More and more business people come to us seeking improvement in their internal processes around Product Information Management Systems and to discover a way to provide steadier PIM in eCommerce to end customers.
In this article, we’ll cover the following aspects related to PIM:
- What is Product Information Management (PIM)?
- When do you need to implement a Product Information Management solution?
- What are the pros of Product Information Management?
- How to integrate PIM with Shopware store?
- Why should you consider iCreative Technologies as your Product Information Management Solution partner?
WHAT IS PRODUCT INFORMATION MANAGEMENT?
PIM stands for Product Information Management, or center management of product information required for several external and internal channels, like online stores, printed catalogs, ERP systems, and more. PIM systems support the entire process of creation, planning, enrichment, and the release of product information in all important channels.
HOW DOES A PIM SYSTEM Adjust INTO THE MANAGEMENT OF YOUR PRODUCT INFORMATION DATA?
With an undivided list of eCommerce systems in existence, it can be tough to know where PIM fits in, understanding the purpose of product information data is the solution to your digital future.
Let’s explore the discrepancy between multiple tools and systems related to your product information. Here’s what we’ll be looking at:
- ERP – Enterprise Resource Planning
- DAM – Digital Asset Management
- PDM – Product Data Management
- PIM – Product Information Management
WHEN SHOULD YOU CONSIDER A PIM SYSTEM?
If you have complicated product information set up with thousands of products and/or attributes and require tremendous manpower to organize the advancement and quality of it.
- If you want to expedite up the launch of new products to the market.
- If you sell globally and want to process various products in different languages and/or markets.
- If you want to improve your customer experience, decrease customer complaints, have fewer product returns and exchange of products.
- If you want to provide tremendous quality product information and avoid differences between channels.
- If you want to sustain brand awareness and richness along with several channels and promotions.
- If you want to handle various sales channels and choose which products will be released in each channel.
- If you want to enhance governance and compliance methods and comply with the relevant regulations in every country.
THE MAIN ADVANTAGES OF USING A PIM SYSTEM
A Product Information Management system offers:
- A single point of storage for all of your product information, which you can use across various platforms, point of sales, mobile applications, and any other system within your infrastructure.
- A good integration that will update your eCommerce platform with product data, with the added gratuity of freeing up your eCommerce platform’s resources.
- A great benefit to an omnichannel merchant that sells products with several types of data (specifications like sizes, technical details, colors, etc).
- A more user-friendly environment than a standard eCommerce platform can provide for content management teams.
- The opportunity to enter product data within your PIM system only once; you don’t have to redo the process with your other systems, as every platform in your infrastructure will use the related information.
WHO BENEFITS FROM USING A PIM SYSTEM?
Of course, your whole organization will benefit from adding a PIM, but there are a few departments and particular employees that will see the important effects of a PIM system:
- Sales teams that require both specific and updated product data at all times.
- Ecommerce managers need to provide the most advanced content updates and assure a uniform and quality UX all while improving conversion rates.
- Marketing teams that require building and transforming campaigns across various channels.
- Your potential customers, who can purchase, knowing that they are receiving modernized and descriptive product information for your brand.
WHAT TYPES OF COMPANIES SHOULD Go For a PIM SYSTEM?
Companies of varying sizes can avail different benefits from using a Product Information Management system. iCreative Technologies has integrated several PIM systems into different businesses. Your company will see the perks of a PIM system if you are trying the following activities or have these features:
- Manages complex product content and relationships.
- Has a huge number of SKUs.
- Sells products through various channels.
- Requires detailed product information for use by multiple teams.
- Collects data from various suppliers.
- Conflicts with an excess of manual tasks.
- Increases or updates product offerings multiple times a year.
WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH A PIM?
Your employees will use the PIM system for the following tasks:
- Both centralize and sanitize product data.
- Improve product descriptions and specifications.
- Link documents, images, and media to products.
- Track progress and product completion.
- Categorize products and data.
- Manage connections between products.
- Create and print product sheets.
- Manage and provide data for sales channels.
- Build custom product feeds.
PIM AND SHOPWARE COMMERCE INTEGRATION
Making Shopware work with PIM requires additional effort and investment, but it will give retailers versatility and usability of data across various platforms. Installing a PIM solution is essentially an integration and a process plan; more accurately, it’s a specialized integration that must operate in a particular way and to promote efficient workflows.
The most challenging phase of integration is to assure that the data in the PIM system not only seems good but is structured in a way that makes it simple to pluck and that it’s available and simply manageable in the target systems. When it comes to target systems, though, there is perpetually a problem with addressing the data to the system properly, as the data structure is not intended to fill out the least requirements the system imposes. For instance, a PIM system would not know what configuration properties are and how to tweak them. That’s why an expert integration is required to secure the best communication between a PIM system and target systems.
At iCreative Technologies, we have extensive expertise in integrating the Product Information Management Systems with your eCommerce platform. Our expert teams deploy integrations beyond industries in both the B2B and B2C arenas. We’ve Certified Shopware Developers who have hands-on experience in Shopware. We have more than 3 years of experience in delivering quality Shopware development services.
For more details, get in touch with our team now.
Jainesh Shah
Jainesh Shah is a CEO and Co-Founder of iCreative Technologies Inc. iCreative Technologies is a digital eCommerce agency mainly serving B2B clients across the globe. With over 15 years of experience in technology and business, he is helping his client thrive in this competitive era. He is specialized in eCommerce consulting, creative thinking, generating new business ideas, and delivering end products to market in the digital space. He is working with the vision to help his partner agencies and Clients to grow in their respective businesses.