produktom

Produktom is a term used to describe a structured representation of a product and its related information, designed to enable consistent data exchange across systems. It is often described as an ontology-like model that captures core product attributes, identifiers, classifications, variants, pricing, availability, and lifecycle states, as well as relationships to manufacturers, catalogs, categories, and related products.

Etymology of the term is not widely standardized. It appears as a neologism in industry discussions, blending the word product with a linguistic element that implies “about” or “concerning.” In practice, produktom is used as a concise label for product-centric data models and their semantic organization.

Concept and use: A key goal of produktom is semantic consistency and interoperability. Systems that implement a produktom-style model aim to produce and consume machine-readable data that supports enhanced search, product comparison, automated merchandising, and seamless integration across product information management (PIM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), e-commerce platforms, and knowledge graphs. Implementations are varied and may use ontology formalisms, JSON-LD schemas, or other data-model approaches, often with a core set of universal attributes and domain-specific extensions.

History and standardization: The term emerged in the 2010s within discussions on product data quality and the semantic web, but it remains a niche concept rather than a formal standard. Its usefulness is tied to governance, data quality, and alignment with established identifiers and standards such as GS1, schema.org, and industry-specific taxonomies.

See also: product information management, ontology, schema.org, GS1, knowledge graph.