Understanding PIM

PIM is a centralized system for managing all product-related information, such as descriptions, features, images, prices, variants and more. It’s a powerful tool that streamlines data management and facilitates the consistent distribution of information across all sales channels. With a well-implemented PIM, business managers can improve the accuracy of product information, accelerate time-to-market and deliver a seamless shopping experience for customers.

To listen to the Podcast and read the article on “How to properly manage your product data in eCommerce?“ 

Common PIM functionalities

• Centralized management of product data;
• Standardization and harmonization of information;
• Classification and structuring of product attributes;
• Management of variants and relationships between products;
• Synchronization with external systems (suppliers, ERP, etc.);
• Automated data enrichment according to certain rules;
• Use as a sales catalog by sales representatives;
• Multi-channel distribution of product data;
• Translation and localization management;
• Version control and access authorization;
• Data modification and history tracking.

The benefits of a high-performance PIM 

A high-performance PIM offers many advantages for companies with a large and complex catalog. Here are some of the key benefits to consider:

Centralized management for data integrity: PIM centralizes all product information in one place, eliminating data silos and potential errors. This ensures consistency and accuracy of information across all sales channels.

Improved data quality: Using a PIM, you can standardize, enrich and validate your product data, ensuring high quality and consistency of information. This helps build customer confidence and reduce returns or dissatisfaction linked to incorrect descriptions.

Managing product variants: With a catalog containing numerous product variants, manual management can be tedious. A high-performance PIM facilitates variant management by automating processes and enabling information to be updated quickly and accurately. This can be especially relevant for companies that have to manage product parts or components.

Faster time-to-market: With efficient product information management, companies can significantly reduce the time needed to bring new products to market, or to open a new sales channel. This improves responsiveness and enables opportunities to be seized more quickly.

Use as a product catalog: Since PIM acts as a master source of product data, it can be considered as the complete product catalog, and therefore useful for B2B company representatives to present the company’s entire product offering.

PIM and composable commerce?

In a composable commerce environment, PIM plays a fundamental role in product information management. By adopting a modular approach, PIM enables data to be efficiently orchestrated and synchronized with the various e-commerce interfaces and channels.

As the central source of all product-related information, PIM ensures data centralization and standardization, guaranteeing consistency and accuracy. It provides advanced functionalities for structuring and classifying product attributes and variants, while managing rules specific to each sales channel.

One of the major challenges of composable commerce lies in the consistent distribution of product information. Thanks to PIM, data is distributed efficiently and adapted to each user interface, whether it’s a website, a mobile application or a Marketplace. PIM facilitates the creation of specific views for each channel, while maintaining the integrity of master product data.

In addition, in a context of composable commerce, flexibility is paramount. PIM offers greater flexibility to manage custom attributes, channel-specific rules and the unique requirements of each sales platform. It also makes it possible to respond rapidly to market changes by updating product information in an agile and reactive way.

Find out more about the principles of composable commerce, headless and MACH architecture in eCommerce.

The most popular PIM solutions

Here’s a list of the PIMs most commonly adopted by eCommerce companies:

Akeneo: Akeneo is one of the best-known and most popular open source PIMs. It offers advanced functionalities for product data management, classification, enrichment, translation and multi-channel distribution. Akeneo is highly customizable and integrates easily with other eCommerce systems and platforms.

inRiver: inRiver is a PIM focusing on product information management for companies with large, complex catalogs. It enables data to be centralized, teams to collaborate efficiently and product variants to be managed easily. inRiver also offers multi-channel publishing tools for consistent dissemination of information across different sales channels.

Pimcore: Pimcore is an open source PIM with a comprehensive suite of functionalities for product information management, digital asset management and customer experience. It offers high flexibility and extensibility, making it a popular choice for companies with specific needs.

Salsify: Salsify is a cloud PIM platform that focuses on product information management for optimal customer experience. It enables centralization and enrichment of product data, collaboration with teams and suppliers, and easy distribution of information across different channels.

Plytix: Plytix is a user-friendly PIM that simplifies product information management for companies of all sizes. It offers features for data management, catalog creation, multi-channel publishing and product performance analysis.

It’s important to note that the choice of PIM depends on your company’s specific needs, the size of your product catalog, the complexity of your variants, your multi-channel distribution requirements and your existing technological infrastructure. Novatize’s experts can help you choose the PIM that’s best suited to your business.

Example of a PIM application

In a B2C and B2B context, let’s take the example of a company specializing in online tool sales, offering a wide range of tools and equipment for different sectors. With a catalog comprising over 100,000 product SKUs, including various variants such as sizes, brands and specifications, product data management becomes crucial.

By using a powerful PIM, this company can effectively manage its vast catalog. The PIM enables the company to centralize and quickly update technical information, product specifications, images and prices. As a result, information remains consistent across all sales channels, including the company’s website, online marketplaces and printed catalogs.

Also, managing product variants becomes simple and automated, thanks to PIM. Customers can easily find the specific size, color or brand they need, thanks to the advanced search filters and clear information provided by the PIM. This seamless, personalized shopping experience promotes customer satisfaction and increases the chances of conversion.

The use of an effective PXM in conjunction with the PIM enables this company to offer a complete customer experience. For example, by using personalization tools based on customers’ purchasing preferences, the company can recommend complementary products, suggest how-to tutorials or offer targeted promotions. This creates an engaging and differentiated shopping experience, strengthening customer loyalty.

In conclusion, for company directors managing an extensive and complex B2B or B2C product catalog, implementing a high-performance PIM and optimizing its potential are essential to a successful eCommerce strategy. By centralizing and effectively managing product information, a PIM helps improve data quality, reduce errors and speed time-to-market. Combined with an effective PXM, it creates personalized and engaging experiences, contributing to customer growth and loyalty. Don’t hesitate to call on eCommerce experts like Novatize to help you set up and optimize your PIM, so you can take full advantage of its potential.