Product information management (PIM) software boosts revenue in three ways:
- With a PIM, you can get your products to market faster, so you start driving revenue sooner.
- Your product discovery will go up, and hence more users will reach your products because of rich attribute content
- Your product details pages will be more engaging so you will convert more customers
So, in essence, the PIM will help you sell sooner, reach more buyers and convert more visitors.
What is Product information management (PIM) software?
PIM software is designed to manage data for businesses, and support the storage of all kinds of data, such as eCommerce data, mobile app data, and ERP, in a single place.
Ecommerce platforms that are created to handle B2B and B2C activities need PIM software for improved functioning and data quality.
How does PIM software Improve Source Data?
Product Information Software helps you to categorize, organize, and manage your data appropriately to improve its quality. It gives you better data for your multiple-channel marketing, publishing, sales drive, and improved data creation, amongst others.
With PIM software, you can create a single, trusted source of data efficiently.
Advantages of a PIM
With PIM, you can create simple, structured, and actionable data with a lot of benefits including improved internal processes, better revenue, and patronage.
PIM helps you create product descriptions that answer the questions your customers are asking. It also gives your sales team the information they need to work efficiently.
Overall, it improves your business’s return on investment (ROI) through possibilities of business and market channels.
PIM solves issues with data sourcing by creating an information structure that is cohesive and improved.
With PIM, you can give customers more information they need to make purchase decisions beyond color, size, and product image. Digital assets like high-quality videos, images, 360-degree movement, product comparison charts, and the like improve customer experience.
How does a PIM work?
Generally, PIM serves as a streamlined single source of truth for your business. Most workflows within a PIM follow a common basic strategy:
- Centralize
- Optimize
- Publish
Centralize
Without PIM, businesses store product data in many different locations. These locations may be excel spreadsheets, google drive, dropbox, local servers, or (most likely) a combination.
The first thing PIM does to combat siloed information is to aggregate or standardize information. Upon import, PIM provides an import mapping system that allows teams to normalize product data from many sources.
Optimize
Once product data is centralized, teams can begin the work of optimization. Optimization centers around four essential factors: discoverability, product accuracy, product completeness, and channel readiness.
- Discoverability: Most important to discoverability, products must go through a categorization process. In order to bypass the billions of products in today’s flooded market to win on category pages, your products need to be accurately categorized. For a thorough guide to categorizing products specifically for discoverability, we recommend this guide.
- Product Accuracy: In order to convert more buyers and reduce product returns, products must be 100% accurate and up-to-date. PIM includes validation rules that call out products with information that doesn’t make sense or meet the rules that you set.
- Product Completeness: If a product is missing critical information or doesn’t have the amount of content necessary to be competitive on category pages, that product will not convert. Using PIM, your team can set completeness rules for products, ensuring the most robust content gets published to market.
- Channel Readiness: After products are found to be accurate and complete, it’s time to tailor products for intended channels using channel-specific attributes. When looking for a PIM, try to find a solution that doesn’t limit attribute usage. Some PIMs even have tools to measure product readiness for specific channels. This is called channel readiness.
Publish
After the optimization process, products are ready hit the to market. In this stage, you have two options: export or syndicate.
The first option, export, allows you to export data in a channel-ready format, ensuring easy import onto eCommerce channels like Shopify or BigCommerce and other marketplaces such as Amazon.
Syndication, the second option, eliminates the manual process of exporting and importing files, allowing updates to occur automatically. This seamless process takes place via Webhook, FTP, or API and enables you to make real-time product updates to multiple stores.
In addition to publishing products on channels, another way PIM can boost revenue for your business is through an easy sharing method, known as a brand portal.
Brand portals are secure platforms that allow outside partners, sales teams, and shareholders to access approved product data. Using secure user role features, you’re able to control permissions to view, edit or export data, freeing up time for marketers to complete more meaningul tasks.
Integrating a PIM Solution
Although a PIM can fit several systems, it is designed to be used by brands, distributors, retailers and DTC companies.
To ensure seamless integration, always use a PIM software that’s comprehensive, cloud-based, and needs little to no IT support.
Such integration will save you from backing multiple systems and remove transition issues. You can also integrate it into modern solutions without requiring manual data structuring and importation.
Integrating your PIM with other systems such as your ERP, DAM, and eCommerce Channels enables your team to operate out of a single source of truth.
With all product data flowing seamlessly from system to system, your end product (the PDP) will be accurate and up-to-date, thus creating more conversions and boosting revenue for your business.
In Conclusion
In today’s competitive marketplace, it is increasingly important to get quality product content on the digital shelf as quickly as possible. If your business is working with hundreds of thousands of SKUs, this is virtually impossible to acheive without a PIM solution.
Not only does a PIM solution allow you to drive more revenue within the channels you’re currently opporating, PIM can open the door to growth and scalability. When your team is operating out of a single source of truth, adding a new sales channel is as simple as clicking the “add new channel” button.
Seem to good to be true? Check it out for yourself. Schedule a demo with Catsy PIM at catsy.com.
