engine that powers product data across your organization and your channels, meaning it becomes your:
- Source of truth for governed, accurate, real-time product information, ingesting data from any source (ERPs, shared drives, spreadsheets)
- System of work for internal teams to enrich data through AI-powered workflows, automating manual work such as PDF data extraction
- System of connection to any endpoint, including retailers or your own e-commerce site
A Better Model for Product Content
The reason suppliers aren’t using portals isn’t because they’re bad technology; it’s due to the fact that they’re built on the wrong premise.
Rather than concentrating on portal adoption or forcing data standards on manufacturers, distributors can shift the focus to workflows, empowering you to:
- Accept the data in the format it exists
- Standardize and enrich it quickly and intelligently
- Govern it centrally and syndicate it seamlessly
Better Together: Unlock Real Business Outcomes with Kaavio and Salsify
Kaavio helps distributors become unblocked by supplier behavior; Salsify ensures that once data is in, it becomes a strategic advantage.
Ready to shift from worrying about adoption to focusing on achieving business outcomes? Contact the Kaavio and Salsify teams.
About Salsify
Decades-old business practices are colliding with new, digital-first expectations — and you can't win while battling spreadsheets. Salsify turns your product data from a liability into your greatest commercial asset, unlocking the opportunities of an AI-powered future.
Centralize all your product data into a single source of truth — identify gaps, eliminate inaccuracies, and ensure your teams are always working with trusted, governed information. Learn more at salsify.com.
1The Hackett Group. 2023 Procurement Key Issues Study Results. 2023. https://www.procurementandsupply.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Hackett-2023-Procurement-Key-Issues-study-results-PASA-0823.pdf
2Deloitte Digital. Accelerating Sales Growth Through B2B Digital Commerce. 2026. https://www.deloittedigital.com/content/dam/digital/global/documents/insights-20260206-b2b-commerce-research-report.pdf
3Salsify. 2025 Consumer Research Report. 2025. https://www.salsify.com/hubfs/2025/Salsify%202025%20Consumer%20Research%20Executive%20Summary.pdf?hsCtaTracking=66e10c1e-2326-49d8-96d6-f14a58c8fa45%7C42f19709-fc8f-4847-a85e-87eb6b177341
