Item Master

Company Mission and Vision

itemMaster's mission is to provide retailers a free exchange for manufacturer-supplied, digital product images and comprehensive digital product data in a quality, high resolution and standardized format.

itemMaster's vision is to become “The One Source for Free Product Images and Data”. Product images and data will be available for free to any registered user assuring that all retail outlets and vendors will have access to accurate product information. By managing product images and data through itemMaster, manufacturers can assure that all retailers have access to accurate and complete product images and data.

Company Background

itemMaster, LLC, a subsidiary of Ahold U.S.A., Inc., was established by Ahold in 2009

The idea for itemMaster came out of the realization that there was not a single source for quality digital product images and data, and a belief that this data should be openly available to retailers for free. itemMaster was started by Thomas Parkinson, a co-founder of Peapod, the online grocery company. Mr. Parkinson's experience in the online grocery retail business exposed him to the challenges resulting from a lack of available digital product images and data. He was increasingly frustrated with the quality of images that Peapod was able to obtain from manufacturers, and with the cost Peapod (the retailer) was paying third party vendors to capture the data and images. An advocate for open source data, Mr. Parkinson believed that manufacturers should provide product data free to retailers, and that there should be a central exchange, itemMaster.com, for digital product data and images. It is in the manufacturer’s best interest to ensure that their products are accurately portrayed in the marketplace, and that retailers have access to the most up to date digital product and supply chain data and images.

Armed with experience starting an online business and knowledge of the grocery and consumer product goods industry, Mr. Parkinson realized that there was no company that was creating a true open database of comprehensive product data and images available in a standard format. From this realization was born, itemMaster.