The term PIM (Product Information Management), is more and more recognizable because of its strong growth in the B2B and B2C eCommerce world.
PIM yields a broad set of software products and services that serve the user types, such as SMBs and big enterprises to control their consolidated master data centrally. The multi-domain PIM applications such as product and supplier data have given the businesses a consolidated view to handle their clients’ demands.
According to Ventana Research, 50% of product-centric businesses will use a modern dedicated PIM to manage product processes and provide high-quality product experiences by 2021. MarketsandMarkets states the PIM category will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 25.3% to 15.8 Billion dollars by the same year.
But why? Why are so many companies investing and adopting PIM so quickly?
The top answers are:
Compared to the much more expensive IT-led MDM initiatives, a PIM system is business-led. It’s comparatively faster and cheaper to deploy with business benefits that are easy to measure. Hard numbers from improved sales conversion rates and reduced product return commonly provide payback periods of less than a year and can be even shorter when taking into consideration the high agility and scalability of the marketing team.
Customers expect precise and detailed product information, along with images and other digital media. If they don’t find what they want or can’t get the required information from one retailer/distributor, they go to another site or catalog. Businesses know this and are desirous of investing in solutions that make it quick and simple to accumulate and distribute complete and correct product information.
Creating high-quality and comprehensive product information can’t be done without a thought about the process – who is involved, who can validate the data, who can decide if the information is complete, etc. Businesses are using PIM solutions to manage, control, and track the process of creating product information, and frequently are using it as a part of their more notable data governance initiatives.
Well, it’s important to note that not every single eCommerce business needs a PIM system, at least not from the very beginning. If your enterprise is grappling with any of the following though, you should be looking at what PIM could bring to your business:
Active product expansion has become a bottleneck for many companies seeking to grow with new product offerings across new markets and channels. PIM allows these companies to quickly scale their catalogs and spread product information to additional channels.
A global scale is only valid when matched with the ability to customize the product experience for every customer granularly. PIM allows global teams to build highly targeted product experiences made just for different locales, channels, and languages.
Success doesn’t always belong to the most notable players. PIM enables businesses to streamline their product creation and enrichment methods to bring new products and seasonal collections to market much faster as opposed to putting product information in spreadsheets.
Products are the core of your business, and therefore it makes sense to make sure your product information is as precise and comprehensive as possible and builds an emotional connection with buyers. There is no excellent customer experience without a compelling product experience.
There are quite a few benefits your business can get from PIM:
PIM tools allow you to form a focal hub to control all your product information collaboratively. This thoroughly simplifies the process of creating, managing, and using product information and specifications for online and offline catalogs.
