PIM, also known as product information management, is gaining more and more importance in the ever-evolving e-commerce industry. Giving customers great shopping experiences is becoming challenging for most companies, and a great internal organization and a solid IT structure are crucial for the success of an online business. PIM plays an important role in this. In this article, we will explore what is a PIM tool, what are the benefits of PIM and why it is important for your business.
Product information management (PIM) is the strategy that helps companies to manage data and content related to their products. A PIM system is a tool that can be used by companies to properly control and manage these data. In a nutshell: PIM is the single source of truth for your product information.
A PIM tool works as a centralized solution for your product information. It makes it easy for companies to collect, centralize and have a complete overview on their product data. From here, users can collaborate in enriching and updating descriptions, categorizing products, adding relevant assets and attributes and much more. Thanks to such tools, users work together to validate data and get the products ready for market. Compelling, complete and consistent information can then be shared across all sales channels with ease.
The benefits of PIM are many. Among them, we can find:
Integrating PIM brings advantages not only to business owners but also to their teams that can easily collaborate in an organized way, to partners that need specific product information in different formats, and to clients, that are always provided with complete, relevant, and reliable information. All these aspects together are key to a company’s success.
There are multiple reasons why a business should consider investing in a PIM tool. Generally, when a business wants to scale up and grow, it is a good practice to rely on automation as much as possible. PIM software automates and streamlines product information management and makes it possible for teams to focus on more important tasks.
Companies choose to rely on PIM when they have to manage a big amount of product data, which includes attributes, videos and photos, product variations and so on. Traditional ways of managing product information become challenging in these situations: finding incomplete or missing data in Excel sheets when having large amounts of products is definitely not as easy and efficient anymore.
Collaborating with multiple colleagues in enriching and distributing product information is not a piece of cake. Without PIM, the risks of duplicated data, manual errors and a stressed team are just around the corner. With the help of workflows, permission rules and task attribution provided by PIM, all team members can benefit from a structured way of working. Enriching product data and finding the right information when needed, becomes a fun and easy task with PIM.
With multichannel sales strategies, businesses face daily challenges on how to manage product information across different channels. A PIM system allows organizations to easily customize and tailor product information for different channels and audiences, making it easier to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs. With a PIM tool teams can create attribute groups and assign them to specific products on sale on a specific marketplace: this way, they make sure to always provide products with consistent, complete, updated and channel-required information with ease and no errors.
E-commerce players often use many systems and have different suppliers. So, data can come from different sources (partners, ERP, WMS, suppliers, etc) and in different formats (Excel Sheets, CSVs, etc). Managing and working with this information can be messy and cause duplicated data, or worse, threaten the integrity of important information. A PIM system brings order to this chaos and ensures that all data is stored in one place and safe. This creates a single source of truth that everyone in the organization can work from and rely on.
PIM systems are commonly used by businesses to manage product information such as descriptions, images, pricing, and so on. A PIM system can handle a wide range of data types, including:
All these data types are essential to successfully market a product and help the customer during the online purchase decision process. Grouped in the same place, it is no longer a hassle to gain control and manage all these data and launch your products with complete information.
There are several factors to consider when investing in a PIM solution:
Proper management of product information can bring multiple advantages to your company, including fewer returns, quality product data, better customer experience and increased productivity. All these benefits lead to positive results for a company’s profit.
It's important to choose a solution that can grow with your business. Consider whether the PIM solution can handle the volume of products and data you have, the features you need and whether it is driven toward future growth.
When choosing a specific PIM tool, it is important to consider if this is easy to integrate with your tools, such as your e-commerce platform, ERP, and so on. This will help to ensure that product information flows seamlessly across these systems and is consistent across all channels.
Look for a PIM solution that is easy to use, with a user-friendly interface and intuitive navigation. Also, consider whether the PIM solution can be customized to meet your and your team’s specific needs, like creating custom workflows, managing the permission rules, or tailor the attribute fields to match your channels’ product data requirements.
Working with software is not always intuitive and easy: this is why user-friendliness is crucial, but so is support: it’s best to choose a PIM solution that offers good customer support, training sessions and other resources like videos and documentation.
To get started with product information management (PIM), there are a few steps to follow. After identifying your organization's specific needs and goals when it comes to managing product information, do some research to find the best PIM system according to your needs, your company’s size and your budget. Once chosen, follow the vendor's instructions to set up the system and get it up and running. In the case of KatanaPIM, our PIM solution, you are helped and followed in every step, from consultancy to decision-making, and from onboarding to support and training.
By following these steps, you can get your PIM system up and running and start enjoying the benefits of centralized and accurate product data management.
In conclusion, product information management (PIM), the system or process used to centralize and manage product data and information, is an essential tool for any organization that sells products, as it helps to ensure that product information is accurate, consistent, and up-to-date across all channels.
The benefits of using a PIM system are numerous. It can improve the accuracy of product information, increase the team’s efficiency, enhance the customer experience, and provide greater flexibility in managing and distributing product data. A PIM system can also make it easier to adapt to changing market conditions and customer needs, much needed during this era of ever-changing e-commerce and trends.
KatanaPIM is the single source of truth for product information that helps brands, wholesalers and retailers easily collect, enrich and validate their product data and efficiently distribute correct and consistent information to their different sales channels, marketplaces, resellers, partners and catalogs. Implementing a PIM tool allows companies to streamline and automate internal processes and makes product information management and product launches quick & easy. Book your free demo today and discover if KatanaPIM is the right tool for you!
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