Do I Need a PIM for Ecommerce?
A PIM (or Product Information Management) software environment is the backbone of any ecommerce operation. It allows you to store all your product information in an efficient and logical structure, enrich it through automation (as well as manual intervention), and distribute this data to all your ecommerce platforms, marketing feeds, sales channels and marketplaces.
If the following pain points sound familiar to you, it’s time to start thinking about your PIM options!
You’re drowning in spreadsheets and product data
If you’re managing thousands of products, you’re no doubt chasing huge amounts of product data siloed across your business. Stitching this data together can be a nightmare. You need names, pricing and inventory from your ERP system, but you also need descriptions, images and videos from Marketing. Then there’s SEO content from Digital and more requirements from Quality Assurance. Juggling it all in multiple spreadsheets just leads to more problems: spreadsheets cause errors in more than 90% of organisations.
Time to launch is painfully slow
The more products and channels you have, the harder it is to ensure products are channel-ready. Every time, it’s the same set of problems: is the information complete? Have you met your merchandising goals? Is everything in the right format for each channel? Any one of these issues can seriously delay the launch of new products, promotions or other marketing initiatives.
Complaints and returns are killing your brand, reputation and bottom line
Inaccurate, incomplete or poor product data will inevitably lead to a negative customer experience. Retail Touchpoints reports that 58% of returns or customer dissatisfaction is due to outdated or inconsistent product information. Globally, 1 in 3 items are returned and 64% of returns can be attributed to the item not matching the description.
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