The benefits of PIM software
The intertwining relationship between product information and customer experience makes PIM software indispensable nowadays. With a PIM solution at their fingertips, organisations can:
- Launch products faster - Eliminate manual handoffs and streamline content creation, ensuring swift product launches.
- Protect brand integrity - Ensure accurate specs and content reaches e-commerce sites, safeguarding brand reputation.
- Enter data once - Manage product data from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) systems, transmitting it seamlessly to various platforms.
- Eliminate email chains - Centralise content requests, reviews, and approvals within the PIM software, reducing communication clutter.
- Speed up approvals – Make use of automated notifications to expedite approval processes, ensuring timely product listings.
- Win over shoppers - Enhance product listings through centralised management, allowing teams to invest more time in refining copy and content.
Why PIM is a game-changer
The arduous task of entering and re-entering vast amounts of information into various tools for project management, digital asset management (DAM), land e-commerce syndication increases the risk of inaccurate information reaching the eyes and minds of customers.
If product descriptions or images misrepresent the actual product, customer satisfaction plummets, often resulting in negative reviews, or even worse – a drop in sales.
This is where PIM solutions step in.
Typically initiated by merchandising, buying, or procurement teams when introducing new SKUs, PIM ensures that product information is gathered, organised, and transformed into accessible product profiles. Organisations can use PIM platforms to aggregate technical data, plan marketing content, assign content projects, route proofs, enrich information with search-optimised content, localise product listings, and update e-commerce product listings as your portfolio and offering evolves.
The inner workings of PIM - streamlining processes for success
PIM solutions operate by streamlining internal processes, allowing organisations to deliver consistent, accurate, and high-quality product information to their customers. These tools enable teams to:
- Collect data - Organise all product-related information within a master profile, streamlining access for the entire organisation.
- Import data - Ensure consistency by allowing designated users or system admins to import product data from external sources into the PIM platform.
- Enrich data - Accelerate time to market by enriching product data with content, digital assets, and collaborative workflows.
- Connect data - Provide updated exports containing the latest product information to e-commerce partners, websites, print publishers, and other channels.
It’s important to note that taxonomies play a crucial role in PIM software, defining how products and associated information are structured within the system. These multi-level hierarchies group products and attributes into categories and subcategories, facilitating the efficient retrieval and customisation of product information for the various channels and platforms where you want it to appear.
Who benefits from PIM?
PIM solutions are not exclusive to a particular department; they benefit the entire organisation by improving day-to-day workflows for various functions. Here are some key stakeholders and their roles in a PIM solution:
- Product managers - Deliver accurate product information to the marketing team, ensuring flexibility as product specs evolve.
- Product marketers - Utilise PIM as a central source of truth for product information, attaching relevant content to master product listings.
- Creators - Creators such as copywriters, photographers and designers use PIM information to guide projects, ensuring accurate deliverables.
- E-commerce managers - Distribute product listings from PIM to e-commerce syndication platforms, ensuring consistency and reliability.
- Agencies - Access and enrich client product information for syndication, optimising descriptions and marketing content.
Information managed in a PIM
PIM systems aggregate a diverse range of product attributes essential for supporting, marketing, and selling goods online. These include:
- Product data - Objective information such as SKUs, weight, sizes, colours, and other product specs managed by engineering and product teams.
- Digital assets - Videos, images, 360-degree product views, and other digital content attached to product profiles in the PIM system.
- Marketing content - Descriptions, features, and sales-driven copy used on product detail pages to convey value and benefits.
- Marketing data - Information for launching and optimising marketing programs, including SEO keywords and brand guidelines.
- Localised and regionalised information - Tailored information for different markets, including language variations, currency translations, and culturally-relevant images.
How DCX can help
Investing in a PIM solution is a no-brainer for brands aiming to sell more, sell better, and boost customer confidence across multiple channels. Put simply, a PIM solution empowers your organisation to not only meet but exceed customer expectations by delivering accurate, compelling product information seamlessly wherever you need it to be.
The PIM revolution is underway, and those organisations that embrace it will undoubtedly stay ahead in the competitive race for customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Whether you want to launch products faster, protect brand integrity, or streamline data entry, a PIM system offer you these benefits and more. And we can help.
Just get in touch!
