Managing Data Channels
One of the main reason for using a PIM is to have the Product Information Management tool manage sending and receiving data over multiple sales channels.
A channel is a place where you need to have product information sent or where product information may be received from. If you sell on Shopify and on Amazon then you have 2 channels. If you add a sales team, and a wholesale distributor then that would be a total number of 4 channels. Adding a dealer network for example, would bring the total number of channels to 5.
Each of these channels most likely requires different information in order to to be utilized properly. The price you sell on Shopify and on Amazon is most likely different since Amazon's shipping policies impact the cost of delivering your product. Additionally the attribute field names are different on Shopify and Amazon. Both platforms actually require a different number of product attributes. Most eCommerce platforms provide a method to upload data directly to the platform and some even have API's (Application Program Interfaces) or connection points that allow PIMInto to send (and in some cases receive) the data directly to (and from) the eCommerce platform automatically. This is called a "feed"
Likewise sales team members will need different subset of information and wholesale distributors will have their own data points that they require as well. This data may not be uploaded like with Shopify or Amazon but may be expected to be sent via email or available for download.
Likewise sales team members will need different subset of information and wholesale distributors will have their own data points that they require as well. This data may not be uploaded like with Shopify or Amazon but may be expected to be sent via email or available for download.
Creating spreadsheets, emailing, uploading, downloading all consumes time. PIMInto provides powerful tools that streamline managing your sales channels and in most cases can perform the repetitive processing work for you freeing your team up to manage the quality of data instead of trying to manage actually distributing it.
PIMInto allows you to define different export formats and schedule export tasks. These tasks can send data directly to eCommerce platforms like Shopify using what is called a "." Additionally data can be automatically extracted from some external platforms (like Shopify) using PIMInto's "Sync" feature. "Sync" stands for "Syncronize" and will automatically update the product data stored in the PIM with the product data stored on an external platform like Shopify. This makes getting started with the PIM really easy and prevents users from having to import and export using files in these cases.
These scheduled tasks can also be used to create export files that contain product information for uploading to almost any eCommerce platform or "channel." Additionally these files can be automatically emailed as an attachment based on predefined scheduled settings. Or made available for download via a URL that can be provided to your channel partners. The data stored in these files and made available to your partners is updated automatically according to your predefined schedule.
Brand portals may also be used to provide access to product information and resources to channel partners. Extensive information is available under the Brand Portals and PIM help topic.
External users may also be granted the ability to log on to PIMInto with limited "data viewer" privileges and be view only specific attributes for a specific subset of products. This is achieved through managing user permissions and by using a data view. For more information on views please see the Mapping and Restricting PIM Data (Views) help topic,