Product Information Management (PIM)

Glossary

What is product information management (PIM)?

Product information management is a system that stores, enriches, and manages product information in a centralized place, ensuring all marketing and sales channels have accurate and up-to-date product information, such as descriptions, images, specifications, prices, and other attributes.

PIM systems are crucial for e-commerce businesses handling an ever-expanding inventory of products. As these businesses grow and their product catalogs become larger and more complex, keeping track of information on different channels like websites, apps, marketplaces, partner e-commerce stores, etc., becomes challenging. Maintaining a centralized source of truth for all channels and collaborating partners helps these brands deliver consistent and compelling shopping experiences for their customers.

What information is managed in a PIM system?

  1. Product information: These attributes encompass all the key information that can be used to characterize and explain a product, such as

    • Product Descriptions: Detailed explanations of product features, benefits, and usage instructions.
    • Technical specifications: Details like product dimensions, weight, material, etc.
    • Product variants: Variations like product size, color, style, etc.
    • Stock levels: Includes inventory data on available stock.

  2. Digital Assets : These are the media files such as images and videos which help buyers visualize the product and understand the functionality, making the product listing engaging.

  3. Pricing information: It includes crucial information on the selling price of the product, including other attributes such as discounted prices, coupons, festive pricing, etc.

  4. Marketing and Sales information: It includes various categorization attributes such as

    • Product category: Used for website organization and navigation.
    • Tags: Relevant tags for improving product filtering and search for site visitors.
    • SEO data: Product titles, descriptions, Google product categories, etc.
    • User-generated content: Customer reviews, ratings, and testimonials.

  5. Other attributes: There are multiple other attributes that can be stored in a PIM system, like manufacturer’s information, localized content & translations, and compliance certificates, etc.

Who needs product information management?

PIM can be beneficial for many organizations, particularly those involved in managing a large scale of products across multiple catalogs, platforms, and locations. Some examples include

E-commerce businesses

Since these brands manage thousands of products on different channels, a centralized information system ensures that updates made to product data in the central system are automatically reflected across all channels.

For example, an e-commerce brand may have its sunglasses listed on its website, on marketplaces like Amazon, on social media storefronts, etc. If they have received an updated product photoshoot for their sunglasses, they would want the updated visuals to reach all the touchpoints without delay and without duplicating the team's effort. A PIM is an ideal solution to achieve this.

Manufacturing businesses

Manufacturers deal with a wide range of products and they are responsible for accuracy in product descriptions and specifications that are circulated to various stakeholders such as distributors, retailers and customers. Manufacturers have to manage the digital assets, brand compliance, warranty specifications, usage instructions and more. They also need to maintain accurate stock levels of various SKUs, updated pricing, discounts, and more so that all stakeholders receive the latest information.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands

CPG brands have a huge ecosystem of partners who collaborate to expand the reach of their products to new geographies and localized markets. These brands need the collaborators such as distributors, marketing teams, and sales representatives to have correct information on the ingredients, nutrition value, shelf life, etc. of their products, along with the brand compliant communication messages. A PIM system guarantees seamless collaboration and effective market expansion.

Agencies

Agencies use a PIM system to enrich the product information for their clients, which can then be used for different marketing campaigns, website management, digital asset management, and partnerships.

The teams or roles in an organization that are often involved in working with a PIM system are:

  • Product Managers: Use PIM systems to update the product data, manage the product life cycle, track changes, etc.

  • Marketing Managers: Use marketing content and digital assets from the PIM system for different marketing campaigns.

  • E-commerce Managers: Ensure information is accurate and optimized across all e-commerce channels like websites, social media catalogs, marketplaces, etc.

What are some business benefits of product information management?

Businesses need to effectively utilize their growing inventories while ensuring a seamless customer experience. Using a PIM system helps them achieve consistency with scale. It offers the following key benefits:

Faster time-to-market

Focus on optimizing your catalogs to launch new products and creative campaigns faster by saving time on redundant tasks such as updating product information manually, endless searching for approved media files & copy, maintaining multiple communication and feedback channels like Gmail, Slack, Drive etc.

A PIM offers reliable data and up-to-date information in a centralized hub, ensuring

  • Automated information update on multiple channels.
  • Brand consistency with version control.
  • Transparent and fast feedback process.
  • Streamlined collaboration.
  • Efficient asset tracking.

Improved performance

A PIM system impacts the performance of marketing campaigns and helps businesses generate more revenue. It enables

  • Personalized campaigns: PIM systems integrate with your customer relationship management (CRM) system and other automation tools to deliver personalized messaging, products, and discount offers to your customers. It improves revenue opportunities using cross-sells and upsells.

  • Rich media assets: A PIM system offers centralization of high-quality images and videos to improve customer engagement rates.

  • Expanded reach: A PIM maintains accurate product information, including localization attributes (e.g., text translations, delivery instructions, etc.) and international adaptations (e.g., currency conversions, global certifications, etc.). This centralization of comprehensive data helps businesses expand to new regions faster.

Delightful customer experiences

PIM systems create a seamless experience for customers across all touchpoints with

  • Cohesive customer journey: The transition from one touchpoint to another is seamless with a PIM system. A customer might view a product online, then talk to your pre-sales team for additional information, and later visit an offline store to buy it. Having matching details on all channels enhances customer satisfaction.

  • Reduced errors and confusion: Manual editing of details like product prices, availability, technical specifications, etc., is prone to errors, resulting in confused customers and abandoned carts.

  • Consistent branding: A PIM system integrates with your digital asset management infrastructure to always distribute approved brand assets and media files.

What’s the difference between PIM and DAM?

The purpose of a PIM system, as we have discussed, is to centralize product information for improved accuracy and customer satisfaction, an ideal tool for fast-growing e-commerce businesses. On the other hand, a digital asset management (DAM) system manages the entire lifecycle of digital assets, such as product images, ad graphics, promotional videos, marketing documents, etc., from upload to distribution. The two solutions are complementary and not a replacement for the other. Key differences between a PIM and a DAM include:

  • A PIM manages product information, whereas a DAM centralizes digital brand assets.
  • A PIM is implemented by businesses such as e-commerce and manufacturing. A DAM benefits any organization dealing with a large volume of digital assets.
  • A PIM is mostly used by product teams and e-commerce managers, while a DAM is primarily a tool for marketers and creative professionals.
  • A PIM ensures accurate product data, whereas a DAM ensures brand consistency and efficient collaboration.
  • The key functionalities of a PIM are catalog management, bulk editing, data enrichment, and data syndication. The primary capabilities of a DAM include metadata-based asset organization, AI-powered search, cross-team collaboration, and media distribution.

To learn more about the differences between PIM and DAM systems, visit this article.

Check out ImageKit DAM to see all the benefits of using a DAM for your business.