Why Do You Need a PIM System in Your E-business?

*Note: this blogpost was written by our friends at Ergonode in support of Commerce Days Transformation 2022. Check them both out! 👍

The implementation of a PIM system is a way to keep ahead of the competition in the future. With the expansion of the retail and e-commerce businesses, and the growing amount of product data to be managed, the adoption of PIM systems is on the rise. The implementation of a PIM solution is associated with a number of benefits that support the digital business in expanding into new markets, in increasing the productivity and satisfaction of the team working on product information or in reducing the number of returns of  goods purchased online. And those are not all the benefits of incorporating a PIM into your e-commerce ecosystem.

There is no chance for success without good quality pictures, multimedia, product descriptions, technical specifications or product relations. A PIM system integrated with an e-commerce platform is a perfect tool to manage an online store without errors and complications.

A PIM or Product Information Management is a software that provides a single place to collect, manage, and enrich your product information, create a product catalog, and distribute it to your sales and e-commerce channels.

All-In-One Tool for Your PIM Work

A PIM system is essential when scaling your business. Your entire company will operate on a single set of product data, and workflows will be improved. A PIM optimizes your enterprise to not only survive current challenges, but also for long-term growth. How does it work in practice?

74% of companies claim that having a single PIM software solution allowed them to eliminate errors and mistakes in their product information.

Today there is more data, more stores, and more customers. New marketplaces are created, as well as new tools to increase sales, generate fresh reports and studies, and provide updated forecasts. Keeping such a huge amount of information in one place is extremely risky.

Reality without a PIM

Consider the human factor. Admittedly, people make mistakes more often than machines. If, as a result of an error, changes to a large part of the assortment are saved – bad photos, descriptions, prices – these changes are immediately visible in the store. There is no safety buffer even in the form of another person on the team who has to approve changes. In a situation where someone buys a product with a wrong description or a different (e.g. much lower) price, the consequences may be felt. This generates costs and has a negative impact on the image and credibility of the brand.

The second aspect is the technical factor – the occurrence of errors on the side of the system. Imagine a situation when during the upgrade of the platform (e.g. migration from Magento 1 to Magento 2) there is an error in the database – e.g. the database doesn’t update or a plug-in doesn’t respond properly – then the errors have to be fixed manually or the data has to be entered once again if it is deleted. These are pretty extreme cases, but you should be aware that they can happen.

Reality with a PIM

You have a storefront platform, you have a CRM, you have a marketing automation tool and other marketing tools,.. and you finally have a PIM system that “handles” the product catalog, as well as a number of other tools that you use in your daily work. Your entire e-commerce ecosystem is de facto built as microservices. When one of the elements stops working – it will not affect the global functioning of the whole site!

The Main Arguments and Benefits of Having a PIM Tool

1. Simplified and accelerated product catalog management: With a PIM, you can copy data from one product to another in a few seconds. Bulk actions speed up preparations your assortment for different situations, such as entering new markets or seasonal marketing activities.

2. Lower marketing costs: PIM software is easy to integrate. It centralizes product information and simultaneously publishes up-to-date and accurate digital product catalogs to all the channels and ensures customer-facing touchpoints are enriched with correct data. Precise product descriptions support your SEO. Marketing without quality data generates higher cost at poorer returns.

3. Higher conversion rate: High quality data creates better user experience, increases confidence and decisiveness. Accurate and up-to-date product information plays an important part in converting potential customers to actual buyers during online shopping.

61% of companies said that using a PIM solution improved the customer experience.

4. Reduced time to market: Translating in a PIM system is super easy and intuitive. You can enter new markets much quicker than without it. 

5. Less returns: Good product parameterization means less returns and therefore lower costs. Customers are less frequently disappointed after receiving the delivery. The completeness of product information facilitates informed purchases and eventually reduces returns. 

6. Higher quality of data: One centralized place from which you manage your data means less duplicated spreadsheets, less chaos and, in the end, higher quality of data. A PIM provides a single place to collect and cultivate product information and synchronously disseminate it to channels as the product line extends. 

7. Better work control: Your team gets a tool for better control over distributed data. Thanks to a completeness status, everyone is up to date with product management jobs. You can set as many statuses as you want and, by adding rules, you can design the workflow that best suits your company. 

8. Cost effective onboarding: A PIM lowers the cost of introducing new team members to product management, provides complete data compilation transparency so everybody can view the latest changes and stay updated.

9. Improved team satisfaction: A PIM tool adapts to your team workstyle and your team gets a new ergonomic worktool. It improves your team collaboration and highlights any bottlenecks that may form in your process, allowing you to act quickly and remedy them.

A PIM solution is not just for transferring product information from excel to the store platform. It’s a hub for managing that data – creating product templates tailored to assortments and product families, as well as setting data completeness levels.

It is worth noting that the efficient management of product information is essential in today’s dynamic and competitive environment. This is no longer a “nice to have” system, but rather a necessity.

Conclusion

Whether your business is launching new product lines or refreshing its existing product portfolio, you need a product information management (PIM) system to ensure the success of your e-commerce strategy. For businesses looking to manage data for millions of products and thousands of attributes, a PIM solution is a must for smooth functioning, business growth, customer satisfaction and ROI.

A PIM tool is a single, central source of data for the whole company, which allows several people to work at the same time on the same database. E-business owners, marketers and managers should certainly consider implementing a PIM in their company, especially if they want to be one step ahead of the competition. So what are you waiting for?