What is PIM?
PIM is an abbreviation for "Product Information Management", and a PIM system is the focal point for collecting, enriching and publishing product data. A PIM system is thus a central system for those who work purposefully with ecommerce and online sales.
A PIM system's most important task is to ensure the company's ability to handle large amounts of complex product data. The good PIM solution makes it easy to publish this information efficiently to relevant channels (e.g. to suppliers, social media, webshops or the like).
With a PIM system, you get a single source of truth for your product data, so that your employees never have to spend valuable time accessing a resource that should be available to everyone.
In other words, Product Information Management is a tool for taking control of all your product data and the processes associated with enriching, using and distributing it.
Why is PIM important?
80% of all consumers do online research before buying - is your product data good enough?
When we shop online, we often buy products that we have never seen or had in our hands before. We therefore buy the products based on the product data we are presented with. This makes product data - information about the product's shape, weight, size, color, etc. - critical to e-commerce success.
It's estimated that 80% of all users (B2C and B2B) conduct online research before making a purchase. If you exhibit incomplete product data in your catalogues, on your webshop or website, you therefore risk losing customers to the competitor.
If we combine this with our knowledge of how quickly new technologies, channels and markets are emerging, the importance of having a robust system for handling product data becomes very high.",
What is "good product data"?
Good product data is the data that helps your customers make an informed purchase decision.
A PIM system gathers all your product data in one system, which makes the work of collecting, enriching and distributing product data across channels much easier. Today, product data is more than just "title and price". Typically, the customer needs far more data such as:
- Media (images, technical drawings and videos)
- Manuals and instructions
- Technical specifications
- Descriptions and sales texts
- Channel hierarchies (for example: e-com, directories, apps, etc.)
- SEO Data
Add to this the need for additional language layers, integrations to ERP systems and a large supplier and dealer network, and the need for razor-sharp control of product data is essential to succeed with a digital strategy.
The PIM system ensures that your product data is always up-to-date, which benefits your customers
PIM focuses on effective processes in working with product data
Do you come from an everyday life where product data has been scattered across systems, departments and areas of responsibility? Then with PIM, you will be able to centralize and streamline your workflows, and save time while reducing errors.
The larger and more complex your data volume, the greater the gain from implementing PIM. We typically see the following benefits from the introduction of PIM:
- Better overview of all product processes from "cradle" to "grave"
- Better overview of errors and omissions in product data
- Reports notifying data controllers of errors and omissions
- Time-to-market is reduced through efficient data processes
- Fewer errors in product data means smooth launches
- Higher trust in your brand as a result of accurate data
- Overview of omnichannel (\"what data is used in which channels?\")
- Resources are freed up for integrations (ERP, Amazon etc.)"
Which processes are typical in working with PIM?
All PIM implementations are as different as the companies in which the PIM solutions are implemented. Some companies have data in many systems, others only in ERP. This means that many different considerations must be taken into account in the work with process optimization.
Examples of product processes that can be managed in a PIM system could be:
- The process of creating/enriching products
- Managing the translation process
- Auto-generating SEO data
- Processes for handling images (from ordering to publishing, e.g. image bank)
- Authentication of product data (in an omnichannel setup)
- Publishing PIM data in channels (e.g. Web, E-Commerce, catalogs, apps, etc.)
- Management of campaign processes (e.g. flyers, banner advertisements, in-store TV, etc.)
PIM as "Single Source of Truth" - collect your product data
PIM is often referred to as being the "single source of truth" for product data. This means that the PIM system is ideally made the only place where product data is stored and distributed from.
This eliminates the risk of errors in data and of slow processes where product data is stored locally on different computers and in different systems.
As the volume and complexity of the company's product information increases, so will the value of implementing a PIM system.
Since it can be difficult to eliminate the need for an ERP system completely, you can create an ERP integration that lifts key tasks in the enrichment process.
Give your employees and colleagues quick and easy access to product data
The opportunity to strengthen your marketing and sales body and to get a coherent presentation of products and a strengthened brand is a clear benefit of implementing PIM.
In the PIM system, the responsibility for enrichment and distribution of product data can be assigned to specific people. In this way, you avoid confusion and errors in working with product data, which in the worst case results in your customers being met with incorrect data.
From the PIM system, data is easily distributed to all your channels such as webshop, website, marketplaces (Amazon, Elgiganten) and other endpoints.
Curious as to whether PIM is for you?
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Segment your products
There can be various reasons for segmenting a product database such as customer type: B2C, B2B or public customers. Most often, however, we see that products are segmented by geographic markets.
Multiple nationalities give rise to language-differentiated product and market data. A PIM system optimizes companies' language processes by:
- Creating an overview of which products need translation
- Supporting automated translation
- Autogenerating data feed with "source" and "target" languages
- Enabling reuse of across all channels
- Reducing the cost/time spent on
- Translating and standardizing terms once and for all
PIM is the shortcut to an Omni channel strategy
Product Information Management makes the realization of any omni-channel strategy possible by sending targeted channel data to the company's many channels/touchpoints. Here's how a PIM system supports your omni-strategy:
- Overview of all channels
- Overview of products in channels
- Centralization of channel data (data used in the individual channel)
- Distribution of targeted channel data
- Dynamic Maintenance of Channel Data
- Overview of channel data processes
- Central management and management of channel data. (Through rights management in PIM, the company ensures that it is the right employees who maintain the company's data)
Standard PIM provides standard ERP
The data foundation of a company is typically ERP, CRM and PIM. In ERP, transactional data is centralized. Transaction data is the data that the company uses to run all the internal processes (from quotation to delivery). In PIM, all the data that the company needs to use to sell the product (technical specifications, descriptions, images, drawings, etc.) is centralized. PIM thus "cleans" the ERP of product customizations, which ensures that the ERP platform gets closer to standard.
Our experience tells us that this setup offers the following advantages:
- A big reduction in ERP upgrade costs
- Minimizing costs when migrating from ERP X to ERP Y
- Major reduction in product maintenance costs
- Great flexibility and fast TTM when new data requirements arise
- Fewer integrations between ERP and other systems
- Perfect platform for company acquisitions where ERP systems and product ranges need to be combined
More about PIM for the diligent reader
If you don't get your curiosity answered here, please feel free to contact us!
Product information, and thus PIM, is the focal point for a purchase decision
Product information has always been important for a purchase decision, but the way we acquire this information has changed drastically in recent years.
Previously, the seller was asked for product information. Sometimes you could feel or see the properties of the product by touching or lifting it. Today, consumers and retailers research via search engines, websites, catalogs etc.
It is therefore important to make available as much relevant product information as possible. And here the assumption is that those with the best product data win the deal.
With a PIM system, it is easy to deliver and maintain all types of product information that today's consumer and retailer demand.
Create coherent user experiences across your sales channels with a PIM system
Consumers and retailers seek information across several channels, and therefore it is important to follow the customer's behaviour.
This behavior places demands on the company's ability to be present across channels with a coherent brand and message - what is popularly called "omnichannel".
To support this strategy, it is important to have a strong data base. With a PIM system you achieve precisely these advantages and can present professional product data for the customer.
Reduce time-to-market with Product Information Management
Most markets today are dynamic and agile environments. Customers' needs and habits are constantly changing as new technology is introduced and new opportunities arise.
Therefore, time-to-market is today one of the most important competitive parameters in e-commerce. A PIM system reduces time-to-market by streamlining the processes that ensure that the product is available to customers in the right channels. In PIM, employees across the company's organization can work and enrich product data - simultaneously.
It also means that marketing can quickly start catalog production and work on campaigns, even if all product information is not available. If there is an update or change to product data in a data source - e.g. the ERP system -, this information is automatically updated in PIM, and everyone can continue their work.
By giving you an overview of which product texts have been translated as well as updating the degree of completeness in product data, a PIM system also facilitates the workflow with translations. Your translators can deliver the translations directly in the PIM system. This also applies to other tasks related to enrichment of product data.
A PIM system combats unnecessary manual work and increases efficiency
Mails, Dropbox, Onedrive and countless Exce-lark are typical components of classic development processes - regardless of whether it is within IT or in the organization. The more places you store data and the more people involved in exchanging data, the greater the risk of errors.
If you structure product data in your PIM system, the risk of errors in product data is reduced. With PIM as a Single Source of Truth, the answers are found centrally and easily accessible in a system that everyone has the opportunity to enrich. Here you can delegate responsibility, where individual departments know exactly which data they must handle. If you have critical data in other systems, PIM systems are built with a focus on integrations, and you can therefore easily set up an API so that data can flow freely between your systems.
You therefore end up shifting the focus from where and who, to focusing on what the next step is. Departments can now focus on core tasks and maximum utilization of their skills.
A PIM system is simply a central database with your product data
Most PIM systems operate via a Windows client, and are usually based on data from an SQL server.
With an integration to the database, you can create new products, fields and add and edit all the information that must be distributed from the database to all your sales channels.
A PIM system can handle all types of product data, regardless of whether it is text, images, video, audio or PDFs (eg certifications, product data sheets or similar).
Perhaps the greatest strength of a PIM system is its ability to handle data exchange with other programs. A PIM-System must therefore have an open API, it removes the restrictions when processing data, metadata and entering the data in other systems.
This is how you get product data into your PIM system
Three systems/data sources that typically stand out as particularly important when we implement PIM are ERP, CMS and supplier portals/databases. This is typically where your product data lives before you implement a PIM system to handle it.
With regard to ERP, it is absolutely essential that you ensure a good integration between your ERP and PIM system. PicoPublish is a partner on a number of PIM solutions where ERP delivers critical product data. Therefore, we also have a number of "out-of-the-box" integrations for e.g. Dynamics AX, NAV and D365.
There are great advantages to be gained from an integration between your PIM and CMS/webshop system. The primary benefits are valid product data and a significant reduction in the maintenance of product data on websites and webshops.
If your suppliers have the option of entering data directly into your PIM system, an integration to your suppliers' systems can be a huge gain. It saves you a lot of work, and usually results in more and better product data.
This is how data comes out of a PIM system
PIM systems are built with the aim of being able to both receive and distribute data. Regardless of where you want your product data to be published, the PIM system can therefore be adapted to your needs.
If your suppliers deliver, for example, product data into your ERP solution, you can automatically have this data sent over to your PIM system with an integration. The same applies to your websites and webshops. Data is sent automatically from PIM to your digital channels, so you don't have to update your products etc. more places.
If you have catalog production, a PIM system can, for example, be integrated with InDesign, which with the plugin EasyCatalog can automate large parts of your catalog production.
How to get the most value with a PIM system
If one or more of the scenarios below apply to you, you have good opportunities to quickly achieve a positive ROI on the investment in a PIM system.
You have many sales channels. And if e-commerce is just one of them, you immediately have a stronger business case.
You are present in several markets and work across many languages. Each language layer adds a dimension to your data that makes it difficult to manage marketing cost-effectively. And many work processes take place manually. Here too, a PIM system will greatly help you.
Your growth goals make it necessary to drastically increase your marketing efforts. Often in new markets, several websites, catalogs and the like. This increased activity simply means that there is more that can be optimized, resulting in a high ROI.
You have complex product data. An example could be that a larger amount of data and descriptions, perhaps you make use of metadata or complex data relationships.
You want more data from suppliers. A PIM system makes it possible to outsource the heavy tasks involved in enriching products with information to your suppliers. With a PIM system, you can standardize how you receive information from your suppliers, and thus save time converting and standardizing the many different formats.
Which PIM providers are there?
According to G2, which is quite a reputable online directory of software and system providers, there are 138 providers of PIM systems worldwide.
In Denmark, we actually have quite a few PIM development houses: Perfion, Dynamicweb, Struct and Stibo to name a few.
At PicoPublish we are certified in Perfion, Dynamicweb and the Swedish inriver. However, this does not mean that you must have these systems in order for us to advise you.
