Mastering Product Information Management for E-Commerce

As the e-commerce industry expands and new developments continue to reshape online selling, managing product data for merchants has become increasingly challenging. The constant need to introduce new items to stay competitive, the regular emergence of new e-commerce platforms, and rising customer expectations further add to the pressure. 

This makes it very important to maintain accurate and consistent product information across all sales channels. Any errors or delays in updating and sharing this data can lead to missed sales and lost opportunities.

That’s why more merchants and businesses are adopting product information management (PIM) practices and systems. 

This is because with PIM, merchants can collect, consolidate, enrich, and distribute product information across multiple channels. Moreover, they can also maintain omnichannel consistency and improve customer experiences. 

If you are new to the concept of product information management and don’t know what it is, then don’t worry. That’s why we have created this blog. Through it, we will discuss the definition and purpose of PIM. We will also cover its benefits, what PIM systems are, and many other important details.

Note: The concept of PIM is also applicable to other industries such as retail, manufacturing, etc. However, this blog primarily focuses on PIM for the e-commerce industry.

What is Product Information Management (PIM)?

Product Information Management (PIM) refers to the process of storing, managing, and enriching product information required to market and sell items across different channels. This product information includes everything from product attributes and identifiers to digital assets such as images, videos, marketing brochures, etc. 

Essentially, with PIM, you can:  

1. Easily collect product information from multiple sources.
2. Centralize the information you collect.
3. Allow different teams and stakeholders to access that information and collaborate on it.
4. Enrich product data as per your specific needs.
5. Distribute it to any customer touchpoint, channel, or marketing platform.

You can implement PIM for your e-commerce business in two ways: 

1. Manually, where you collect, store, and optimize all the product information at a centralized location. Moreover, as per your requirements, you sync the information to any desired channel yourself. 
2. Automatically, using dedicated Product Information Management (PIM) systems. PIM systems are software platforms that help you automate the tasks you would otherwise complete manually in the PIM process. They enable you to centralize all product information, govern and enrich it as per your specific needs, and distribute it across different channels and advertising platforms.

These tools offer seamless integrations with different types of software, such as CRMs, ERPs, etc. Once integrated, a merchant can easily import all the product information from those sources into these tools. After that, they can easily update product information to meet different channel requirements and distribute it accordingly.   

But what’s important for you to note is that whether carried out manually or through a tool, the primary aim of PIM is to ensure that consistent and accurate product information is delivered to all possible customer touchpoints. 

Note: Many websites incorrectly use “PIM” to describe both the process and the software. The process is called PIM. The software should be referred to as a PIM system, tool, or solution.

What is an Example of PIM? 

Let’s assume that you run a fashion e-commerce store. You have some raw, scattered product data and marketing material for all items that you sell in that store. Some of it is stored in your Shopify store, while other information is available in Oracle and Hubspot CRM. 

Now, you wish to collect and organize this product information in one secure, centralized location. This is to ensure that the product information: 

1. Is accessible to all stakeholders, and collaboration amongst different teams is much easier. 
2. Is always ready for distribution on channels like Google Shopping, Facebook, Instagram, etc. 

So, to accomplish that, you can start using a PIM system such as Pimcore. 

Using its API integrations, you can easily connect your Shopify store, ERP and CRM systems with it. After establishing the connections, all the product information can easily be imported into Pimcore.  

Also, Inside Pimcore, you can enrich the product data and customize it to meets the requirement of each specific channel. Once that’s done, again by using the platform’s APIs, you can swiftly sync your entire inventory to the target channel. 

Benefits of Product Information Management 

Let’s quickly look at the benefits of PIM. 

1. Better Accuracy and Consistency of Product Information: With PIM, product information is stored at a central hub in an organized manner. This helps you to distribute and display consistent and up-to-date product data across every channel you expand to. The chances of inconsistencies in data, such as different titles, or prices on different platforms are reduced significantly. 
2. Faster Product Launches: When all the data is stored centrally and is always ready to use, you can sync your products to any marketplace within minutes. This helps you to expand your online store’s reach easily. 
3. Enhanced Customer Experience: With PIM, you ensure that accurate product information is available across all touchpoints, including a buyer’s shopping journey. This is important because it will help a customer access any item’s information (for example, its features) clearly, understand the product better, and make confident purchasing decisions. 
4. Reduced Operational Costs: If you are specifically using PIM solutions, then by automating different processes such as collecting data, formatting it, etc., you can reduce labor costs significantly. Moreover, the time saved over these processes can be invested in other value-add tasks like improving product information for different channels, creating new marketing material, etc.
5. Better SEO and Product Discoverability: PIM solutions also use AI modules to suggest fresh keywords and automatically update key product attributes such as titles, descriptions, etc. This can help you keep your content always optimized for search engines and specific marketplaces, which can lead to better rankings, more organic traffic, and high sales. 

How to Implement PIM In Your E-Commerce Business? 

We will now learn how you can introduce and implement the concept of product information management in your e-commerce business. 

Define Your Goals and Scope 

You must decide what goals you wish to accomplish by implementing PIM in your business.

For example: 

1. You want to ensure that you launch your products faster.
2. Your business needs a smart tool that helps you manage, optimize, and sync your product information to different channels.  
3. There is a requirement for a central data source that stores the master copy of all product information. 
4. You wish to improve customer experiences.
5. Or all of the above. 

Along with the goal, you should also define the scope. By scope, we mean that you must identify: 

1. What type of product information exists for your items that you want to manage, optimize, and distribute with PIM?
2. Moreover, where is your current product information stored or available (if it is)? 
3. What’s the overall size and complexity of your product information? Is it small enough that you can manually manage, or will you need PIM software? 
4. Which marketplaces do you wish to serve on (or already serve and want to manage and store their customized product information more efficiently)? 

When you answer all these questions, you will clearly understand:

• Whether implementing PIM is a good decision or not. 
• The benefits that your business would reap from PIM.

Based on that clarity, you will be able to choose the right PIM approach, whether manual or using tools. It will also ensure you properly implement PIM strategies in your e-commerce business and make the most of them. 

Decide Your PIM Approach 

Based on your goals, scope, and product catalog size, you will have to decide whether to implement PIM manually or use a tool. 

Here’s how you can decide which approach will best suit your store’s needs:

• Choose a manual approach when you have a small inventory of 10-12 items and don’t plan to expand beyond one or two marketplaces. In such cases, maintaining a master spreadsheet for product information and storing all other essential documents, brochures, etc., in your Google Drive can work. 

Whenever required, you can conveniently access the stored information, edit it yourself, or by using a tool like ChatGPT. Once the information is edited in accordance with your target marketplace’s requirements, you can start uploading it. 

• If you have an extensive catalog and a lot of data for all items, then using PIM software is recommended. These tools allow merchants to store any type of data, be it attributes, product metadata, etc., in one place. 

Also, by using their AI content enrichment features, you can optimize your product data according to the requirements of any specific channel. Once optimized, it can be easily synced to all the desired channels with minimal effort. 

Audit and Prepare your Data

Next, you will need to audit all your existing product information and note all its sources. For example, if you are a Shopify merchant, then you may have all your product data, including attributes, images, etc., just in Shopify. For the same items, you might have some other information, such as warranties, usage instructions, etc., in Google Drive or your email.

Note all such sources, as they will be important for the next step when all product information is consolidated. 

Also, if any type of data isn’t available in the right format or must be prepared from scratch, we recommend doing it during this stage. Accurate and consistent product data will help us lay a strong foundation for PIM implementation. 

Establish a Centralized Structure 

The next step will be to bring the data from all sources into one central location. 

1. Manually: Consolidate the data in one centralized location manually. 

For example, you can create your product feed in Google Sheets and save it in a Google Drive folder. Then, you can add all the marketing material, warranty and usage guides, images, videos, etc., to the same folder. 

2. Using a PIM system: When using a tool, you will have to import all the product information (attributes, assets, etc.) into the tool. 

Depending on the tool, its features, and offerings, you can import all the information in different ways. For example, Plytix allows you to import product data and even their associated assets through CSV files. 

Irrespective of the PIM approach and all other factors, our goal in this step will be to create a “Single source of truth.” This is to ensure that all the product information is always available at a single location. 

Set Standards and Workflows

Once you centralize product information, you must set some clear standards and processes for managing it. This can include what types of product attributes should be available for products, which image format to use when updating the central data hub, etc.

When you are following the manual PIM approach, you can create a handy guide that includes all the essential instructions. It should cover how to create, update, organize, govern, enrich, and distribute the product information. 

In the case of PIM systems, you can define certain workflows that trigger automated actions whenever your defined conditions are met. Moreover, if you are operating with a team, then you can also assign custom roles so that you can control who can access the PIM system, and they can only access information that is relevant to their responsibilities.

Enriching and Distributing Product Information 

Depending on the sales channel or e-commerce platform you need to sell on, you must optimize your content. 

For example, if you wish to promote products across Google Shopping, then you must ensure that your titles are under 150 characters, Google product categories you define are in compliance with Google’s product taxonomy, and so on. 

Either you can optimize and edit your product information manually, or use the PIM system’s in-built features. 

Once you complete the enrichment process, you can manually submit your feed on the respective channel. Or the other option is to use the PIM tool’s integration capabilities and sync your products automatically to GMC.

Note: The PIM system you use to send products to Google automatically will create a feed in GMC with all product data after syncing.

Maintain and Improve Product Information Continuously

Remember, implementing PIM in your e-commerce business isn’t a “set it and forget it” process. 

You will have to regularly analyze all the product information, either stored manually or within the PIM system, for errors and outdated details. Moreover, whenever you update the information, ensure that: 

1. It is in accordance with the set guidelines or respects the workflows created earlier. 
2. All stakeholders can access it easily. 
3. It is synced to all platforms and channels consistently so that customer experiences aren’t affected negatively.  

Such regular checks will help ensure that customers have great shopping experiences and that you protect your brand’s credibility. 

Best Product Information Management (PIM) Tools 

Earlier, most companies and merchants used to carry out the PIM process manually. But with time, PIM systems emerged and have been the go-to for many when it comes to managing, optimizing, and distributing product information efficiently. 

These PIM tools focus on four core pillars of product information management, which include: 

1. Centralization 
2. Management 
3. Optimization 
4. Distribution 

Let’s look at some of the most popular PIM tools that excel in these areas.

1. Akeneo: Akeneo helps with both product experience (PX) and product information management (PIM). To facilitate the entire PIM process, it offers several different tools such as ‘Supplier Data Manager’, ‘Shared catalogs’, etc. 

These tools, along with other Akeneo features, ensure that collecting data into the software and sharing it with stakeholders is easy. Moreover, with other features such as ‘Asset management’, you can enrich your product information with AI inside Akeneo. This helps to improve product experiences. 

Akeneo also supports integration with 500+ retail and marketplace sites, such as Amazon, Walmart, etc.

Pricing: They offer a free open source community edition of their PIM solution. You can use that. However, for advanced needs, you can check their specialized solutions for which they offer custom quotes. 

2. Plytix: Plytix is an AI-powered PIM platform. It helps merchants consolidate all their product information within its systems and is popular for its built-in Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities. This means you can easily store and manage digital assets such as images, videos, and documents within Plytix. 

Additionally, a merchant can easily integrate the Plytix software with multiple e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, and Shopping Search engines like Shopify, Amazon, Google Shopping, Meta Commerce, TikTok, etc. 

Pricing: Plytix offers a free plan for 500 SKUs and 5 GB file storage. Its paid plans start roughly around $940/month (€699/month). 

3. Pimcore: Pimcore is a PIM and Master Data Management (MDM) platform. It allows you to store any type of structured data, from products and their categories to orders, content, etc.

Using Pimcore, you can sync product data to 2,500+ channels.

Moreover, it uses PHP, REST, and GraphQL APIs to facilitate smooth integrations with platforms such as Shopify, Shopware, and Adobe Commerce. 

Pricing: The Community edition of Pimcore is free. There aren’t any licensing or hidden fees. However, additional features such as Enterprise Extensions are paid. 

Bonus: How to Choose the Right PIM Software? 

If you are wondering how to select the best PIM for your specific needs, then there are several factors to consider. 

1. What’s the size of your catalog, and will the tool support those many SKUs?
2. Do they offer all the essential features such as PIM, DAM, and integrations with your preferred marketplaces, shopping search engines, and e-commerce platforms? 
3. The cost of the software. Also, do they offer a freemium or free plan, using which you can comfortably try out their features?
4. How good is the support offered by their customer success team? Are they available 24/7 and via multiple channels such as emails, live chats, etc.? 
5. Will the tool scale with your business? By this, we mean that if you want to add new products to your inventory in the future, will the tool be able to handle those new items and their data? Or will you have to switch to a different solution or pay a significant amount to accommodate those new SKUs?

When you assess a PIM tool on these factors, you can choose the right solution which helps you meet your current business needs and also support long-term growth.

Conclusion and Key Takeaways 

Implementing PIM is very important as managing product information and distributing it accurately across channels can often get very challenging.

Some important takeaways from this blog include: 

1. Product information management (PIM) is the process of centrally managing, storing, organizing, optimizing, and distributing product information. 
2. For limited SKUs, you can implement PIM in your e-commerce business manually. This means storing, managing, editing, and syncing all product information to the required channels manually. However, for extensive catalogs with more information, a dedicated PIM system can be more helpful. 
3. PIM systems are nothing but tools that help you implement the concept of product information management automatically for your business. 
4. Several benefits that PIM offers include accurate product data, quicker product launches, lower costs, and improved operational efficiency.
5. Successful implementation of PIM involves: Defining your goals and scope, preparing and centralizing data, setting workflows, enriching information, distributing it, and ensuring ongoing maintenance. 
6. Some useful PIM tools include Akeneo, Pimcore, and Plytix. 
7. The right PIM tool should match your catalog size, integration needs, scalability, and budget.

Good luck. 

FAQs

1. How are Product Feed Management and Product Information Management different?

Both differ in their scope. 

Product feed management focuses on optimizing and sending product data to specific sales channels in the right format with updated inventory. 

Product Information Management (PIM) is broader. It concerns managing and optimizing all product information, including marketing content, usage instruction guides, warranties, and digital assets, not just product feeds.

2. How do Product Feed Management tools differ from PIM tools?

In general, feed management tools are useful for improving basic product data, such as titles, descriptions, and attributes. They also enable merchants to map product data from a source, like Shopify or WooCommerce, to marketplaces, comparison shopping engines, and other sales channels. Their main role is to make sure the data format and content meet each channel’s requirements. 

PIM tools, on the other hand, manage, store, edit, and distribute all product information in one centralized platform. They let you create channel-specific feeds and handle not only basic product data but also order details, shipping policies, marketing content, and digital assets.

Thus, the scope that both types of tools offer for handling product information is different. 

3. How are Product information management (PIM) and Master data management (MDM) different?

Master Data Management (MDM) involves managing all core business data across an organization, including products, customers, suppliers, finances, etc. 

Product Information Management (PIM) focuses only on product data, creating, enriching, and preparing it for use across sales channels and customer touchpoints.

4. When should a business move from manual PIM to a PIM system?

Switch to a PIM system when manual updates take too much time or cause frequent errors. This often happens when your catalog grows or you start selling on multiple channels. A PIM system keeps your product data accurate, consistent, and easy to manage.

5. What is the role of Digital Asset Management (DAM) in PIM?

DAM within PIM stores and manages all product-related digital files such as images, videos, manuals, and brochures in one place. It ensures the correct assets are always linked to the right products and available for every sales channel.

6. Can PIM tools handle multiple languages and currencies?

Yes. Many PIM tools support localization. They enable merchants to store product content in multiple languages and adjust pricing or specifications for different regions. This is essential for businesses selling internationally.

7. Do I need both PIM and Product Feed Management software?

Not always. If you only need to manage and format product data for sales channels, a feed management tool is enough. However, if you need to store all kinds of product information, enrich it, and publish it across channels, you should invest in a PIM system. Businesses with the budget and broader needs often benefit more from a PIM tool.