Boost PIM ROI with custom user interfaces

PIM isn’t usually a one-and-done event. Quick wins often spark new ideas. Post-launch, you start to wonder, “What if…”

This is where you can really level up. With the right skills, you can customize and configure PIM to fit your specific, highly valuable use cases. Here are several examples of how we’ve customized the user interface in Inriver PIM using custom HTML templates.

Customizing Inriver PIM with HTML templates

HTML templates are a flexible way to extend the capabilities of Inriver PIM. Let’s say you have a business requirement that the platform can’t meet out of the box. With a custom template, you can make the users’ data workflow much more seamless.

Here are some of our go-to templates:

Application templates

We use this to create a page or frame that holds whatever functionality you need. Examples include a searchable table, bulk export, or an embedded tool (e.g., Jira) that users can access without leaving PIM.

Edit templates

Allows you to customize and place a tab at the entity level, giving users new ways to manage data right from the item. Ideas include viewing field history, previewing an ecommerce product page, or submitting approvals in bulk.

Widgets

Use widgets to place a quick-access box on the PIM dashboard, like a shortcut to a specialized report for sales or marketing users.

Customization takes work behind the scenes—gathering requirements, designing the template, making sure it works, and putting it into action. That’s why templates often come after your minimum viable product (MVP) launch, helping you tackle new challenges as part of a phased PIM approach.

HTML template case studies

Revamping the copywriting workflow for a global footwear brand

For fashion brands, great product copy doesn’t happen by accident. It takes input from multiple teams. For this global footwear brand, data enrichment happened across separate platforms. They wanted to bring all product enrichment under the same platform to improve collaboration and eliminate a redundant system.

Using an edit template, we built a custom copywriting workflow in Inriver. Now, everything happens in one place.

• Product managers fill in key details and leave comments where needed.
• Copywriters craft descriptions without switching platforms.
• Legal review is triggered automatically when certain terms appear; otherwise, it’s auto-approved.
• A notification system keeps the process moving.

With this new workflow, wholesale and digital teams are finally aligned within one platform, making enrichment faster and smoother. Read about this global footwear brand’s full transformation here.

Tool manufacturer gets channel-specific asset management

Ntara has worked with a leading global tool manufacturer to use templates in multiple ways, such as:

• Generating custom sales and channel reports, easily accessible from the PIM header.
• Creating a searchable library of product feature bullets. When enriching data, a user can drag and drop existing feature bullets onto the item in progress. This saves time and helps keep copy consistent and brand-approved across their catalog.

One of our favorite templates supports channel-specific asset management. The manufacturer wanted their product images to show in a certain order for each channel, without tedious manual work to set up a sequence. But this typically isn’t available with out-of-the-box PIM or DAM.

We made it happen using an HTML Edit template. Today, the manufacturer can manage how images appear for a specific SKU for every unique endpoint, like Home Depot or their website. The images are pulled into PIM directly from an integrated DAM platform, and if an asset isn’t available yet, they can insert a placeholder to keep the sequence intact until the image is ready.

The payoff? A seamless user experience that not only saves time but also ensures customers get a consistent, trusted experience, making this a true win for the manufacturer’s PXM strategy.

This particular use case is full of interesting nuances. You can read about them here.

Hyster-Yale simplifies measurement data enrichment

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. (HYMH) has an incredible PIM story, transforming how they manage parts data across a complex catalog of 600K+ active SKUs.

With so much product data to enrich and manage, efficiency was a top priority. One of their biggest challenges was entering measurement data. Previously, users had to scroll through pages of disorganized values, with no clear relationship between them, creating a frustrating and time-consuming process.

Using an Edit template, we customized the way users view and update measurements. Now, they get an easy-to-read, grouped view of all relevant measurement types, clearly associated with a given product or product type. They can quickly update and save measurements directly to Inriver fields.

This template is a drastic improvement, giving users clarity and efficiency in managing dimensions. Plus, the template is fully transportable, meaning it can be applied to any entity with the proper field and setting configuration.

Hyster-Yale also brings all marketing descriptions in one view

We also created a template to help HYMH speed up its marketing description workflow, which was slowed down by having to switch between pages for each language. Users could only see one language at a time, making updates slow and tedious.

To fix this, we set up a Marketing HTML template that shows all languages in one view. Now, users can review, edit, and save content without switching screens. The template is fully configurable, meaning it works with any entity and any locale string field. With everything in one place, updates are faster and easier, making content management much more efficient.

Beauty brand streamlines copy and legal review

A global beauty brand needed a better way to write, review, and approve product copy. With four departments involved in approvals, three groups enriching product fields, and a dedicated copywriting team, the process was slow and hard to track.

Edits were managed through emails, file shares, and even paper documents. This made it difficult to know who reviewed the copy and what changed. There was no organized workflow—just a lot of back and forth.

First, we worked closely with their team to map out the approval process and built a custom Edit template in Inriver to streamline the entire workflow.

Now, copyeditors can:

• Toggle basic product data and field hints on/off to control their view.
• Apply minimal text formatting (bold, italics, bullets, numbering) when required.
• See helpful word and character counts while editing.
• Collapse or expand grouped content fields to control what’s in view.

For reviewers, the new interface eliminates guesswork:

• Feedback comments align to individual fields, so all requests are clear and visible at the same time.
• A feedback column allows copywriters to check off completed edits.
• Each comment includes the reviewer’s name and role, so copywriters know exactly who to contact with questions.
• If changes are requested, the product is automatically sent back to the copywriter; otherwise, approvals move forward.

Reviewers also get built-in efficiency tools:

• They only need to re-review fields that have changed, which are highlighted for easy scanning.
• A feedback button allows reviewers to add comments next to specific content fields, automatically tagging them with name, role, and timestamp.
• If no changes are needed, reviewers click “approve” and submit. If they add feedback, “approve” is disabled and the “changes requested” option is triggered.
• Each reviewer role can approve in any order, and final approval is only granted when all required reviewers sign off.

Now, each team member knows exactly where the product copy is in the process. With everything centralized in a structured workflow, product copy moves faster from draft to approval to publication—without the chaos.

Customizing your PIM for improved ROI

Hopefully, this article got you thinking about the possibilities. What challenges are itching for a solution? What’s one tweak that could make a big impact?

If you have Inriver PIM, an HTML template might be the perfect solution. And if you have a different platform, there are likely other ways to find a fix. That’s the beauty of PIM.

Let’s explore it. The first step is a quick chat, where we can dig into your requirements and see if out-of-the-box works or if a custom template is the way to go.