In short and in plain language
ETIM is a way to sort technical goods. Each item goes into a class. Each class has set facts, such as current or protection rating.
A new version is coming soon. It is called ETIM 11. It should come out on December 1, 2026. Until mid November, there is a test phase.
In your shop, filters, compare views and search use these facts. If a fact changes, the filter changes too.
First, make a list. It shows each fact and where the shop uses it. Then you decide what to do with each new or old fact.
Some suppliers will still send data in the old version for a while. Your shop should read both versions. We help you build this and test it first.
On October 15, 2026, the beta phase for ETIM 11.0 began (ETIM Deutschland). Until November 15, member companies from industry and trade can review the planned changes to the classification model, and the release is planned for December 1, 2026 (ETIM Deutschland). For a B2B shop in electrical wholesale or technical trade, this is not a date for the data team alone. ETIM features become the filters in a category, the rows in a product comparison, the technical data table on the product page and often search hits as well. When a class or a feature changes, what your customers find changes with it. This article shows how to plan the move from ETIM 10 to ETIM 11 in a live shop: what a release changes, how to record where features are used in the shop, how to map old classes and features, how to process supplier catalogs during the transition and how to check filters, comparison and search before switching over. How product data is maintained in a PIM in general is covered in our article on product data and data quality in B2B.
Key takeaways
- The ETIM 11.0 beta phase runs from October 15 to November 15, 2026, and the release is planned for December 1, 2026 (ETIM Deutschland). Checking now means knowing the changes before the first supplier catalog arrives.
- A release can add classes, add or replace features, extend value lists and change units. ETIM 10.0 was the result of 5,264 change requests and added 119 new classes (ETIM International).
- Filters, product comparison, the technical data table and search depend on features. Before the change, every property in use goes on a list together with where it is used, keyed by the ETIM code rather than the name.
- Old classes and features are carried over to ETIM 11 through a mapping table. Do not delete a Shopware property too early: it disappears with all its options from all products (Shopware Docs).
- During the transition, some supplier catalogs still arrive in ETIM 10. The import reads the version per product from the BMEcat field REFERENCE_FEATURE_SYSTEM_NAME and maps each version to the shop target model.
- Before switching, compare filters, result counts and comparison rows per category against the old state on a test copy. This includes the label of every changed filter, because buyers narrow down the range using these labels.
The schedule for ETIM 11.0
ETIM is a classification model for technical products. It assigns every item to a product class and defines which features that class has and which values and units are allowed. The model is maintained by ETIM International and represented in Germany by ETIM Deutschland e. V. According to the association, well over 1,000 companies in Germany use ETIM (ETIM Deutschland). The model itself is open: anyone can use it free of charge (ETIM Deutschland). In Germany, the association covers electrical products, plumbing and HVAC, tools, hardware and site supplies, and building materials (ETIM Deutschland).
Preparation for ETIM 11.0 has been underway since spring. Change requests, called RFCs (request for change) in ETIM terms, had to reach the German staff offices by May 31, 2026 (ETIM Deutschland). On June 30, 2026, the CMT database in which the model is maintained internationally was closed for all ETIM countries (ETIM Deutschland). In total, more than 2,300 RFCs were filed for ETIM 11.0; in mid-July, around 800 of them were still being processed (ETIM Deutschland). That figure shows that the content of the release was being finalized well into the fall.
The beta phase has been running since October 15, 2026 (ETIM Deutschland). Full members from industry and trade can download the complete ETIM 11.0 beta model in German as CSV, Excel and IXF files to review the planned changes in advance and run test imports (ETIM Deutschland). The beta phase lasts exactly one month; after November 15, the release will be finalized and published on December 1, 2026 (ETIM Deutschland). Corrections are possible until then. What you see in the beta today is a well-advanced state, but not yet the final one.
The date does not come as a surprise. In October 2021, ETIM International decided to shorten the cycle between releases from three years to two (ETIM Deutschland). ETIM 9.0 was released on December 5, 2022 (ETIM Deutschland), ETIM 10.0 in December 2024 (ETIM International). If you prepare your shop properly for one version change, you end up with a procedure you can reuse every two years.
| Date according to ETIM Deutschland | Step | What it means for the shop |
|---|---|---|
| May 31, 2026 | Deadline for change requests at the German staff offices | Your own requests for classes or features could be submitted up to this point |
| June 30, 2026 | CMT database closed for all ETIM countries | The scope of the release is essentially fixed |
| October 15, 2026 | Start of the beta phase | Check changed classes and features against your own data |
| November 15, 2026 | End of the beta phase | A first version of the mapping table and test import is ready |
| December 1, 2026 | Planned release of ETIM 11.0 | First supplier catalogs in ETIM 11 are possible, the shop reads both versions |
What changes between two ETIM versions
The ETIM model has two levels: product groups bundle product classes, and each class belongs to exactly one group (ETIM International). The actual content sits in the classes and their features. Every feature has a type: alphanumeric with a fixed value list, logical with yes or no, numeric with a single value, or a range with two values (ETIM International). Numeric and range features carry a unit. Classes, features and values have language-independent codes: EC for classes, EF for features, EV for values. The descriptions, by contrast, depend on the language.
A new release changes this content in many places at once. ETIM 10.0 was the result of a total of 5,264 change requests and added 119 new classes (ETIM International). On top of that came the newly introduced feature groups, which organize the features of a class into sections such as material, electrical or dimensions (ETIM International). As of ETIM 10.0, the model comprises 5,640 product classes (ETIM Deutschland). For a shop, this means that even if only a small share of these classes appears in its own assortment, there is a good chance that some of them are touched by a release.
- New class: Products that used to sit in a more general class get a class of their own. In the shop, this affects the category assignment, the filter set and the comparison.
- New feature: A class gains an additional feature. The shop needs a new property, and the data is missing until suppliers deliver it.
- Feature replaced or removed: A feature is superseded by another one with a new code or is dropped. Filters on the old code no longer receive values from new data.
- Value list changed: Alphanumeric features gain values or have values merged. Filter options and their sort order change.
- Unit or type changed: A single value becomes a range, or the unit changes. This affects sorting, comparison and the display on the product page.
The publicly accessible ETIM Viewer shows a concrete example. Class EC000905, residual current circuit breaker with overcurrent protection, has 30 features in ETIM 10.0 (ETIM Viewer). In the dynamic release, which lists the version 11 state as ready for publication, it has 31: the new range feature tightening moment (EF005520) in newton meters (ETIM Viewer). For an electrical wholesaler, that means a new row in the technical data table and perhaps a new filter for which hardly any data exists at first. The state shown in the viewer may still change before December 1; even so, it gives a good sense of the kind and extent of changes in your own classes.
For the implementation, what matters is how ETIM marks changes. A dynamic release contains all classes that are already published or ready to publish and marks the differences from the official release with change codes (ETIM International). Classes, features and values that will be deleted in the next official release remain in it for the time being and are tagged accordingly (ETIM International). This tagging is the starting point for planning in the shop, because it tells you which features you will no longer receive in new deliveries from December onward.
Where ETIM features take effect in the shop
In a B2B shop for electrical engineering or technical trade, ETIM is rarely just a data field in the background. The features drive visible functions, and each of these functions reacts differently to a change. Anyone planning the version change should therefore first know where a feature is used today.
Category filters
Features become filter groups, values become filter options. A removed feature leaves a filter group without new data, a new one stays invisible until someone enables it.
Product comparison
Comparison views place the features of a class side by side. If two products of the same class arrive in different versions, the same properties may end up in different rows.
Technical data
The table on the product page usually organizes features into groups. With the feature groups introduced in ETIM 10.0, this structure can be derived directly from the model.
Search
Each class has synonyms that help find the right class. If class names and feature values feed into the search index, a release changes result lists as well.
Variants
In Shopware, properties also serve as the basis for variants. If a feature that distinguishes variants changes, the selection on the product page is affected.
Exports and feeds
Shops pass features on, for example as a BMEcat catalog to key accounts or to procurement systems. There, the recipient expects a specific version of the model.
In Shopware, ETIM features are usually represented as properties. A property has options, can be displayed in the product filter of product lists and is shown in the storefront as an image, text, dropdown or color (Shopware Docs). Two details of the standard feature matter for the version change. Deleting a property removes it with all its options from every product it is assigned to (Shopware Docs). And alphanumeric sorting orders numbers as 1, 10, 11 before 2, 20, 21 (Shopware Docs). For numeric ETIM features such as rated current or conductor cross-section, individual sorting by position is therefore the right choice, and every new value from a release needs a position of its own.
Carefully maintained filters are more than a technical detail: buyers use them to narrow down the range, and an unclear label or a missing filter for information shown in the product list itself makes that harder. This leads to a clear rule for the version change: when ETIM 11 renames a feature or extends a value list, check the label in your shop instead of adopting the new name unseen. What buyers expect in terms of technical data on the product page is covered in our article on the B2B product detail page with data sheets.
Inventory: which features the shop actually uses
The first step has nothing to do with ETIM 11 yet. It answers the question of which classes and features appear in the shop and what they are used for. An electrical assortment can span many classes, but only some of them drive filters, comparison or search. Only that part needs manual work during the version change; the rest goes through the import.
The inventory belongs in a table with one row per class and feature. The key is the ETIM code, not the name. The ETIM Viewer says so explicitly: the codes after each name are ETIM feature codes and should be used in product data instead of the names (ETIM Viewer). Names change between versions and differ by language, while the code of an unchanged feature stays the same. In the example of class EC000905, the same features carry the same EF codes in version 10 and in the version 11 state.
- Class with EC code and number of products in the shop per class
- Feature with EF code, feature type and unit
- Use in the shop: filter, comparison, technical data table, search, variant, export
- Name of the Shopware property, display type and sort order
- Data source: supplier catalog, PIM, in-house maintenance or ERP
- Fill rate: share of products in a class for which a value exists
The work for ETIM 11 follows directly from this table. As soon as the beta change data is available, mark every row whose class or feature is affected. If changes only touch features that are not used in the shop, the import is enough. If a change hits a feature that drives a filter or a comparison row, it gets a decision in the mapping table. If you also generate a printed catalog from shop data, add that output to the usage column as well; how that works is shown in our article on the print catalog from shop data.
Mapping old classes and features
For the transition between two consecutive releases, ETIM provides its members with mapping tables intended to make the switch easier (ETIM Deutschland). Together with the change codes in the release, they show which class moves where and which features are new, changed or removed. This information is the raw material. The real work is translating it into decisions for the shop: what happens to a filter group when its feature is dropped? What is the property called in the shop when ETIM renames it? What does the product page show as long as there is no data for a new feature?
| Change in ETIM 11 | Effect in the shop | Recommended handling |
|---|---|---|
| New class | Products change class, the category filter set changes | Map old to new per product, check category and filter set |
| New feature | Property is missing, data is missing at first | Create the property, show it as a filter only once the fill rate is sufficient |
| Feature removed | Filter group receives no new data | Hide the filter, keep the values, do not delete the property right away |
| Feature replaced (new code) | Old and new data end up in two properties | Route both codes to the same property in the shop |
| Values added or merged | New filter options, orphaned options | Map values, assign positions for sorting |
| Unit or type changed | Values no longer directly comparable | Convert or keep separate, check display and sorting |
The most important principle: the property in the shop is not the ETIM feature but a representation of it. If the import finds properties by ETIM code and the mapping lives in a maintained table, a replaced feature can point to the same shop property as its predecessor. Positions, labels and saved filter links are preserved, and your customers notice the version change mainly in one way: more data. An excerpt from such a mapping, using real codes from class EC000905, might look like this:
{
"target_version": "ETIM-11.0",
"source_versions": ["ETIM-10.0", "ETIM-11.0"],
"class": "EC000905",
"features": [
{ "etim": "EF000227", "property": "Rated current", "unit": "A",
"filter": true, "sorting": "position" },
{ "etim": "EF002560", "property": "Leakage current type", "filter": true },
{ "etim": "EF005520", "property": "Tightening torque", "unit": "Nm",
"filter": false, "note": "new in the version 11 state, watch fill rate" }
]
}Removed features should be hidden at first rather than deleted. There are two reasons: deleting a Shopware property removes it from all products, and suppliers still deliver data with the old feature during the transition. Clean up only once no more catalogs arrive in ETIM 10. A similar idea applies to ECLASS. If your customers use ECLASS in procurement, a second classification comes into play. For ETIM 10.0 and ECLASS 16.0, there is a mapping table that ETIM member companies can download (ETIM Deutschland). ECLASS itself has also moved with release 16.0: more than 155,000 change requests went into it, and the release contains 995 new classes and 1,253 new features (ECLASS). If your shop maintains both systems, the question of which mapping applies to which version belongs in the same table as the ETIM mapping.
Supplier catalogs during the transition: ETIM 10 and 11 side by side
Not all manufacturers will switch at the same time on December 1. Suppliers usually deliver their catalogs in ETIM 11 once their own PIM supports the new version and their data has been updated. Until then, catalogs in ETIM 10 keep coming, and some of your customers’ procurement systems may still require the old version for a while. A shop that can only read one version would have to decide which suppliers it temporarily stops processing. An import that understands both versions is the better option.
In ETIM BMEcat, the version is stated for each product. The element PRODUCT_FEATURES names the classification system with its version in the field REFERENCE_FEATURE_SYSTEM_NAME and the class in the field REFERENCE_FEATURE_GROUP_ID; below it, each feature follows as a FEATURE with the feature code in FNAME and the value in FVALUE (ETIM BMEcat Guideline). The current guideline is version 5.0 (ETIM Deutschland). An excerpt from the sample catalog that comes with the guideline shows the structure:
<PRODUCT_FEATURES>
<REFERENCE_FEATURE_SYSTEM_NAME>ETIM-10.0</REFERENCE_FEATURE_SYSTEM_NAME>
<REFERENCE_FEATURE_GROUP_ID>EC000905</REFERENCE_FEATURE_GROUP_ID>
<FEATURE>
<FNAME>EF001366</FNAME>
<FVALUE>-</FVALUE>
<FVALUE_DETAILS>UN</FVALUE_DETAILS>
</FEATURE>
<FEATURE>
<FNAME>EF000227</FNAME>
<FVALUE>16</FVALUE>
</FEATURE>
<FEATURE>
<FNAME>EF000003</FNAME>
<FVALUE>EV000242</FVALUE>
</FEATURE>
</PRODUCT_FEATURES>Two rules from the guideline help during the transition. If a product is assigned to an ETIM class, all features of that class must be transmitted, except for non-relevant local standard features (ETIM BMEcat Guideline). If a value cannot be given, a minus sign is used, optionally with a reason: NA for not applicable, MV for a missing value because the value list of that ETIM version has no suitable entry, and UN for a value that is currently unknown (ETIM BMEcat Guideline). MV in particular is interesting for the version change. If a manufacturer delivers MV for a feature today, the new release may contain the missing value. An import that collects MV entries shows you where ETIM 11 could close data gaps.
For the import, this means reading the version per product, not per supplier, and sending the data through the matching mapping. ETIM 10 data is mapped to the shop target model, ETIM 11 data is taken over directly. Features that only exist in ETIM 11 stay empty for ETIM 10 suppliers, and the shop hides them for those products instead of showing a dash. Alongside BMEcat, ETIM International has published ETIM xChange, its own JSON-based exchange format (ETIM International); which formats your suppliers use therefore belongs in the inventory as well. How such import pipelines are connected to Shopware is described on our page on interfaces for ERP, PIM and catalogs.
Testing filters, comparison and search before switching
The version change does not belong directly in the live shop. A proven approach is a test copy with the current data, onto which you first load the mapping table and then a catalog in ETIM 11. The beta phase is the right moment for this: a test import with the ETIM 11.0 beta model shows whether the mapping holds before the first real supplier catalog arrives. If you do not have the beta yourself, ask your most important suppliers for a test catalog or their change lists.
- Filters per category: Compare filter groups and options before and after the test import. Every new, missing or empty filter group needs an explanation.
- Result counts: Compare the number of products for the most important filter combinations. A filter that suddenly returns no results points to a changed code or value.
- Product comparison: Compare two products of the same class, one with data in ETIM 10 and one with data in ETIM 11. The same properties must appear in the same row.
- Technical data: Check order, grouping, units and decimal places on the product page, especially for changed units and for range features.
- Search: Re-run frequent search terms from the search log, especially class names and synonyms, and compare the result lists.
- Sorting: Check the position of new values of numeric properties so that 2 A is not sorted after 16 A.
- Exports: Check BMEcat exports and customer feeds for the version each recipient expects.
If you want to test search systematically, our article on onsite search with part numbers and synonyms explains how to work with a zero-results log. After the switch, it quickly shows whether customers enter terms that no longer return results after the release. For manufacturers who supply their specialist dealers with product data through their own portal, there is a second direction: there, you are the supplier, and your dealers expect the data in the version their systems can read. How such a portal is built is covered in our article on the dealer portal for manufacturers.
No switch in the middle of year-end business
Roadmap to December and beyond
- By November 15 (beta): Complete the inventory, obtain the ETIM 11.0 beta model or change lists, mark affected classes and features. During the beta, members can report errors in the model to the staff offices of ETIM Deutschland.
- By the end of November: Finish the mapping table for all affected features, extend the import for two versions, run a test import on the copy and work through the test plan.
- From December 1: Compare the published release with the beta and update the mapping wherever something changed before finalization.
- December to spring: Ask suppliers when they plan to switch, process catalogs per version, watch the fill rate of new features and show new filters only once enough data is available.
- After the transition: Once no more catalogs arrive in ETIM 10, clean up hidden properties and retire the ETIM 10 mapping.
- For the next release: Document the procedure. With a two-year cycle, the next change is foreseeable, and the inventory can then be updated rather than started from scratch.
For distributors in electrical engineering and technical trade, it pays to treat the version change as a fixed item in shop maintenance, much like a Shopware update. The effort stays manageable once the inventory, mapping and test plan are in place. A version change becomes expensive when it is only noticed because filters stay empty or comparison rows appear twice.
How we implement the version change
We connect PIM, supplier catalogs and Shopware CE so that an ETIM release does not turn into a construction site in your shop. The import finds properties by ETIM code, the mapping between versions is kept as a maintained table, and filters, comparison and technical data read from the same source. For the move to ETIM 11, we create the inventory of your feature usage, build the mapping, extend the BMEcat import to read both versions and check the result on a test copy before your customers see any of it. More about our approach is on our page on PIM integration.
If your shop combines several data sources, such as supplier BMEcat files, your own PIM and additional data from the ERP, we start with the question of which source leads for which feature. That determines where the ETIM version is recorded and where the mapping applies. The technical implementation is handled by our Shopware development team; ongoing maintenance after the change, including the next release, can be included in the maintenance of your B2B shop.
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