ETIM (the European Technical Information Model) is the classification standard most European electrical wholesalers use to organise product data in their own systems — search, e-commerce filters, comparison tools and stock records all depend on a product being classified correctly, not just described in a PDF. If a supplier hands over a datasheet but not the structured data behind it, the wholesaler’s own team ends up doing the classification work manually, which is slow and easy to get wrong. Getting this right on our side is part of making a new model easy for a distributor to actually list.
Why a datasheet PDF isn’t enough
A product datasheet is written for a person to read. A wholesaler’s product information system needs the same facts broken into discrete, structured fields — class, feature, value, unit — so the product can be searched, filtered and compared against everything else in the category automatically. A PDF with the right numbers in it doesn’t populate those fields; someone still has to extract and re-enter them, class by class, feature by feature. That’s the manual step ETIM-structured data is meant to remove.
What ETIM classification generally covers for a product like an installation box
For a product in this category, the kind of structured fields a distributor’s system typically expects includes:
- The product class itself (the category the box is filed under)
- Core physical dimensions (outer diameter, depth, and other size fields relevant to the class)
- Material
- IP rating
- Mounting / installation method
- Relevant certifications or declarations, where the class calls for them
Why we support this rather than leaving it to guesswork
Our product data is prepared in the structure a distributor’s system needs, including ETIM-classified data where a class applies. This is separate from the marketing datasheet — it’s the underlying field-level data that lets a new SKU go live in a distributor’s catalogue without a manual re-entry step on their end.
Example: fields that typically matter for an installation box
| Field type | Why a distributor’s system needs it |
|---|---|
| Product class | Determines where the item appears in category search and comparison tools |
| Outer diameter / opening size | Core searchable/filterable spec for this category |
| Depth | Core searchable/filterable spec |
| Material | Filter field, also relevant to compliance-sensitive listings |
| IP rating | Filter field for installation environment |
| Mounting / installation type | Determines which application filters the product surfaces under |
A checklist before listing a new box in your system
- Ask the supplier whether ETIM-classified data is available for the specific model, not just the range in general.
- Confirm which ETIM class the model has been mapped to, and whether that mapping has been checked against the current version of the class.
- Cross-check the structured field values against the supplier’s own published datasheet for the same model — they should match exactly.
- Flag any field the supplier can’t yet confirm as “on request” in your own system rather than estimating it.
- Re-check the classification if the model’s specification is later revised.
What we do differently
We don’t publish a datasheet and call the data problem solved. Where a model has ETIM-classified data ready, we provide it in the structure your system expects; where it isn’t ready yet for a specific model, we say so rather than sending an approximate mapping that creates more cleanup work later.