Top 10 benefits of PIM
integration for eCommerce retailers

In today’s dynamic landscape of modern retail, success is much more than simply “doing business”. Every retail business must continually evolve to meet customer demands, expectations, and ever-changing shopping habits.

Before making any purchase, 72% of consumers check the price, 69% consult reviews, and 52% review detailed product descriptions. This confirms how efficiently customers switch between sales channels and, secondly, how important catchy and accurate product data is to them.

Managing product data effectively, however, can be a challenge, especially with a vast assortment. Bringing this information chaos under control can be answered via a PIM solution – enabling not only effective master data management for goods, but also adapting such product data to market changes and maintaining information consistency in a dynamic business environment.

This article will help you understand what PIM is, why it is important, and its advantages through the top ten benefits of PIM solution integration for online retailers, enabling them to thrive and go beyond.

Let’s begin:

What is a Product Information Management (PIM) solution?

Product Information Management (PIM) is a business tool that enables businesses to centrally organize and manage product-related data.

It contains product descriptions, images, technical specifications, FAQs, availability data, and pricing information, among other important data types. A PIM solution allows users to import, export, and modify product data while integrating it into other software like eCommerce platforms and CMS (content management systems).

PIM tools also allow you to create and manage product hierarchies, categories and attributes to simplify information management to a huge extent.

On top of that, these tools also help push the content to various channels, thereby eliminating work duplication during the publishing phase.

How can a Product Information Management (PIM) solution help?

PIM is designed to solve the issues that businesses repeatedly encounter when it comes to product information management. Whether brands are distributing product information to retail trading partners, marketplaces, or going direct-to-consumer (D2C), they need a powerful solution to help them manage their product data and create high-quality product content to share with the entire value chain easily.

A PIM solution is a single, centralized repository for product data and digital assets, with cleansing rules, data deduplication, matching and merging, and translation capabilities. It allows brands to streamline data management processes and monitor activities, create high-quality product content, automate product data syndication across multiple touchpoints, and seamlessly adapt to increasingly complex use cases of manufacturers and retailers.

Top 10 advantages of PIM integration for eCommerce retailers

1. Scalability and growth: As an eCommerce business grows, managing product information can become increasingly complex. A robust PIM system enables brands and retailers to easily scale their operations. PIM systems are designed to scale with the business, allowing for the efficient management of a growing number of products and channels.

• PIM systems offer scalability, accommodating businesses as they expand. Retailers can effortlessly integrate new product lines, categories, and attributes. PIM platforms are designed to handle growing data volumes without compromising performance.
• As retailers grow, their product catalogs expand. PIM systems handle larger catalogs with ease.
• Expanding globally requires addressing diverse languages, currencies, and regulations. PIM systems support internationalization efforts by enabling retailers to create multilingual and multi-currency product information.

2. Improved sales and marketing: PIM tools make it possible for sales and marketing teams to create product descriptions, select the right images, and embed other data on the go without compromising its accuracy.

Since all platforms and channels require different sets and quantities of information, having it siloed in a PIM increases the efficiency of sales and marketing operations to a great extent.

3. Enhanced customer experience: By utilizing PIM solutions, brands and retailers can ensure consistent, accurate, and enriched product information across all channels.

Retailers can provide detailed product descriptions, high-quality images, and multimedia elements. Clear and detailed product information aids customer decision-making. Retailers can provide comprehensive specifications, usage guides, and customer reviews. PIM systems allow for the incorporation of interactive elements, such as 360-degree views or virtual try-ons, enhancing customer confidence.

For customers, PIM translates to a better customer experience (CX) since they can easily access relevant and accurate information about the product they want to buy.

4. Enhanced data hygiene and visibility: With a single source of truth for all product information, inconsistencies and errors can be reduced. PIM ensures that all data is accurate, complete, and consistently formatted across all sales channels.

Since manual data entry is eliminated to a huge extent, it is natural that data hygiene will improve drastically.

Eliminating work duplication will also add to the data integrity as the PIM tool will serve as the single source of truth for all other software, including the eCommerce platform and inventory control software.

5. Improved efficiency of operations: Efficiency in managing product information directly impacts time and costs.

PIM systems automate various tasks related to data entry, updates, and distribution across multiple platforms. By streamlining these processes, brands and retailers save time and resources that can be utilized for strategic initiatives. Efficient data management reduces operational costs, minimizes errors, and accelerates time-to-market, enabling businesses to stay competitive and agile.

6. Supports multichannel and omnichannel marketing, sales: In the digital age, consumers engage with brands through various channels, necessitating a seamless multichannel and omnichannel approach. Product data inconsistency and improper presentation are among the biggest bottlenecks for eCommerce retailers when approaching multichannel and omnichannel marketing.

PIM facilitates the management of product information across multiple channels, whether it’s an online store, marketplaces like Amazon, or brick-and-mortar locations. It ensures that customers get the same information wherever they choose to shop.

PIM systems automate many marketing tasks associated with managing product data, including data entry, mapping, and enrichment, which can save time and reduce errors when working with multiple channels/platforms.

7. Increased business agility: Online retailers can use PIM systems to quickly update product information across all channels and platforms, including the customer self-service portals centrally, making it a great asset for business agility.

This not only helps them be responsive to any errors or malfunctions but also provides a competitive edge in the case of marketing-oriented activities.

8. Enhanced collaboration among stakeholders: Since all product information is stored centrally on a PIM system, all stakeholders can access and manage it from a single location. User-level access ensures that the stakeholders view and manage the data as per their assigned roles while significantly reducing the risk of errors.

By centralizing product information, PIM enables better collaboration between different departments within a business. Whether it’s marketing, sales, or supply chain, everyone can access the same up-to-date information.

9. Improved search engine visibility: A PIM tool makes it easy for online retailers to display the right information in a structured manner, thereby increasing search engine visibility.

With a PIM platform, your product data is automatically updated across all your sales channels simultaneously, and you can ensure that all meta-fields are completed correctly. As a result, the data is quickly and easily available to search engines. And, with the improved organisation of your product data that a PIM solution offers, search engine algorithms are able to better understand product information on your website.

Also, it helps your products gain visibility over your competitors, as well as improving their ranking in the search results.

10. Enhanced compliance and product data security: Ensuring compliance with industry standards and data security regulations is crucial for eCommerce businesses.

• Compliance management: For merchants who operate in industries with strict regulations around product information (such as healthcare, food, or electronics), PIM helps ensure that all necessary compliance information is accurately and consistently maintained.
• Data security: A PIM tool offers an added layer of enterprise-grade data protection, while user-level access controls and centralization enhance overall product data security. Automation also plays a pivotal role in enhancing data security as it removes the scope of human error. By ensuring data privacy and confidentiality, retailers build trust with customers and demonstrate a commitment to safeguarding their information.

Overall, a PIM solution can be a valuable tool for retail eCommerce businesses looking to improve the customer experience, increase efficiency, reduce errors, and enhance their product search function, which can lead to increased sales and revenue enhance their marketing and sales efforts.

For information on leveraging a PIM system, eCommerce store, and ERP to build a unified ecosystem to drive efficiency and success in the automotive industry, see Automotive Businesses: Fueling Success in eCommerce with PIM.

When and Why Your eCommerce Business Need a PIM Platform?

If you already have an ERP, you may wonder whether your business needs a PIM solution as well. For smaller businesses with a limited number of products, managing product information may be straightforward. However, as your business grows, handling all your data can become increasingly complex.

Here are five signs that indicate you should consider a PIM:

• You have thousands of SKUs.
• You sell across multiple digital channels.
• Various team members contribute to your product data (assets, technical information, SEO and marketing content, etc.).
• You have multiple suppliers or brands within the group.
• You sell internationally or plan to expand abroad.

Each of these factors adds a new layer of complexity to your eCommerce business, increasing the risk of errors or duplication without a central location to store your product information.

Talk to a PIM specialist today!

Summing Up

PIM solutions deliver exceptional value to eCommerce retailers, as any discrepancy in product data can lead to a big dent in the profitability and customer experience.

Especially companies with a large and diverse product catalogue require a PIM tool to support internal operations such as inventory management and order fulfilment.

At the same time, it helps them streamline activities like keeping the company’s eCommerce store updated, synchronizing the information across mobile apps, marketplaces, and social selling channels, and enhancing customer servicing.

It reduces the risk of errors in information distribution while allowing the company to distribute accurate and consistent product information through a single window, thereby cutting costs.

Want to know more about ERP-eCommerce integration mistakes before you make up your mind? Go through our eBook now!

Our experts will develop a customized action plan, help you select the best PIM solution for your requirements, and successfully integrate it with your eCommerce platform.

If you are looking forward to implementing a Product Information Management (PIM) tool for your retail eCommerce business, feel free to get in touch with i95Dev.