Product Information Management (PIM) is a solution that helps you manage all the information about your products or services in one place. It usually covers the tasks related to product data collection, enrichment, integration, and distribution.
Product or Services data are collected and integrated within internal systems such as ERP or Supplier Portals and in some cases still relying on excel import. The main goal is to improve the overall data quality, reliability and bring relevant and pertinent data to the customer (B2c, B2B or D2C model).
What does it really bring to my omnichannel IT ecosystem environment ?
The improved overall data quality has a direct impact on sales, operations management, and logistics. For example, a company can see that their product data is largely incomplete as well as inaccurate, with only a percentage of the product information filled out. They would also need to manually integrate all the information from other systems and create a new dataset for their e-commerce website. This can be streamlined by using a PIM system. So, the data integration process becomes automated and there’s no need to deal with incomplete dataset or combine multiple datasets to create one for your e-commerce website.
Importance of PIM for Omnichannel E-commerce
PIM systems are highly beneficial for omnichannel e-commerce as they help businesses get rid of costly data errors and inconsistencies which may arise with the development of complex multi-channel commerce scenarios.
Some of the benefits of PIM are :
Enhanced Product Knowledge
With a PIM system in place, you can gather product information from several channels and integrate it with your existing systems for stronger data integration. You’ll have all the company’s product data in one place which allows you to offer enhanced services to your customers such as advanced search, targeted product, product substitution to further engage them.
Increased Sales Opportunities
Once you’ve established your product data to be as accurate as possible, you’ll be able to make better-informed decisions for the markets. A PIM system will help your inventory management by having data always up-to-date allowing a clear overview of your products. You will be able to offer upsell and cross-sell services from a mix of physical and services offerings which will further generate additional revenue.
Improved Customer Service
The customer service experience will improve as well, as you’ll have all the product data available in one place. You can use it for customer service inquiries and send out automated messages directly from the system for specific products or queries. You’ll get rid of manual processes that waste time and money, enabling you to serve customers with better quality of service.
Reduced Overhead
You’ll be able to save time using a PIM system. You won’t have to manually enter inventory data or create new product information for each channel, which will help you to reduce operational spending and improve the speed of operations.
What about E-commerce Omnichannel ROI ?
Let’s start with a very well-known fact in the business community : the cost of doing business with the wrong product data is too high. The cost of poor data – e.g. being out of stock, delivering wrong or incomplete information, offers that are not differentiated enough will generate losses higher than the investment in a PIM system.
The ROI of a PIM system is much higher than just being able to solve the data-related challenges. From an IT perspective, it’s crucial for the long-term success of your business and can be considered an investment in your customers as well.
Because the PIM system is designed to be used across all channels, it can also increase traffic to your website due to better organic search results as well as higher brand visibility. This means more than just enhanced customer experience, but increased bottom-line profits as well.
Conclusion
We can all agree that data is everywhere and it is vital for the growth and success of a business. The need for PIM is growing rapidly in the IT industry. It’s not only about an improved customer experience but also about having efficient and streamlined data processes across all channels.