A product catalog with linked relationships and gallery views built in
A small consumer products and retail brand replaced fragmented product information with a single Airtable system that maintains product images, linked-record relationships, gallery views for merchandising, and development tracking for product and e-commerce teams.
The problem
Product and e-commerce teams were managing product information across disconnected files and spreadsheets. Product images, specifications, and development notes lived in separate places, making it difficult to get a complete view of the catalog or identify how products related to one another.
Merchandising workflows were equally fragmented. There was no visual way to see the catalog as a gallery, and relationships between products could not be maintained in any systematic way. Handoffs between product creation and e-commerce publishing were manual and error-prone.
What they built
The team built a consolidated product information management system in Airtable. Each product record holds images, specifications, and development status in a single place. Linked-record relationships connect related products directly in the base, making it possible to manage off-website product associations without a custom database.
Gallery views give the merchandising team a visual layout of the catalog that mirrors how products appear to customers. Product development details are tracked in the same base, so the handoff from creation to marketing launch is visible to both the product team and operations.
The outcome
Product and e-commerce teams now have a single source of truth for the full catalog. Images, specifications, and related-product links are maintained in one place, eliminating the reconciliation work that came from juggling multiple files. Merchandising visibility is immediate because the gallery view is always current.
The linked-record structure enables relationship management that was not previously possible without a dedicated system. Teams can see which products are related, filter the catalog by any attribute, and track development status alongside live product data without switching between tools.
Inside the solution
Product Catalog and Merchandising Management
Supply Chain and Inventory Management
Product and Engineering
- Product catalog with images
- Related-product relationships
- Gallery views for merchandising
- Product development tracking
- Fragmented product information
- Manual merchandising workflows
- Lack of product relationship visibility
- Consolidated product data
- Improved merchandising visibility
- Better product relationship management
- Product
- E-commerce
- Merchandising
- Operations
- Linked records
- Gallery views
- Airtable attachments
Product catalog and merchandising management
Manage your full product catalog in one base: each product record holds its images, specifications, retail price, lifecycle status and development stage, with linked-record relationships connecting complementary, variant and bundle products, and a gallery page that shows the assortment the way customers see it. Rollups surface photography gaps and open development milestones automatically, four automations open and close development checkpoints as records change, and native Airtable AI fields draft merchandising copy, related-product rationale and publish-readiness triage straight from catalog data.
How the product catalog and merchandising system works
Consolidate all product data in a single base
Link related products and view the catalog as a gallery
Track development status alongside live catalog records
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
A linked-record relationship connects two records in the same base or across tables, allowing you to associate products with one another directly. For a product catalog, this means you can link a product to its related or complementary products and see those relationships from either side of the link, without managing a separate database.
The gallery view displays records as visual cards with the product image prominently shown. For a merchandising team, this creates a layout that resembles a storefront or catalog page, making it easy to review product photography, spot gaps in the assortment, and communicate visually about the product lineup.
For a small consumer products and retail brand, Airtable can serve as a practical product information management system. It handles images, attributes, linked relationships, and development tracking in one base. Larger brands with complex localization or channel requirements may eventually outgrow it, but for a lean team it covers the core PIM use cases.
Product images are stored as attachments directly on the product record. Airtable supports multiple attachment files per record, and the gallery view renders the first attachment as the card image. Teams can upload images manually or via integrations that push assets into the base automatically.
Product, E-commerce, Merchandising, and Operations teams all use the system. Product teams manage catalog records and development status. E-commerce teams reference product data for publishing. Merchandising teams use the gallery view for visual catalog review. Operations tracks development progress alongside live product records.