Product Information Management (PIM) System: What is it? Why PIM Solution Is Important for Business?

Online product comparison and purchase is the talk of today’s trend. In a survey conducted by a retail dive, it is realized that over 65% of consumers do intensive research in terms of price, offers, and availability of a product online before they step into a store.

Likewise, over 55% of consumers visit stores before they intend to buy a product online and gain knowledge on the same factors as aforementioned.

Therefore, businesses started adopting digital marketing strategies due to changing consumer behaviors and ensuring a seamless shopping experience for them.

With consumer’s expectations towards consistency in product information, it has become a mandate for businesses to keep their product information up-to-date and accurate as well. This is where product information management (PIM) comes into place.

Now let us look into the detailing of questions you may have in mind about what PIM is and how PIM solutions can effectively work for businesses.

Table of Content

What is Product Information Management (PIM)?

The purpose of a product information management solution is it acts as a one-stop place to gather, control, and enrich your product information, along with creating a product catalog and distributing it to your eCommerce and sales channels.

PIM solutions are widely used by online merchandisers, marketers, eCommerce managers, and product managers who want to make their product information management easy and simple with a great tool.

To know why PIM, there are several reasons for businesses adopting it. For example, we all know Amazon is a giant eCommerce company that allows consumers to access lakhs and lakhs of products from multiple merchandisers. They have their customized PIM solutions since it is highly necessary for managing the customer-facing product strategy.

PIM System Goal

Providing accurate product information to consumers is one of the biggest challenges faced by marketers, especially in a product-focused business. Though the product team works on the information part, it has to undergo several supervisions and cross-checks before it goes live.

PIM gets you over this problem by converting manual paperwork into digital product documentation. It makes product data update and enrichment quite easier and quicker. Updated product information ensures that your consumers get the right and related information about the product they search for.

PIM solutions basically have a cloud-based storage repository that highly facilitates centralization and productivity to its extreme. With the right move towards the SaaS models, made PIM a cutting-edge technology benefiting online marketplace sellers and eCommerce platforms to the core.

Why Product Information Management (PIM) is Essential for Business?

Well, if you are a product-based start-up, you may not need PIM initially. But, if you have plans to expand your business online, then to maintain your product information PIM software can be of great help. If you are an established eCommerce business and new to PIM, here are the benefits that PIM solution can get to your business.

1. To grow heights

With PIM you can quickly make your product accessible and available to your consumers and enhance sales instantly. This takes away the bottleneck situation for your company and helps you grow.

2. Customization and localization

PIM allows your global teams to create highly targeted product experiences exclusively for different channels, languages, and locales.

3. Brings quick success to go-to-market

You can mold the reach and sale of your products according to your consumer preferences and behavior. PIM provides streamlined product creation and enrichment methods to showcase new products and seasonal collections and enables faster marketing.

What Type of Companies Need PIM Solution?

When PIM was introduced, it was reachable only to large corporations due to several factors. But now, it is easily accessible to small and medium enterprises as well. Based on the growth and demand of businesses, the demand for PIM solutions also grows in the same ratio.

PIM is a necessary solution if your company handles a high volume of products and SKUs. Mostly, vendors, retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and brands use PIM solutions to see their products updated in all sales and eCommerce channels and going live instantly, along with observing the product performance.

Depending on the problem you face with your product display, PIM can offer you relevant solutions.

Product Information Managed by PIM Solution

PIM makes it easy for marketers to access all their data in a single database, which is custom-designed as well, and efficiently handle the following product information in the software:

Names, titles
SKUs
Identifier codes
Product variants
Data captured in other marketplace templates
Descriptions
Categories
Technical data such as measurements, ingredients, materials, etc.
Product specifications
Price
Pictures
User reviews
Translations
SEO data for marketing purposes
Certificates
Logos
Videos
Labels
Stock availability
Product user guide
Marketing and sales documents

How to Find Best PIM Solutions for Your Business?

Two types of PIM Solutions are available in the market, such as customizable and standard ones. In a customized PIM solution, you can tailor your products display as per your need, whereas in standard, you get standard features at standard pricing.

Compared to a customized PIM solution, standard solutions can be less in cost, since you do not invest in developing any specific features. But, if you want to include high-end technical features, scalability, and flexibility, then you must go with custom PIM.

One of the main reasons for considering PIM is effective product data management. You can easily update your sales and marketing channels instantly with any product information if you integrate a PIM solution with your current system.

PIM is a highly scalable solution since it grows as your business grows. Investing in PIM is a one-time and one-stop solution and does not let you search for another solution in product information management. Plan how to use an effective solution like PIM for now and in the future as well.

Product information management (PIM) is an effective tool for any product-based business type and size since accurate product information plays a key role in gaining consumers and product sales as well. You can find many companies offering PIM solutions as per your business needs and type, based on which you can see yourself growing once you adopt PIM in your business.

Check out the 11 best product information management systems that you can consider to manage your massive product data.

Top 10 Good Reasons to Invest in PIM System

Product information management is crucial for every eCommerce-based business of any type. Therefore, businesses find investing in PIM solutions very beneficial and see-through high growth opportunities in the long run. Let us get deep into the topic and understand how PIM solutions help businesses achieve heights.

#1: Complete control over product information

Streamlining your product information process with an integrated PIM system enables full control over the product information. PIM system allows you to set multiple criteria and ensures that required attributes are accomplished before your product goes to the online store for consumers’ views.

Therefore, it becomes easy for each department to manage important product specifications and preview all the characteristics of the PIM cycle.

#2: Better usage of product relationships

PIM software allows you to make better relationships between a product and its relatedly usable product to ensure better sales and consumer satisfaction at the end. When your consumer views a particular product, on the same page, below the original product description, you can display products bought together.

Therefore, it leaves a good impression on consumers about the value and quality of the product with the way it is described. This will make you introduce all your products to consumers. For example, if a customer visits your online store to buy face cream, along with you can show the same brand products for additional usage such as face wash, face serum, soaps, and more.

#3: Keeping more focus on customers

If you have an integrated PIM solution in your system, you can provide an overview of multiple products to customers to compare and buy their preferred one. Since it allows different vendors in abundance to sell their products on a single platform, customers can get what they are looking for, in the product.

PIM solutions support customers with a quick comparison of products of different brands and make a quick decision.

If you have provided relevant information about all your products, it enhances your customer satisfaction, which leads to high sales.

#4: High consistency

A PIM system ensures consistency of your brand across demography and multiple marketing channels since it maintains all the information of all your products in a single database. The customer-based centralized database makes certain that the product data is boosted, updated, and complete across channels and for everybody.

The product information management software lets you maintain a consistent image of your brand across various channels such as online sales, social media platforms, communications, events, printed materials, and trade shows, on the whole.

#5: Integrated social media

No online business serves customers without showing involvement in social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. These channels are highly focused and utilized by businesses. Because they help gain loyal customers through good sales.

With PIM integrated system, whatever you post in one social media platform can be used over another platform as well with content/images changed whenever needed.

#6: Omnichannel captures the future market

Brands need enough online space to compete with the market and competitors’ sales channels. A product information management system allows businesses to add new online sales like Amazon, eBay, Rakuten, Alibaba, etc., and any huge or small marketplace where you think your brand can find better growth.

Preferring to communicate in an online space that is already established and popular among customers can get quick attention to your products. All you have to do is export the right information fields from the PIM to a file to make it the same and send it to any marketplace.

#7: Give high priority to customer service

More than what you sell, it leaves a positive impression on customers about your brand when their silly questions are being answered patiently. It is common that customers may have doubts about the product catalog, since they may not find some information sometimes. In such cases, your customer service should have complete access to the database for reference.

Like how you have a warehouse, your employees need the PIM system to ensure correct orders are filled, through which the customer service team can highly benefit from the PIM software and retain customers and develop loyalty.

#8: Boost performance

PIM solution is not only about product management but also about maximizing your team’s productivity. A good PIM solution can keep your team from doing redundant work, rework, and repetition.

Moreover, it supports not depending on error-prone and complex spreadsheets and makes you follow uncomplicated workflows.

A PIM can help you with streamlining your market launch activities and ensure continuous workflow. Due to all product information maintained in a single database, you do not have to spend much time searching the product details.

#9: Product improvement through customer feedback

By implementing a PIM system for your product data management, you can focus more on what customers think of your products. Most customers, while trying a new brand, will look for reviews of other customers about the particular product/brand. The PIM solution allows your customers to write about their opinion on the product they have used for new customers to know about the pros and cons.

#10: Optimized SEO

Any product quickly reaches customers if relevant and accurate information is provided that, in turn, enhances the chances of more people looking at your product pages.

Since transferring content to all channels becomes easy with the PIM solutions, the marketing team finds new SEO opportunities for product improvements and adapts the information in line with the new marketing needs.

With PIM, you can create and send personalized content more, which is liked by most users since it has their favorite searches and related products as well. In one way, it saves their time by displaying the required products consecutively.

Conclusion

The benefits of product information management solutions are not limited just to these factors, and as an eCommerce company, you have to take every small benefit as a reason for investing in PIM solutions. If you are interested in knowing more about PIM, wait for this space to give you some more new information.

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