ETIM xChange: the JSON successor to ETIM BMEcat

The current version 2.0 was released on 2025-11-27, and as early as 2021 ETIM International announced that the ETIM BMEcat 5.0 guideline would be the last version of that format.

Status as of 2026-11-13, based on ETIM International, ETIM Polska, itek and 2BA (sources at the end). For a manufacturer it comes down to this: BMEcat still works, but it will not get new features. New fields, such as environmental and packaging data, go into xChange only.

What is ETIM xChange?

xChange is a file format for sending product data from manufacturers to wholesalers and data platforms, defined by a JSON Schema. ETIM International set out to merge the best of ETIM BMEcat, the DICO standard and the European Master Data Guideline (EMDG). Version 1.0 came out on 2024-02-19, and ETIM calls it the first product data exchange standard fully controlled by ETIM International and its community.

According to ETIM Polska, the format has several features ETIM BMEcat did not have:

• Four data levels: supplier, product (what is manufactured), trade item (what is sold) and packaging unit.
• Several suppliers in one file, which suits data pools.
• ETIM classification recommended, not mandatory. Product data in other classifications is allowed.
• Five-character language codes, such as en-GB and en-US.
• Attachments instead of MIME entries for media.
• A more compact notation than XML, without long tags.

What does version 2.0 change?

ETIM International released version 2.0 on 2025-11-27. It fixes minor issues in the first release and adds four areas:

1. Extended environmental data from life cycle assessments and environmental product declarations (LCA, EPD), developed with an international working group.
2. Packaging material data covering the main requirements of the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).
3. MDX codes to specify the media type in the AttachmentTypeSpecification field, carried over and updated from ETIM BMEcat.
4. Serial number management.

Version 2.0 succeeds version 1.1 from August 2024. The xChange validation tool is due to be upgraded for 2.0; ETIM International said it will announce when that happens.

How does ETIM xChange differ from ETIM BMEcat?

The table compares both formats on the criteria that drive the work of exporting from a PIM. Each row is based on publications by ETIM International and ETIM Polska.

Who already accepts xChange?

• Germany. According to itek, xChange will be used in Germany from version 2.0, from 2026, supported among others by Open Datacheck Elektro. Data is transferred asynchronously in JSON.
• Netherlands. The 2BA data pool supports version 2.0 for import and export, including environmental data.
• Poland. ETIM Polska publishes the full 2.0 documentation: general and country-specific guidelines, an Excel overview of the structure, a schema diagram, the JSON Schema file and a sample JSON file. ETIM Polska gives no transition date for the Polish market.

What does it mean for a manufacturer?

Our view: there is no need to switch to xChange this quarter, but the data model needs work now. The JSON file is the smallest problem. The harder part is what xChange expects from the data.

The key is the split between product, trade item and packaging unit. If one PIM record holds technical features, the commercial item number and the outer packaging data all at once, an xChange export first needs those separated. The second topic is environmental and packaging data. ETIM BMEcat has no such fields, so they are often missing from the PIM as well.

A plan for the coming months:

1. Ask your largest data recipients whether and when they accept xChange. The wholesaler decides the format, not the manufacturer.
2. Check your PIM model against the four xChange levels: supplier, product, trade item, packaging.
3. Collect LCA, EPD and packaging material data where it already exists (quality department, certificates, packaging suppliers).
4. Build the xChange export next to BMEcat from the same data model, so both formats are covered during the transition.
5. Validate files against the JSON Schema and, if your company is an ETIM member, with ETIM International's validator.

How we help

LemonMind, a Pimcore Platinum Partner and Ergonode partner based in Gdańsk, Poland, implements Pimcore, Akeneo and Ergonode. We implement ETIM and BMEcat in PIM systems. At GTV Poland we extended an existing Pimcore with ETIM classification, BMEcat export and our own ETIM Mapper (project details). A data model like that can feed an xChange export alongside the existing BMEcat.

More on the standards themselves: what is BMEcat, what is ETIM and ETIM vs ECLASS. Our implementation checklist is in the ETIM and BMEcat guide.