Blog » 7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a PIM Solution
7 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a PIM Solution
Author name: Bradley Taylor
Managing product information shouldn’t feel like an endless juggling act. Yet, for many businesses, it does. With countless SKUs, evolving customer expectations, and the growing demand for multichannel selling, keeping product data organized can quickly become a problem for unprepared companies.
However, product information management (PIM) software can turn chaos into clarity. In this post, we’ll explore seven key reasons why your business needs a dedicated PIM system for managing product data. Let’s get started.
1. Struggles Managing Large or Diverse Product Catalogs
An expansive product offering allows you to attract a wider audience. However, managing product information for a large, diverse range of products doesn’t come without challenges. When spread across multiple systems, maintaining thousands of SKUs can quickly overwhelm even the most organized teams. This effect is amplified the more nuanced the products’ attributes, descriptions, and media files.
Without a centralized and efficient system in place, making changes and keeping track of updates can become a resource-draining burden. Unfortunately, many businesses rely on spreadsheets, siloed databases, and other disparate systems to perform product information management functions. The more the product catalogue grows, the more unmanageable the process becomes.
The challenge of managing your catalog increases when you have frequent product launches. Consider clothing businesses as an example. For fashion companies that need regular seasonal updates to their catalog, they must handle the difficulty of frequently updating product details for each new clothing line. When the task is performed on multiple platforms, the business risks wasting valuable time while potentially losing customers to inaccurate product information.
Why PIM is the Best Solution for Large Catalogs
PIM software significantly reduces the complexity of managing large product assortments. It does so by centralizing your entire catalog into one easy-to-manage system. As a centralized repository for all your product data, a PIM system acts as a single source of truth that all team members can use and reference for anything related to product information. No longer having to hop between disconnected tools, the team can reduce errors and redundant tasks while enjoying more efficient workflows.
Additionally, PIM gives businesses a more efficient way to classify products. With robust PIM technology, you can create product relationships, standardize attributes, and define product variants. Consider the benefit this could have for a furniture retailer with a vast product catalog of sofas, beds, and tables. Without a strong tool for managing product data, the company will struggle to deal with the dimensions, materials, and color options applicable to its products.
These challenges would inhibit the company’s ability to effectively update and distribute product information across its eCommerce site, store kiosks, and printed catalogs. However, with PIM, the business can enjoy simplified data management and enhanced classification functionality to improve data quality at every touchpoint.
2. Costly Data Quality Issues
Inconsistencies and mistakes are almost inevitable when managing product data manually or with non-specialized tools. These mistakes can prove costly and are a significant risk to businesses that haven’t adopted PIM as a service. For example, a slight mismatch between item dimensions notated on image files in your asset management system and those sent to your manufacturing team can result in production delays. Or, your inaccurate product data can confuse customers across sales channels, leading to reputation damage and costly returns.
Implement PIM Software for High-Quality Product Data
A top PIM business case is its ability to foster accurate and complete product data. Advanced PIM software like PIMinto includes built-in data validation features to flag errors before they become costly problems. For example, if a product has mismatched formatting, the PIM system can alert you before the information is published.
PIM systems also commonly feature version control and data history capabilities. These features let you record every change made to your product information. You can use this to easily monitor how your data has changed over time and to address any data integrity errors more efficiently.
3. Leveling Up Your Customer Experience
Today’s customers expect detailed and consistent product information no matter where they interact with a brand. Inconsistencies in descriptions, images, or specifications can frustrate and alienate potential buyers. Research from Retail Drive shows that 87% of consumers say they are unlikely to make repeat purchases from a brand that provides inaccurate product information.
Beyond accuracy, many consumers place a high value on enriched content. This includes clear and compelling descriptions, multiple high-quality images, videos, and detailed customer reviews. Meeting these expectations can be challenging when managing product data across multiple channels manually. Enriching each item on one channel after another will come with added labor hours along with the potential for errors.
Why Your Audience Loves the PIM Customer Experience
A PIM solution transforms the customer experience through high-quality product information. It allows you to display uniform and accurate product details across all touchpoints. This enhanced customer experience can lead to increased sales and greater customer trust.
Consider an electronics brand that receives frequent complaints from shoppers about inconsistent descriptions and product specifications between its website and third-party marketplaces. These complaints lead directly to poor reviews and missed sales opportunities. However, the solution PIM offers can help them easily standardize and enrich descriptions across sales channels. As a result, the business can enjoy the rewards of increased customer trust.
4. Boost Operational Efficiency
Managing product data manually or across multiple systems is inherently time-consuming. It is also prone to errors. Teams often work in silos and waste time searching for correct information or fixing mistakes. This inefficiency affects everyone, from marketing teams preparing campaigns to logistics teams handling inventory. The result is poorly coordinated work across teams and delays that can impact business-critical operations.
How PIM Provides Improved Efficiency
PIM improves operational efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and streamlining workflows. You can update a product detail in a PIM system and it will automatically reflect across all connected platforms. This reduces the amount of manual and repetitive work your team has to deal with.
Furthermore, a PIM system’s centralized design further enhances collaboration throughout the organization. With data stored and organized in a single location, teams across departments can access up-to-date information from the same place. This capability removes the burdensome back-and-forth between teams, allowing them to enjoy a more efficient and less stressful workflow. As a result, everyone has more freedom to focus on value-adding tasks rather than getting bogged down in data management.
5. Scalable Multichannel Selling
Many businesses today leverage multiple sales channels to reach their target audience. Similarly, many consumers engage in product experiences across various channels. While a multichannel strategy can yield positive outcomes, it comes with the challenge of managing data requirements across platforms.
Third-party marketplaces each have their unique specifications for product data. Trying to keep up with these requirements manually or without a specialized tool is cumbersome as the data specifications often differ from what is best practice for your eCommerce site. This means you can’t simply push product information from your online store and expect it to be optimized for each channel unless you have a system to process and structure the data first.
How PIM Enables Seamless Multichannel Distribution
A PIM solution enables seamless distribution of product information to multiple channels. The central hub integrates with popular sales platforms and can automatically format and distribute product information according to each channel’s specific requirements. This capability empowers businesses to deliver great product experiences at scale.
6. AI-Powered Product Data and Task Automation
Artificial intelligence (AI) provides new and innovative ways to enhance business processes. For eCommerce companies, AI can assist with a variety of functions including product recommendations, dynamic pricing, and inventory forecasting. That said, scattered and inconsistent product information can limit an AI’s ability to automate tasks. Instead, a centralized system for managing structured, high-quality data is needed to leverage AI to maximum effect.
How PIM Software Leverages AI to Maximum Effect
Modern PIM systems are made to support AI-driven commerce. They provide structured data that can be seamlessly fed into AI tools. This allows you to streamline workflows as AI can handle complex tasks for you. AI is also great for boosting data accuracy and optimizing product descriptions.
For example, PIMinto’s AI assistant can analyze product descriptions to suggest improvements to make them more engaging and better for SEO. Additionally, the AI assistant can automate data entry and the process of updating product information. As a result, team members are free to focus on strategic activities while ensuring the business keeps pace in a fast-moving market.
7. PIM Is a Cost Effective Solution
At first glance, managing product data manually might seem like the cheaper option. However, the hidden costs can directly impact your business’s bottom line. Errors in product listings lead to costly returns and damaged customer trust. Plus, wasted hours spent on manual updates and fixing mistakes translate into lost productivity and missed revenue opportunities.
Opting to manage product data across multiple platforms is not much better. The cost incurred from disconnected systems quickly adds up, not to mention the cost of additional software and custom integrations to make the systems work together.
How PIM Software Lowers Costs
A PIM solution can deliver significant cost savings. It does so by reducing inefficiencies and mitigating errors that are costly down the road. While the initial price tag might seem high, the software tends to yield a positive return on investment not long after implementation. Additionally, PIM software providers offer flexible pricing plans, including viable options for open source and free PIM solutions.
It’s Time to Get a PIM Solution
Centralize Your Product Data
Simplify how you manage product information with one source of truth. Get accuracy, consistency, and ease of access across teams and channels.
Unlock Greater Efficiency
Free your team from time-consuming manual updates. A PIM solution empowers your business to work smarter, not harder.
Scale Seamlessly Across Channels
Expand to new markets and sales channels without worrying about data formatting or quality. A PIM system handles the complexity of preparing your data for multichannel success.
Final Thoughts On Why Your Business Needs PIM Software
The challenges of managing product data only grow as your business expands. If you’re ready to work smarter and scale with confidence, it’s time to make PIM a part of your business strategy.
Contact us today to get started with the free version of PIMinto
and see why PIM is essential to long-term business growth.
Modified on: 12/24/2024