Selecting the right PIM platform is a critical decision for any business. Once you commit to a platform, you’re essentially entrusting it with the entire spectrum of your product information. 

Choosing the right PIM platform is far from the everyday decisions we make, such as selecting our daily attire.

A PIM platform is more like a long-term partnership. The choice you make profoundly impacts your day-to-day operations, data management, and overall business performance. 

So, Salsify or Akeneo? Which is the best platform? 

Salsify focuses on enhancing product experience and Akeneo aims to deliver omnichannel experience.

So, if you had to pick a tool there are a bunch of things to consider. 

Salsify VS Akeneo: A Quick Comparison

Let’s do an in-depth breakdown below and dive deep.

What is Salsify?

Salsify is a product experience management platform that helps brands, retailers, and online businesses win the digital shelf by efficiently managing product data. With Salsify you can centrally store product data, enrich it, collaborate within Salsify, and syndicate it to different channels.

What is Akeneo?

Akeneo is a product information management system that enables retailers and brands to deliver omnichannel experiences to customers across every touchpoint. It aims at helping online retailers deliver a consistent product story no matter which platform they sell on.

Salsify VS Akeneo: Which tool should you choose?

1. Mapping your objectives with the platform

Before choosing a tool for your business, you must understand your objectives and see the fit of the tool for your business. 

Salsify:

It caters to mid-sized to large enterprises. Salsify’s scalability makes it suitable for businesses with a growing product catalog and the need for a flexible and powerful PIM solution. You can choose this platform if your goals are:

• The need to expand and reach across various channels and marketplaces. In that case, you can benefit from Salsify’s extensive channel syndication capabilities
• Salsify is a strong choice for businesses that require advanced workflow automation to streamline collaboration and approval processes
• For organizations placing a high priority on data quality, Salsify’s data validation and enrichment tools can help in creating accurate and high-quality catalogs

Akeneo:

It is suitable for small to mid-sized businesses seeking a customizable PIM solution to manage their product information efficiently. You can choose this platform if your goals are:

• Businesses with unique product data management requirements that need a lot of customization may find Akeneo compelling
• If you want to achieve an omnichannel presence, Akeneo would be the right choice
• If consistent branding and better storytelling are on top of your goals, Akeneo would make more sense for you

2. The features of Salsify and Akeneo

Understanding the features of the platforms you are evaluating is the crux of a meaningful comparison. Let’s scroll and roll!

Salsify features:

• Salsify boasts an intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for users to navigate and manage product information
• The platform offers robust import and export capabilities, facilitating seamless data transfer in various formats
• Salsify provides tools for data validation and enrichment, ensuring the accuracy and completeness of product information
• Advanced workflow management capabilities help streamline processes, collaboration, and approval workflows within the platform
• Salsify supports extensive channel integration options, allowing businesses to syndicate product information across various channels and marketplaces
• Salsify provides a robust API for integration and automation, allowing for seamless connections with other systems

Akeneo Features:

• Akeneo features a clean and user-friendly interface, facilitating easy navigation and management of product data
• The platform focuses on maintaining data quality, offering tools and features for validation and enrichment
• Akeneo supports multiple channels and marketplaces, including Salesforce clod, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Shopify, and more 
• Akeneo offers connectors for popular integrations, facilitating seamless connections with other software and tools
• Akeneo can be deployed on-premises or in the cloud

3. What do the real users of these platforms think

The true test of any platform lies in the hands of its users. The diverse perspectives of businesses using Akeneo and Salsify can offer valuable insights into how these platforms perform in the real world. 

Akeneo:

The overall sentiments of Akeneo customers are quite positive as they seem to be pleased with the simple UI of the platform and its ability to help users create and syndicate products swiftly.

Source: Capterra

However, many users were not happy with the DAM capabilities of Akeneo, and quite a few needed help with onboarding. There is also disappointment around how the workflow management is not very comprehensive in Akeneo.

Salsify:

Like Akeneo, the overall sentiments of the users are positive for Salsify. In a nutshell, according to the G2 crowd, the aggregate sentiments look something like this:

4. Salsify pricing VS Akeneo pricing

Akeneo has three pricing plans: Community edition, Growth edition, and Enterprise edition. Salsify on the other hand has custom pricing.

Akeneo’s pricing:

Akeneo’s community edition is a free forever plan that offers a bunch of features including centralizing product data, catalog enrichment, digital asset management, and more. The growth edition starts at $25K annually and it is a saas product. It offers a bunch of features that are included in the community edition and additionally – automatic updates, early access to the latest PIM features, customer success manager, and more.

The enterprise edition has a custom quote and offers advanced features.

Salsify pricing:

Salsify has a custom quote and the pricing criteria look like this:

Factors Influencing Pricing:

• Number of seats
• Number of product records
• Support agreements
• Entitlements (add-ons for enhanced functionality)

Subscription-Based Model:

• Salsify follows a SaaS subscription model
• Pricing is customized for each customer

Average Cost:

• Smaller customers: $2000-5000 per month
• Larger enterprise customers: Higher costs for a global instance

Other popular PIM tools you must consider

The Salsify vs. Akeneo face-off has shed light on the distinct strengths of each PIM platform, allowing businesses to make informed decisions based on their unique needs. Whether you lean towards Salsify’s intuitive interface or Akeneo’s robust customization, the key takeaway is the importance of aligning your choice with the specific requirements of your business.

And while the spotlight has been on these industry giants, it’s worth noting that there are alternatives in the PIM arena. These popular PIM tools include:

• PIMworks
• Plytix
• InRiver
• SalesLayer

Take, for instance, our very own PIMWorks – a solution tailored to seamlessly integrate with your workflow, providing a user-friendly experience and powerful features to optimize your product data management.

You can centrally store and manage your product data

Manage your vendors and suppliers through a unified space

Create deep workflows to enable collaboration between internal and external stakeholders

Enrich your product catalogs automatically. PIMworks automatically fetches the right product data and updates your missing attributes

Personalize your content to meet the unique requirements of each channel

Syndicate products and take them to the market within minutes

Enable a two-way sync with deep integrations. PIMworks is integrated with Amazon, Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and more

You can take a free 30-minute demo and explore PIMworks for yourself!

The post Salsify VS Akeneo: An In-depth Comparison [2024] appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

Cheers to that! 

In this blog, you’ll have solid takeaways and your decision will be well-informed as we’re going to cover all the factors you must consider before making this decision. 

But, before you dive into the key differences between Akeneo and Pimcore did you find answers to these questions?

1. What are my specific business objectives for implementing a PIM solution?
2. What is the scale of my product data management needs?
3. Do I need a user-friendly interface for non-technical users?
4. Is scalability a critical factor for my business growth?
5. What level of customization and flexibility does my business require?
6. How well does the PIM solution integrate with my existing systems?
7. What is my budget for implementing and maintaining a PIM solution?
8. Does the PIM solution support multichannel and omnichannel strategies?
9. What level of support and training does the PIM provider offer?
10. Has the PIM solution been successfully adopted by businesses similar to mine?

Analyzing PIM tools requires an in-depth understanding of your organizational goals and the outcomes you want to accomplish.

A quick comparison of Pimcore VS Akeneo

Let’s dig deeper and take a closer look at the Pimcore VS Akeneo to help you make an informed decision.

In addition to those questions we discussed earlier, you need to ask yourself these four questions to choose between Akeneo and Pimcore. But this time, we also have the answers for you

• What’s the core of Akeneo and Pimcore?
• What’s the voice of the real users?
• What does the integration capability look like?

What’s the core of Akeneo and Pimcore

Akeneo:

It is a full-fledged SaaS product that caters to two different sets of audiences: an e-commerce company at its growth phase (mid-market) and an enterprise company that is looking to utilize a PIM for more advanced requirements – workflow management, catalog enrichment, automation, and data governance.

At its core, Akeneo helps e-commerce companies overcome product data hurdles and deliver consistent product experiences across all channels. An omnichannel experience combined with rich product catalogs is the USP of Akeneo. 

Akeneo offers a 14-day free trial in its Growth edition, however, they are not transparent with their pricing. 

Pimcore:

Pimcore is an Enterprise open source software that helps manage any digital data for any digital channel. It helps enterprises solve data quality and management challenges at a large scale. 

At its core, Pimcore is a broad data management solution of which PIM is only a part. The scope of Pimcore is broader because it encompasses DAM, MDM, PIM, CDP, and CMS on its horizon.

What’s the voice of the real users

Akeneo:

The overall sentiments of the users seem to be pretty positive for Akeneo across review sites and platforms. The users were thrilled with the product data quality post-Akeneo implementation and its syndication capabilities.

A lot of users were not happy with the DAM capabilities of Akeneo and a couple of them have posted about the complexity of getting onboarded with Akeneo. There are also some woes around how the workflow management is too weak in Akeneo.

Here’s an exact review from a real user of Akeneo:

I would like to be able to download more information about the products, such as completeness. This way I would be able to create specific actions for a group of products with low completeness. I would also like there to be panels with more visualization possibilities, for example “how many times this attribute was filled in a certain family”. I think that the existing panels provide us with little information and are not flexible for the user. Currently, no one on my team can view and use the “process tracker” filters, as we work with several users at the same time, it is important for us to monitor the processes in progress

–Akeneo User, G2crowd

Pimcore:

The users of Pimcore are pleased with the ability of Pimcore to provide PIM, DAM, MDM, and CMS – all under one roof. Pimcore is liked by its users for its flexibility as it allows a ton of customizations. Any feature or its extension can be built by developers.

The exact flexibility is also seen as a disadvantage by some users as the features that could be basic and available out of the box in other PIM platforms may have to be customized.

Here’s an exact review from a real user of Pimcore:

“Pimcore will fail if you expect to find a complete solution for your business case right off the bat. It needs professional advise for customization an implementation.”

–Pimcore User, Capterra

What does the integration capability look like

Akeneo:

Akeneo integrates with key marketplaces including BigCommerce, Shopify, Adobe Commerce, and Salesforce Commerce cloud making it easy to share and publish product information instantly. 

Akeneo makes the integration so simple that there’s hardly any need for IT intervention.

Pimcore:

Pimcore offers direct API integrations with key marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, Alibaba, and Walmart and also to niche, local, and global marketplaces. They also have built-in catalog templates for each of these marketplaces so that you can get your product information to the market faster.

Pimcore’s order synchronization helps businesses track orders across all the marketplaces. This makes it easy to keep track of the stocks which in turn improves customer satisfaction.

The plot twist? There are other good PIM tools in the market

We understand that you’ve landed on this article because you wanted to understand who is better – Akeneo or Pimcore. 

As you can infer from this article, choosing between Akeneo and Pimcore depends upon your goals and objectives. Whether it is integration needs, pricing, size of business, or results – both these platforms are unique on their own.

There are a bunch of other PIM platforms that are robust, less ambiguous, and fully customizable. 

Some of the top tools are:

• PIMworks
• Plytix
• Salsify
• SalesLayer
• InRiver

Whether you are a small business or an enterprise, PIMworks helps you solve your product data challenges with ease. With PIMworks, you can:

• Find your single source of truth by managing all the product information in a centralized location
• Enrich your product catalogs with an automated enrichment feature that fills out the missing data in your product content’
• Integrate with all the key marketplaces like Shopify, Amazon, Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
• Create workflows and collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders
• Personalize your product content with in-built catalog templates and stay compliant with each channel’s unique requirements

You can take a free 30-minute demo and then make a decision!

The post Akeneo VS Pimcore: Choosing the Right PIM for Your Business In 2024 appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

Source: Fast company

They can simply visit the Ikea website on their phone, and explore detailed product information. Unlike printed catalogs, digital product pages offer more than just well-shot images; they include videos, 3D models, and even VR experiences to visualize furniture in your space.

While Ikea stays modern, Amazon takes a nostalgic route with traditional holiday catalogs. The crucial point is that product pages, the feisty alter ego of physical catalogs, play a pivotal role in purchase decisions.

Creating an online catalog, unlike its printed counterpart, is complex. It compiles data from various sources, involves numerous data fields, and must comply with different channels. 

This complexity is where PIM for eCommerce becomes indispensable.

What is eCommerce PIM?

An online business keeps a product catalog on a tight leash to ensure that the data is accurate, consistent, and complete and most importantly gives customers a good shopping experience.

While this is the objective of an eCommerce business, it is no small feat to get there.  An eCommerce PIM helps streamline the journey of creating, managing, standardizing, enriching, and syndicating data, all from one platform.

Benefits of PIM for eCommerce

It is your product data HQ: 

Imagine having to create product catalogs by referring to a bunch of files and folders. Running from one spreadsheet to another, scouring through files, digging through CRMs and ERPs, and finally putting together a catalog – only with many errors!

Without a PIM platform, online businesses would struggle to create and manage product information and ensure quality in published catalogs. A PIM platform acts as a single source of truth and makes it easy to manage product information.

Helps you create clean and consistent catalogs: 

“Overall the web is pretty sloppy, but an online store can’t afford to be.” – Paul Graham, co-founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator.

Brand consistency and content accuracy are essential for your products as they directly impact reputation and revenue. 

You cannot have different tones, styles, and content for each channel. For instance, a retailer selling fashion accessories may use a PIM system to ensure that product descriptions, images, and specifications are uniformly presented across their online store, mobile app, and printed catalogs. 

This not only enhances the overall customer experience but also instills trust and reliability in the brand, as customers encounter a seamless and coherent representation of products, regardless of the platform.

Consistency also has another meaning in the world of e-commerce. For instance, a marketplace has certain norms and rules about the specifications or templates in which they present their products.

A PIM helps in maintaining that consistency so that your product content stays compliant with the channel requirements.

Enriches your product data for better engagement

In addition to maintaining consistency, PIM systems excel at enriching product data to drive better engagement. These systems allow businesses to include detailed and relevant information about each product, such as features, benefits, and usage scenarios. 

For instance, an electronics manufacturer using a PIM system can easily update product specifications, include high-quality images, and attach user manuals to create a comprehensive and informative product listing. 

This enriched data not only aids customers in making informed purchase decisions but also enhances search engine optimization (SEO) by providing search engines with valuable content to index. As a result, the products become more discoverable and attractive to potential customers, leading to increased engagement and, ultimately, higher conversion rates.

Helps you get to the market faster

One of the significant advantages of employing a PIM system is its ability to expedite time-to-market for new products. 

For example, a consumer electronics company launching a new smartphone can use a PIM system to swiftly update product information, pricing, and marketing materials across various channels simultaneously. 

This not only ensures a coordinated and coherent product launch but also enables businesses to respond quickly to market trends and consumer demands. By streamlining the process of updating and disseminating product information through native integrations of PIM with marketplaces and e-commerce platforms, it becomes easy to syndicate products in a snap.

Streamlines workflow management

PIM systems contribute significantly to the streamlined management of workflows within an organization. They provide a centralized platform where teams can collaborate on product data, ensuring that everyone is working with the most up-to-date and accurate information. 

For example, a global retailer with multiple teams handling different product categories can use a PIM system to establish clear workflows for data creation, review, and approval. 

This prevents bottlenecks, reduces the likelihood of errors, and enhances overall efficiency. 

By optimizing workflow management, businesses can achieve a higher level of operational efficiency and bring products to market more smoothly.

Factors to consider when choosing a PIM for eCommerce business

Integrates with your existing tool stack:

A PIM system should seamlessly integrate with your existing technology stack, including your eCommerce platform, CRM, ERP, and any other essential tools. It should also integrate with the marketplaces and channels that you are using for seamless transfer of data.

Checks off all the basic features:

Ensure that the PIM solution covers fundamental features necessary for effective product data management. This includes support for product categorization, attribute management, version control, and multi-channel publishing. If your eCommerce business operates in multiple regions, the PIM should have localization capabilities to adapt product information for different markets

Helps enrich your data (beyond SSOT):

Look for a PIM system that goes beyond just maintaining a Single Source of Truth (SSOT) and offers tools for enriching product data. This could involve supporting multimedia assets etc.

Gives you a good ROI:

Evaluate the return on investment (ROI) potential of the PIM solution. Consider factors such as time saved on manual data entry, reduction in errors, and improvements in product discoverability and customer engagement. Choose a PIM system that aligns with your budget while delivering tangible benefits.

Supports with implementation:

Select a PIM provider that offers robust support during the implementation process. This includes comprehensive documentation, training resources, and responsive customer support

Top 5 PIM Tools for eCommerce Businesses

PIMworks:

A product information management platform that is industry-agnostic and serves businesses of all sizes. It helps e-commerce businesses solve product data challenges, improve time to market, and maintain product data quality and consistency.

Top features: 

• Centralized storage
• Data syndication
• Data import and export
• Collaborative workflows
• Workflow management
• Automated content enrichment
• MAP monitoring
• Vendor onboarding
• Multiple vendor management
• SEO for product pages
• One-click integrations
• Digital asset management
• Localization and translation
• Category management
• Taxonomy management
• Analytics and insights

Pricing: Custom quote

2. Akeneo:

Akeneo helps medium-sized businesses and large enterprises manage product data and deliver consistent product experiences across channels. Akeneo helps e-commerce businesses achieve omnichannel experience through rich and consistent product catalogs.

Top features:

• Centralized product repository
• Data import and export
• Channel-specific data customization
• Versioning and history tracking
• Product enrichment 
• Collaboration workflows

Pricing: Custom Quote

3. Pimcore:

With an open-source approach, Pimcore offers a comprehensive suite of PIM solutions, perfect for businesses seeking customization.

Top features:

• Digital Asset Management (DAM)
• Product Information Management (PIM)
• Multi-channel Publishing
• Workflow management
• Product data syndication
• Omnichannel publishing
• Data quality management
• Data Integration 

Pricing: Custom Quote

4. Salsify:

Salsify focuses on enhancing the customer experience by providing tools for digital shelf optimization and real-time collaboration.

Top features:

• Centralized product data
• Onboard vendors
• Product data validation
• Workflow management
• Supplier experience management (SXM)

Pricing: Custom Quote

5. Plytix:

It serves small businesses and it has the main objective of helping online businesses end spreadsheet chaos.

Top features:

• Single source of truth for product data
• Product data syndication
• AI-generated product descriptions
• Digital asset management (DAM)
• Product sheets creation

Pricing: Starts at $499/mo

Final thoughts

Investing in a robust e-commerce PIM is not just a choice; it’s a strategic imperative. As the digital marketplace evolves, businesses that harness the power of PIM gain a competitive edge, ensuring their products shine brightly amidst the online retail landscape.

FAQs

The post eCommerce PIM: A Comprehensive Guide [Meaning, Benefits, & Popular Tools] appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

After a lot of iterations, a product passes through the design, production, launch, growth, maturity, and decline stages. 

From ideation to retirement, managing each transition in the product life cycle poses challenges for cross-functional teams in terms of collaboration, data management, retrieval, and more.

This is where Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) comes in by enabling the management of a product throughout its lifecycle.

PIM on the other hand facilitates product data management when the product is in its flourishing stage. To store, manage, enrich, and syndicate product data, PIM software helps improve customer experience and increase revenue.

Like a butterfly’s wings allow it to take flight, PIM gives products the digital wings to soar across channels. 

PIM VS PLM: Key Differences 

Defining PLM

PLM facilitates efficient management of a product through its entire lifecycle. Think of a running shoe for instance – the final product that we see on the online store has gone through a lot of stages before it is ready to consume. The shoe would have been just a rough drawing on a whiteboard in the ideation stage. It then takes shape through design and CAD models. The shoe then goes through the production stage, launch, and finally to the market. 

A PLM facilitates managing data at each of these stages. It involves various stakeholders’ data, from engineering to supply chain management.

Who are the stakeholders involved in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)?

• Design Team
• Product Managers
• Manufacturing Team
• Marketing Team
• Supply Chain Managers
• Sales Team
• Quality Assurance/Testing Team
• Customer Service
• Retailers/Distributors

Why is a PLM important?

PLM systems enable cross-functional team collaboration that makes information accessible

It helps streamline the product development process which reduces chaos and enables quicker time to market

Optimizing the entire product development process helps reduce rework and minimizes the possibility of making costly errors

PLM centralizes product-related data, reducing data silos and empowering all the stakeholders to easily access the information 

Enables continuous improvement by having all the learnings every step of the way  right from ideation, prototyping, and experimentation

Tracking and attributing becomes easiest as each step can be traced with the PLM

Defining PIM

PIM is a product information management software that helps online businesses including retailers, brands, and manufacturers centrally store and manage product information. A PIM helps significantly reduce time to market with marketplace and channel integrations that facilitate instant syndication.

Who are the stakeholders involved in product information management (PIM)?

• Product Managers
• Marketing Team
• Sales Team
• IT Department
• Content Creators/Writers
• Graphic Designers
• eCommerce Managers
• Supply Chain Managers
• Manufacturing Team
• Retailers/Distributors

Why is a PIM important?

Simplifies product data challenges by serving as a single source of truth for all the product information

Speeds up the time to market with instant syndication

Integrates with eCommerce channels and marketplaces that enable two-way synchronization of data. This helps in the smooth syndication of data

PIM supports personalized marketing strategies by enabling syndication of content that is compliant with each channel’s unique requirements

Centralized access to product information ensures that the data is always accurate and consistent

Enables collaboration between internal and external stakeholders by creating powerful workflows. This enhances productivity and improves efficiency

Synergies between PIM and PLM

While PIM and PLM serve distinct purposes, they can complement each other in some scenarios. At the core, both these systems help in simplifying processes and enhancing efficiencies. 

It’s not about PIM VS PLM: An eCommerce business needs both PIM and PLM when:

• An eCommerce business that has huge volumes of products and associated product information that frequently changes needs a PIM system to ensure data consistency and accuracy across channels

• eCommerce businesses involved in the design, development, or assembly of products should invest in PLM. A PLM helps streamline product ideation, and development, taking the product to market, and its retirement

• eCommerce companies dealing with technical information and intricate product information can greatly benefit from integrating PIM and PLM. This integration helps in achieving comprehensiveness of data and ensuring that it is accurate and up-to-date

Let’s look at some of the common purposes that both PIM and PLM solve:

Unified Product Data: PLM is the home to product information such as design specifications and manufacturing details. This data is also crucial for product catalogs that get disseminated from the PIM software. A PLM when integrated  with PIM ensures consistency in product information

  Collaboration and Communication: Both systems contribute to improved collaboration among different teams. A PLM helps product development teams, marketing, sales teams, and other key stakeholders find and access all the key information in one platform. PIM enables internal and external stakeholders involved in product catalog creation to collaborate by creating workflows

Time-to-Market Reduction: A PLM has all the product-related information throughout its lifecycle that helps accelerate the product launch process. Marketing teams can quickly access product information from PLM, allowing them to create and distribute marketing materials faster. Similarly, a PIM helps in syndicating the products to the marketplaces with tight integrations. This eliminates manual data entry and increases the time to market

Consistent Branding: PIM ensures that product information, including images, descriptions, and specifications, remains consistent across various channels. Similarly, a PLM has all the information about the product right from the time it is taking shape. It becomes easier to access and streamline branding efforts

Final thoughts: PIM VS PLM, what’s the verdict?

PIM, PLM, DAM, and CMS – These platforms may seem like they’re similar, but there are vast differences in their purpose and audiences. 

PIMworks is a product information management platform that simplifies product data management, improves time to market, enriches product data, and syndicates your products to marketplaces and channels seamlessly.

PIM and PLM are powerful tools with distinct purposes in the world of eCommerce. Understanding their differences and considering their synergy can help in analyzing the need for each of these platforms for your eCommerce business.

Whether it’s optimizing online product presentations or streamlining complex product development, choosing the right system (or a combination of both) is essential for success.

FAQs

The post PIM vs PLM: Your Simple Guide To Understanding the Key Differences and Synergies appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

Feels like *swish and flick* of a magical wand.

As a seller, only you know it wasn’t easy to get there.

From the spreadsheets that gave you jump scares and the ERP systems that made you go through countless cups of midnight coffees, product data management is far from being a painless task.

Managing textual content combined with visual elements makes the task even more painful if you don’t have a PIM and DAM in place.

If you’re unsure what is PIM, what is DAM, and how they differ from each other (PIM VS DAM). Let’s dive right in!

PIM VS DAM: A detailed comparison

Here’s a detailed PIM VS DAM comparison to help you understand how these systems differ with respect to users, use cases, and the type of data managed.

Let’s now dive deep into PIM VS DAM.

What is DAM?

Digital Asset Management, often referred to as DAM, is a system that simplifies the process of storing, managing, and retrieving digital assets from a centralized location. Digital assets can include images, videos, documents, audio files, and more. 

It is an invaluable tool for marketing and creative teams. Without a DAM, a typical day for them would involve these tasks (a bloated project management board):

Project management tool bloat: A typical day of a marketing/creative team that does not use a DAM

Wake up and start hunting for the digital assets:

Team members start their day by searching through various folders, servers, and personal computers to find the digital assets they need

Begin to lose control over versions:

Without a centralized system, tracking versions of files becomes a challenge. Branding takes a toll because the team starts using outdated assets

Collaboration becomes a joke:

Sharing files often involves manually sending them over an email or other file-sharing services, breaking the communication chain and messing things up

Wasting a ton of time in manual chores:

Valuable work hours are spent on repetitive tasks like renaming files, converting formats, or resizing images to fit specific platforms

Consistency continues to be a dream:

The absence of a single source of truth for digital assets can result in inconsistencies in branding, messaging, and design across different marketing campaigns

Difficulty in asset retrieval:

When spontaneous marketing campaigns are planned asset retrieval becomes difficult thus delaying actions and leading to missed opportunities

Security Concerns:

Managing the security and access control of digital assets can be a concern

In a nutshell, here’s how a DAM can help you – all the media files that you see in a product page (sweatshirt in this example) can be owned, managed, edited, and published from one DAM.

Who uses a DAM?

DAM systems are widely adopted by marketing and creative professionals who deal with a significant volume of digital assets.

Creative teams can store, manage, and access their creative assets and retrieve them easily from a DAM. They’d never have to worry about losing version control and team members can seamlessly collaborate from a single source of truth. This helps marketing teams ensure brand consistency

DAM acts as a portal for suppliers and vendors to upload product images and other assets.

When do you need a DAM?

You need a DAM system when your business handles a large number of digital assets that must be organized, accessed, and shared efficiently. An online business (any industry) – apparel, furniture, FMCG, home goods, etc. needs digital assets to help its customers delve through the product and understand its look and feel in a better way.

For instance, the furniture industry heavily relies on visual assets to showcase products and facilitate sales. Let’s take a specific product, a modern sectional sofa, as an example, and explore the digital assets needed and how to manage them with DAM:

• Multiple high-resolution images of the sectional sofa from various angles, including close-ups that cover any intricate details
• Interactive 360-degree views that allow customers to rotate the sofa and inspect it from all sides to fully comprehend the look and feel
• Videos showcasing the sofa’s features, such as reclining mechanisms, pull-out bed options, and assembly instructions
• Images that depict the sofa in real-life settings, like a living room set-up or in a bedroom 
• Variations of the sofa that include colors and materials, leg styles, and optional add-ons like throw pillows
• Digital documents or videos with step-by-step assembly guides to help customers set up the sofa correctly

So, a DAM is inevitable for all online businesses, particularly when they:

• When your company is growing and the number of products starts increasing, your business needs a DAM to manage their digital assets
• If your content is complex with a lot of variations and formats, it becomes difficult to manage them
• When maintaining brand consistency across channels becomes challenging
• When a lot of stakeholders are involved in digital assets, a DAM can ease the collaboration process

What is a PIM?

Product Information Management, or PIM, is a platform that helps eCommerce businesses centrally store, manage, and syndicate product data.

When businesses begin to scale and start adding more products, the number of associated attributes and information begins to expand.  For instance, a sweatshirt (like the above) has multiple attributes like brand name, color, size, fabric, care instructions, reviews, etc. that become difficult to handle when the number of SKUs is voluminous.

PIM systems help maintain consistent, accurate, and up-to-date product information that not only simplifies data management but also significantly improves customer experience and revenue.

Here’s how a PIM can benefit your eCommerce business:

• Centrally store and manage product data and make access to any information easy
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders and save time and effort in curating the information needed to publish the final catalog
• Ensure that product catalogs have no missing data, and they’re accurate and consistent across channels
• Syndicate content that is compliant with each channel’s unique requirements
• Expand across international markets with product data that caters to different regions and languages

When do you need both DAM and PIM?

An eCommerce business needs a DAM and a PIM in most cases, particularly when their products need media assets to make the product catalogs more engaging and help customers make an informed decision.

They also need a PIM when they have hundreds of thousands of SKUs with a lot of variants and need a PIM to centrally store, manage, and enrich product catalogs. This synergy enhances the overall customer experience.

Final thoughts

PIM VS DAM: What’s the right tool for you? Choosing between DAM and PIM depends on your specific business needs. While DAM is ideal for managing digital assets, PIM is tailored for complex product data management. 

In some cases, a combination of both can provide a comprehensive solution to meet your business’s requirements. Understanding the distinctions and use cases of DAM and PIM is vital for making informed decisions about which system best suits your organization’s goals. PIM VS DAM is more about understanding the differences, similarities, and synergies of these systems rather than a head-on-head comparison.

Implementing a platform like PIMworks that can help you manage both product information and media assets would help you scale your business, improve time to market, enhance customer experience, and increase your revenue.

FAQs

The post PIM VS DAM: Meaning, Uses, and Differences appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

An eCommerce business would want to implement a PIM for various reasons and to accomplish different outcomes. The objectives could vary based on the business priorities, size, and industry.

So, does this impact the cost of PIM? The short answer is yes.

You can purchase a PIM software starting from a free 30-day trial, for $699 per month to $25,000 per year. The cost of product information management software is mainly influenced by the number of SKUs and your marketplace presence.

Are you curious about the potential factors impacting the PIM price, the various costs involved in implementing PIM, and the hidden costs associated with PIM?

Well, you’ll get to know all of these before you leave this page!

Before looking at the pricing of a PIM, you need to ask yourselves these questions and look at the business fit:

Which customer channels do most of your business come from?

Do your key channels accept data in standard templates or require complex templates, processes, or guidelines?

Are you looking for platforms that give better integrations without manual processes? These platforms can range from $1,000 to $2,000 per month

How many integrations does your business need?

Do your key channels accept data in standard templates?

Are you specifically looking for platforms that give flexible tools to manipulate and export data – These platforms can range from $500 to $800 per month

Are you cautious when you choose the platforms to see if they can help you expand and grow in the future? This is because a PIM implementation involves key business change, time, and effort. Choosing a provider who is too cheap or too expensive will hurt your business growth

Are you a larger enterprise where there may be a need for some customization and are you looking for platforms that are flexible to accommodate these at a nominal cost?

How much does a PIM cost?

As we discussed, PIM cost might vary depending on several factors. And generally, there are two types of costs that you need to deal with: One-time costs and Ongoing costs. Let us help you get a clear idea of what they are.

One-Time Costs

Yes, you are right. These are the costs that you will have to face only once, typically during the initial phase. You can think of them as the foundation for your Journey ahead. This could vary depending on the size and requirements of each business. The more complex the need is, the higher the cost will be! Let us break down and explore the one-time costs involved.

Conception Cost: The first and foremost step for anything we do is Brainstorming! This is where you need to figure out what exactly you want to achieve with your PIM solution. Either you can do your own research or hire a professional consultant to analyze the needs and gather requirements. The conception cost will cover the cost incurred through either of the options. 

Evaluation cost: Once you get a clear understanding of your needs, you will think of choosing the best PIM for your business. This means you will be exploring the various PIM software available in the market. Evaluation costs include the time and resources that you spend on exploring the various options and attending demos and presentations.

Set-up Cost: Now that you have selected the right PIM for your business, the next step is to set it up for use. You might want to make the system compatible with your existing tools and databases to ensure a seamless performance. Again, the setup cost could vary depending on the complexity involved.

License Acquisition cost: Just like any other software, you need to buy a License to use the PIM software. There are many types of licenses available in the market, you need to choose the one that best fits you carefully. The cost will either be a one-time payment or recurring depending upon the type of license and the software provider. Choose wisely!

Customization and Implementation Cost: Every business is unique and will have its own needs and requirements. Yes, you can tailor your PIM to fit your specific needs. You might want to migrate your existing data, Integrate your PIM with other systems that you are currently using, program workflows, and add any new features. Customization and Implementation costs will cover all of these.

Ongoing Costs

Now that you have set up your PIM and started using it, it doesn’t end up there. You’ll need to budget your expenses to keep things running smoothly!

License Renewal Cost: As we discussed earlier, depending on the type of license you acquire, the license cost could be either one-time or ongoing. If you buy a rental license or a subscription-based one, you will have to pay the money at recurring intervals to continue using the PIM software.

Maintenance and Support Cost: Let it be any product, definitely some kind of maintenance is necessary! Similarly, PIM software will also need regular maintenance to ensure a smooth operation. This could be any bug fixes or software upgrades. PIM providers offer various support options like Email support, Call support, or even a dedicated account manager. Hence, the expense could vary based on your requirements.

Hosting Cost: You can host the PIM either on your own servers, rented servers, or even on a cloud platform. The cost involved will vary based on the storage space required, bandwidth usage, and the level of support you need. 

Run Cost: Yes, this is the cost incurred for the seamless running of your PIM. This might include the support for integration or regular monitoring of the third-party channels for updates and implementation. This will again vary depending on the number of connections.

Hope you have gained a better understanding of the various costs involved. This will greatly help you in your decision-making, as now you can better analyze the options!

Let’s now understand in-depth the factors affecting the cost of a PIM solution.

9 Key Factors Affecting The PIM Cost

Here are some aspects a business looking to invest in a PIM consider:

1. Number of users of the PIM platform

Some PIM systems charge based on the number of users of the PIM platform. So, before investing in a PIM, understand who would be the end-users of the PIM platform. 

It is always a good practice to map the users of the PIM (role) with the objective. This will give you a clear picture of the usage cost.

2. The complexity of integration

A PIM system, when integrated with your existing platforms and marketplaces can do wonders for your business. For instance, if you are selling on Amazon and Walmart online stores, a PIM can help you natively integrate with these platforms. 

This integration can benefit you by having a two-way synchronization of all your data. When it comes to the cost factor, the complexity of integrating the PIM system with your existing software and the number of channels can influence the pricing. 

If you have multiple software platforms that need to be connected, this can add to the expense.

Some of the PIM platforms charge based on the number of exports. This is because these platforms don’t have native integrations with marketplaces and channels.

Their data syndication is typically cumbersome and involves:

• The data has to be prepared manually to ensure that it complies with the channel or marketplace to which it is syndicated to. On average, preparing one data template for retail takes about 3-4 days and the effort costs around $500
• The mapping of data happens manually. The template is downloaded from the channel and uploaded back to the PIM platform (you cannot copy + paste column to column)
• Once the mapping is done, the template has to be uploaded back to the channel and this is generally not successful in the first go. You get errors, and run into a loop of endless re-work, creating and fixing the data errors losing a lot of time and money

How does PIMworks stand out?

PIMworks’ cost is based on the number of channels you publish your content on and not based on the number of exports. The advantage here is, that unlike a few other players in the market, PIMworks has pre-built templates for all the key channels and marketplaces that make automating and syndicating the product catalog content a breeze.

You don’t have to manually get the templates, it is configured already and ready to go. Your data also goes through a health check before syndication that helps you monitor and track the changes needed. 

3. Features and Functionality

This is the most crucial factor that determines the cost of a PIM solution. There are platforms in the market that offer a vast range of features and functionality that can significantly affect the cost. More advanced and comprehensive PIM solutions tend to be more expensive. 

If you have multiple stakeholders in the supply chain, like vendors, supplies, retailers, and others involved in contributing to your product information, managing the workflows could get a bit complex. In such scenarios, you need a PIM platform that can help you create seamless workflows and give your stakeholders granular access controls.

Another advanced feature is the integrations that we discussed. If you are looking at robust integrations, that could inflate the cost to a certain extent.

Do your syndication channels expect data in a certain way and constantly change the formats?

A lot of eCommerce businesses work with channels that demand data in a specific format. Not just that, these formats are subjected to continuous changes and you have to be assertive and proactive to keep up with these changes. 

A platform like PIMworks can help you with data preparation and ensure that you stay compliant with the periodic changes.

4. The level of customization 

Every eCommerce business and its needs are different. For instance, an eCommerce business would want specific fields in their product catalog to meet the unique requirements of their business or specific taxonomy classification.

If you need extensive customization to tailor the PIM system to your unique business requirements, this can increase the cost. The more you customize the PIM platform to meet your unique needs, the costlier it could get.

5. The volume of data and the no. of SKUs

An eCommerce giant with huge volumes of product data needs a PIM platform that is scalable. The amount of data (SKUs, product information, media files, etc.) that the PIM system will manage can impact the cost. 

Online websites with high data volumes often require more powerful infrastructure that could potentially impact pricing.

6. Support and maintenance

A PIM platform needs ongoing support and maintenance. There are a variety of modules in a PIM that need extensive training, updates, and more. 

Some PIM systems offer additional modules or extensions for functionalities like data quality, digital asset management, or workflow automation. Purchasing these modules may increase the overall cost.

7. Pricing models

• Usage-based pricing: Some PIM systems may charge based on the amount of data you store or the number of API calls or data transactions.

• Custom pricing: For larger enterprises or unique requirements, custom pricing may be negotiated with the vendor based on your specific needs.

Each PIM provider has their own approach and has different PIM Pricing Models. Some may charge based on the number of users, SKUs, or integrations, while others may have tiered pricing plans. 

To get a better understanding, let’s review the two different pricing models offered by PIMworks.

We at PIMworks, also provide completely customizable solutions depending on your requirements.

8. Free and Open Source

Some PIM systems are open-source or have free versions with limited features. However, these may require more in-house development and support.

9. Level of automation and AI

A PIM platform can be modern and advanced with AI features for data enrichment. While a lot of PIM players don’t offer advanced features to create catalogs at speed and with accuracy, the ones that do might offer this feature at a price. How do PIM platforms help you leverage AI:

• Let AI write product descriptions
• Use AI to complete the missing information in your catalogs
• AI-driven language translation tools can help in translating product information into multiple languages
• AI can monitor competitor activities and pricing strategies
• AI can be used to automatically identify and correct data inconsistencies

Hidden Costs of PIM

While investing in a PIM, there could be some additional costs businesses may not have initially thought of that could increase PIM expenses.

Here are a few aspects that could be hidden or unknown at the time of investing in the software:

• Professional Services (consulting, training, customizations)
• Support Services
• Adding new channels
• Data quality management
• Maintenance and scalability costs

Analyzing and mitigating these hidden costs will help you make informed decisions. To avoid these hidden costs, clearly define the needs and identify the features required for your organization. Make sure, you clearly discuss the pricing details with your PIM provider to ensure transparency, avoiding unpleasant surprises.

Final thoughts

Understanding the cost of implementing a PIM solution and analyzing its potential value is a huge step toward effective product data management. As we discussed, PIM costs can vary depending on multiple factors like the choice of software provider, Number of SKUs and users, and the complexity and scale of your business needs.

Investment in a PIM system is a strategic decision that can bring significant benefits over the long term. The series of costs involved in implementing a PIM might appear to be a maze of expenses. But with careful consideration and planning, you can reap your fruit very soon.

To make an informed decision, consider your specific needs, budget, and long-term scalability needs.

Interested in seeing how PIMworks can elevate your Business strategy?

 Schedule a free demo today and discover the difference.

FAQs

The post How Much Does a PIM Cost in 2024? Key Factors and Insights appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

To fully realize the power of product data in eCommerce, immersive digital content is essential. This digital content is critical to product catalogs and can be in many forms including product imagery, short and long-form video, interactive content, PDFs, and marketing assets that will enable eCommerce revenue and profit success.

While well-written copy for features, specifications, and descriptions is essential for buyer education and SEO performance, without connecting high-quality digital imagery, the eCommerce business ROI will suffer. 

Think of textual content and supporting digital assets delivering a 1+1=3 result.

Does that mean all products must go about creating extensive digital assets? The truth is not all products or product categories require the same digital asset treatment. Mostly due to significant creative costs and challenges in creating digital assets and the type of product sold. 

Many companies will choose to prioritize the most valuable products in terms of sales and revenue volume. 

Simply, the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is an effective approach to prioritizing which products should receive the most investment. Each high-value product will receive a company’s best effort for digital asset and copy creation. 

All said, creating and managing digital assets for products is difficult at best.  

This is where a Digital Asset Management (DAM) platform can help. DAM solutions allow companies to organize, automate workflows, and manage digital assets with significantly less effort. 

An introduction to the expert voice: 

To shed light on the world of DAMs and best practice insights for this quintessential tool, we sat down with Tom Fristoe, a PIM + DAM specialist. Tom brings decades of experience helping eCommerce and product companies increase their revenue and profit velocity through the power of compelling and rich online product experiences for consumers.

Let’s dive into our interview with Tom.

Q: Hi Tom, before we talk about DAMs, can you share an overview of what a Product Information Management (PIM) system is for an e-commerce world? How would you explain a PIM’s primary role?

Tom: Thank you for having me! Think of a PIM platform as your eCommerce manager. Its primary responsibility is to keep product information organized. A key component of this product information is your digital assets. Digital assets come in many forms, from copy describing features, specifications, and descriptions. And equally important are product imagery, short and long-form videos, interactive content, PDFs, and other marketing assets.

Interviewer: Understand. So, what does a PIM actually do with all that product information?

Tom: A PIM is a master organizer. It allows for manual or automated importing of product data from various internal and external sources – suppliers, in-house teams, wherever – and brings the data together into a single repository. Delivering a single source of truth for product information.

Interviewer: But why is a single source of truth so important?

Tom: Having one central repository for product data ensures consistency and easy access for an entire company. Product descriptions can now be unified and accurate, and enable data to follow a specific format for brand compliance and consistency. PIM makes sure of that. It’s like the quality control manager for your product information.

Interviewer: What about when you’re selling on different selling destinations, like a company’s own website, Amazon, or other eCommerce destinations?

Tom: That’s where a PIM really shines. A PIM takes that organized product data and enables easy delivery (syndication) to disparate channel requirements and ensures that it’s used consistently across all those sales channels. No more inconsistent messaging for current or prospective customers. It’s all about creating a uniform experience from one place to another.

Interviewer: So, PIM simplifies data management and makes the customer experience more consistent. What are some other benefits of  PIM?

Tom: This is a big question. Here’s the short version.

Beyond simplifying data management and ensuring a consistent customer experience, a PIM system offers a host of other advantages. 

It accelerates time-to-market, making the process of adding new products quicker and more efficient. PIM also facilitates global expansion by helping you manage product data for different regions and languages, tailoring your content to diverse audiences. 

Moreover, it enables personalization, ensuring you can customize product information for specific customer segments, enhancing their shopping experience. PIM’s data governance and security features protect sensitive information, while the analytics and insights it provides aid in data-driven decision-making. 

Ultimately, PIM delivers a competitive advantage by maintaining data accuracy, consistency, and organization, which builds trust and strengthens a company’s market presence. 

Interviewer: It sounds like PIM is a real eCommerce powerhouse. In a nutshell, what’s the big picture here?

Tom: A PIM is essential and indeed a powerhouse in the world of eCommerce when utilized properly. 

To reiterate, its overarching role is to streamline and centralize product data management, ensuring that all your product information, from names and descriptions to images and pricing, are well-organized, accurate, and consistent. This centralization simplifies data management, making it more efficient, reducing the risk of errors, and helping build a company’s brand more effectively. 

What’s more, PIM harmonizes your product data across various sales channels, whether it’s your website, mobile app, or third-party platforms, delivering a unified and seamless customer experience. It also empowers your eCommerce business with faster time-to-market, personalized content, and the ability to tap into global markets. 

Lastly, PIMs offer robust data governance, security, and data insights. PIM is your trusted ally for data-driven decision-making and maintaining a competitive edge in the dynamic and highly competitive eCommerce landscape.

Q: So, with this overview of a PIM and its role in optimizing eCommerce revenue and profit velocity, where does Digital Asset Management (DAM) come into play with a PIM system?

Tom:  Often overlooked, think of Digital Asset Management (DAM) as PIM’s partner. It’s like the tag team that ensures all your digital media, like images and videos, are brand-aligned, and consistent and will compel your prospective customers to buy. Here’s how a DAM solution fits into the story:

Overall, a DAM platform is complementary to a PIM ensuring media assets are organized to better work their magic. It’s about delivering potential customers a visually compelling experience when they’re shopping on eCommerce sites. DAM and PIM will help power online stores to new heights and that will stand out from the crowd.

Q: Alright, let’s dive into how Digital Asset Management (DAM) plays a crucial role in helping eCommerce businesses sell more. So, first off, what specific roles does DAM play in enhancing the eCommerce game?

Tom: DAM wears many hats, here are the high points:

• Superior Visuals: DAM ensures that your product images and videos are high-quality, consistently formatted, on-brand, and optimized for all devices on desktop and mobile-optimized environments. When your customers see crisp, stunning visuals, it elevates the shopping experience and makes them more likely to hit that “Buy Now” button.
• Speed to Market: With DAM, you can quickly upload and manage new media assets. This means you can get new products online faster and respond swiftly to market trends. When you’re ahead of the game, it’s easier to capture the attention of potential buyers.
• Consistency Across Channels: DAM makes sure the same media is used consistently across all your sales channels. Whether someone’s shopping on your website, mobile app, or marketplace, they’ll see the same enticing visuals, creating trust and brand recognition.
• Efficiency in Content Creation: DAM streamlines collaboration among your teams. Designers, marketers, and content creators can work together more efficiently, ensuring your product visuals are fresh, engaging, and match your brand identity.
• Global Reach: If you’re selling globally, DAM helps you manage media assets for different regions and languages. It’s a game-changer for reaching diverse markets.
• Rights Management: DAM takes care of tracking and managing the usage rights for your media assets. This is vital for compliance with copyright laws, which can save you from costly legal troubles.
• Historical Tracking: It keeps a history of your media assets. So, if you ever need to look back at previous versions or track changes, you can do that without breaking a sweat.

All in all, a DAM ensures that your eCommerce show is visually captivating, and organized, and will compel your audience – to buy!

Q: Last question, Tom. Let’s talk about the impact of a DAM system on understanding and crunching the numbers. How does it influence data analysis and decision-making in e-commerce?

Tom: Absolutely, I love numbers, they never lie! A DAM system will have a significant impact on understanding and evaluating the numbers for eCommerce. Here how:

• Analytics-Ready Assets: DAM ensures that your media assets are well-organized and tagged. This makes it easier to track which visuals are being used, where, and how often. These insights are gold when you’re trying to understand which product images or videos resonate most with your customers.
• Conversion Optimization: By linking specific media assets to product listings, DAM helps you analyze which visuals are driving conversions. If you see that a particular image or video consistently results in higher sales, you can make data-driven decisions to use similar visuals for other products.
• Content Performance: DAM provides visibility into the performance of different media assets across various channels. You can see which images or videos are most effective on your website, mobile app, or social media platforms. This knowledge allows you to fine-tune your content strategy.
• Customer Engagement: Understanding which media assets customers engage with the most can help you tailor your eCommerce experience. If, for example, customers frequently click on zoomed-in images, you may want to provide more high-resolution images to enhance the shopping experience.
• Inventory Management: DAM can also help with inventory management. By tracking which media assets are associated with low or high-selling products, you can make informed decisions about stock levels, product bundling, or promotions.
• A/B Testing: With DAM, you can easily set up A/B tests by switching out media assets on product pages. This allows you to experiment with different visuals and assess their impact on sales, helping you refine your content strategy.

To summarize, a DAM system provides the data and insights to make informed decisions for optimizing eCommerce success. It will help guide content choices that ultimately lead to improved customer engagement, higher conversion rates, and better overall profit performance. So, when it comes to crunching the numbers in eCommerce, DAM should be considered essential for driving success.

The post <strong>PIM Talk With Tom Series: Episode 1</strong> appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

While a CMS helps a business create, manage, host, and publish content; a PIM helps with managing product information as your business grows. To better understand these two concepts, let’s take a look at Jane’s journey through CMS and PIM software.

Meet Jane: An ambitious apparel store owner

Jane owns an apparel brand called “Urban Glam” and wants to have a strong online presence, but here’s the catch: she has no prior coding experience. With CMS systems like Shopify and BigCommerce she can create a stunning online store without needing to write a single line of code. 

PIM VS CMS: The Complete Breakdown

What is a CMS?

The CMS systems make it easy to build your dream website with simple drag and drop features. You can create web pages, manage, host, and publish content.

How does a CMS help an online store with content management?

• Non-technical users with zero code experience can create and publish content, including product descriptions, blog posts, and landing pages
• You can involve multiple users to collaborate on content creation, with role-based permissions. You can control who can create, edit, and publish content
• If you are doing specific marketing campaigns or seasonal promotions, you can schedule content to be published or removed 
• CMS platforms can be integrated with SEO tools to optimize your content
• You can store and manage images, videos, and other media files within your CMS
• With a CMS you can also ensure that your pages are responsive across devices

So, Jane would be benefited in the aspects we just discussed by implementing a CMS. As Jane’s online store takes off, she begins to add a bunch of products to her online catalog – apparel lines for all seasons and accessories like scarves, hats, and shoes.

The limitations of a CMS

A CMS helps in managing content and creating visually stunning websites. But, they cannot help with managing product data. When a business grows, the number of products and associated product data starts growing exponentially. Managing them on legacy systems and spreadsheets will result in errors and inconsistencies of data. 

When Jane’s product range expands, she starts to encounter the same daunting challenge that we discussed. Managing her product data becomes increasingly chaotic. She finds herself drowning in a sea of spreadsheets, each containing vital product information such as sizes, colors, fabric details, pricing, and availability. 

She struggles to keep track of the multiple variations of each product, the updated stock levels, and removal of discontinued items from her online store. Jane soon realizes that relying solely on a CMS like Shopify or BigCommerce is no longer sufficient for her growing business. 

While these platforms are excellent for creating visually appealing websites and managing content, they lack the capabilities to manage product information that’s her utmost priority. Managing intricate product data and ensuring consistency across various sales channels proves to be an uphill battle.

A CMS cannot:

• Manage product information from a centralized location
• Publish products across multiple channels that are compliant with each channel’s guidelines
• Enable all the key stakeholders collaborate under one space
• Reduce time to market with channel integrations
• Reduce product data errors and inconsistencies

What is a PIM?

A PIM system is a product information management platform that helps to centrally store and manage product information. It acts as a central source of truth for all the product information and makes it easy to access, manage, and syndicate products across multiple channels. 

A PIM system will empower Jane to centralize and organize her product data efficiently. With PIM, she can enrich her product listings with detailed descriptions, high-resolution images, and personalized options, all while ensuring consistency and accuracy.

How does a PIM help an online store with product data management?

• Centrally store and manage all your product data
• Find a single source of truth for all your product titles, descriptions, pricing information, and more
• Store and manage all your digital assets (PDFs, images, videos)
• Take your products to market faster with syndication that ensures your data is published in the right format 
• Simplify workflows and collaborate with all stakeholders
• Optimize product content and improve search visibility
• Enrich product catalogs with automated content enrichment

Jane realizes that PIM is the key to maintaining a seamless shopping experience for her customers, even as her product catalog continues to grow. As she transitions to a PIM solution, Jane can focus on what she does best – curating stunning fashion collections and growing her brand, confident that her product data is well-managed and under control.

PIM VS CMS: The key differences

How does PIM + CMS work out for your online store?

Though PIM and CMS are two different concepts, there is still synergy between the two and here are some ways in which eCommerce store owners like Jane can benefit from this:

• Efficient Data Management: PIM ensures your product data is managed centrally from a single source of truth and as a result your data is always accurate and consistent and the CMS helps in maintaining and managing the content published on your website

• Rich Content Integration: CMS allows easy creation and publishing of engaging content, complementing your product pages managed by PIM

• Streamlined Operations: The synergy of PIM and CMS streamlines workflows, improving collaboration and ensuring a seamless shopping experience for customers

• Scalability: As your product range grows, PIM and CMS accommodate expansion, making it easier to manage more products and content effectively

• Enhanced SEO: Combined, they boost search engine optimization efforts by offering both well-structured product data and high-quality content

Final thoughts

Every eCommerce business relies on a bunch of tools and platforms to manage and grow their business – ERPs, CRMs, CMS, PIMs, etc. While we can keep throwing acronyms like these, it is also important to understand the objectives and solutions of each of these tools.

Often businesses mistake CMS and PIM to be the same. While CMS helps in managing, editing, and publishing content; PIMs help in product data management. CMS comes in handy to maintain a website and a PIM helps in managing information and getting your products to market faster.

There are tools like PIMworks that help with managing content and product information. If you are looking for a PIM tool to simplify your product data management, go ahead and book your free demo now.

FAQs

The post PIM VS CMS: The Meaning, Differences, and Combined Powers appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

To make your journey into the world of PIM more accessible and comprehensible, we’ve put together a comprehensive PIM glossary of essential terms and concepts. Whether you’re a seasoned PIM professional or just dipping your toes into this domain, this glossary will help you navigate the terrain with confidence.

Why a PIM Glossary Matter

Understanding the terminology associated with PIM is crucial for several reasons:

Clarity in communication: Whether you’re discussing PIM strategies with colleagues or working with PIM software, a shared vocabulary ensures everyone is on the same page

Efficient learning: If you’re new to PIM, learning the terminology helps you grasp concepts more quickly

Effective decision-making: PIM solutions are a significant investment for any organization. Knowing the terminology empowers you to make informed decisions and align with your business goals

Troubleshooting and problem-solving: When issues arise, knowing the right terminology can be the key to solving problems efficiently. It allows you to articulate issues clearly when seeking support or troubleshooting on your own

Exploring the PIM Glossary

Our PIM glossary is a comprehensive collection of terms that cover various aspects of Product Information Management.

Disclaimer: The glossary is intended for informational purposes and should not be considered exhaustive. The terms and concepts may evolve over time in the dynamic field of PIM.

As you explore the glossary, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with any questions or feedback. We’re here to support you on your PIM journey and help you harness the power of effective product information management for your business’s success.

The post Demystifying the World of PIM: A Glossary of Key Terms appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

For an eCommerce business, particularly, productivity is the top priority. 

This is because they breathe data day in and day out and if there are no proper tools and resources in place to manage this, it could eat up their time and hamper their growth to a great extent.

Imagine a catalog manager working for hours to manually put together a catalog and the marketing team optimizing the content to meet varying channel requirements.

Manual work and repetitive tasks are major killers of productivity.

Today, we’re going to find out how you can be more productive in handling your product data if you are using a PIM platform.

What Are The Productivity Killers When It Comes To Product Data Management?

A lot of eCommerce businesses make productivity mistakes when it comes to product data management. Here are a few instances:

Managing product data on spreadsheets

Manual data entry and updates

Disorganized spreadsheets and files

Lack of centralized information hub

Inconsistent data across platforms

Time-consuming content enrichment tasks

Communication gaps among team members

Limited access to real-time data

Cumbersome approval processes

Productivity Hacks If You Have A PIM Platform: An Overview

Productivity Mistake	PIMworks Hacks
Manual Data Entry and Updates	Utilize PIM’s Bulk Import and Update features
Disorganized Spreadsheets and Files	Leverage PIM’s Centralized Interface Store all data in one accessible place Real-time Updates: Ensure consistent data across the board
Lack of Centralized Information Hub	Store all your data in one place Manage, edit, and enrich on the fly Publish globally from a single source of truth
Inconsistent Data Across Platforms	Distribute uniform data across all platforms Utilize in-built templates to standardize Customized data for each channel to personalize Seamless syndication with native connectors to eCommerce platforms and marketplaces Reach any channel with a unified workflow
Time-Consuming Content Enrichment Tasks	Automate content enrichment Assess content quality with health checks
Communication Gaps Among Team Members	Work with your suppliers, manufacturers, vendors, content, and IT teams under one roof Equip teams to spontaneously jump in and assign tasks to individuals Tag relevant stakeholders if something needs immediate attention
Cumbersome Approval Processes	Set up workflow rules Set approval triggers Tag, comment, and assign for visibility and immediate action

Let’s now dive into these hacks in detail!

Productivity Hack #1: Escape the spreadsheet madness

Enter catalog information – Open a spreadsheet.

Share product information with suppliers – Open a spreadsheet.

Get product data ready for a particular channel – Open a spreadsheet.

This is the biggest mistake that eCommerce businesses are making today. The excessive usage of spreadsheets not only leads to errors but is also a major productivity hazard. Imagine spending hours doing manual data entry that’s monotonous and labor-intensive. Managing product data on spreadsheets leads to:

• Data management on spreadsheets gets tedious beyond a certain point and causes employee burnout
• Manual data management leads to severe issues with data quality – inconsistencies, errors, and mismatched information
• Collaborating on spreadsheets often leads to multiple versions
• Real-time collaboration becomes a hassle – imagine 5 collaborators clicking on the same cell
• As the volume of product data increases, the scalability could be a concern

What’s the mistake?

Using an endless number of spreadsheets to manage product data without organizing it in a central source of truth.

  PIMworks pro tip

If you use PIMworks, you can import all the data on your spreadsheets into PIMworks and take back control. You can work on your product data, enrich it on the fly, and publish globally – all from under one roof. 

Productivity Hack #2: Reduce data inconsistencies

Getting a product published on a channel is no easy feat. This is because each distribution channel has its own set of rules, guidelines, and structure in which the product catalog is presented. 

If you do not have an efficient process in place, it could take a lot of manual effort and time to standardize the product data that matches the fields. Imagine doing this for thousands of products and in a variety of templates – this is a productivity disruptor. This leads to:

• Inaccurate product descriptions lead to poor customer experience
• Time wasted on manual data verification and correction
• Misalignment between marketing materials and actual product attributes
• Difficulty in launching new products due to data preparation issues
• Inefficient distribution of product information across sales channels
• Increased risk of errors in reporting and analytics
• Resource wastage on redundant data entry and validation
• Challenges in integrating data from various systems and platforms

What’s the mistake?

Having cumbersome processes in place to syndicate data without standardizing them with a PIM platform.

  PIMworks pro tip

With PIMworks, you can save hours on manual data entry with instant syndication. There are native integrations with Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento that help with automatic data sync. There are also in-built templates that cater to channel-specific requirements. This means you can take your products to market faster, automate the whole process, and ensure that your catalogs are nothing less than stunning!

Productivity Hack #3: Automate product data enrichment

Product enrichment refers to the process of adding and editing the product catalog to make it more comprehensive, resourceful, complete, and engaging. This helps boost customer engagement and drive better conversions. 

But, the problem is not a lot of eCommerce businesses automate the process of content enrichment. This process is done manually or skipped entirely leading to poor customer experience. The manual process hampers the productivity of your employees as they end up spending hours in monotonous data entry work.

Challenges of manual enrichment:

• Manually enriching product content takes a lot of time and effort, delaying the product launch cycle
• Manual processes are prone to errors, leading to inefficient and inconsistent product information
• The enrichment standards applied by each employee could vary, resulting in zero standardization across product listings
• The number of folks employed on repetitive manual tasks could be better allocated to value-added activities
• As the product range grows, manual enrichment becomes increasingly complex to manage effectively

What’s the mistake?

Skipping data enrichment or doing it vaguely through a manual process instead of automating the process.

  PIMworks pro tip

With PIMworks’ automated data enrichment, your product catalog is automatically populated with the required information. PIMworks crawls the web to identify the right information and populates the missing fields in your catalog. 

Productivity Hack #4: Make collaboration happen seamlessly

Product catalog creation is never a one-person job. There are multiple stakeholders who contribute to product content creation. The manufacturer gives the data and technical specifications, the catalog manager streamlines the data, the SEO writer infuses keywords in the product content, the marketing manager makes it engaging, and so on.

This requires multiple stakeholders’ contributions. If there is no streamlined collaboration process like a PIM platform that helps in assigning, tagging, and commenting – it could become a major productivity problem.

Teams may end up spending more time on endless email threads and scratching their heads with bloated spreadsheets.

• Inefficient communication methods through endless email threads or phone calls without any records can lead to delays and misalignment
• Tracking changes and managing different versions of documents can go out of control
• It becomes difficult to monitor progress, assign tasks, and maintain visibility on collaborative projects
• Relying on emails and spreadsheets for collaboration can result in data silos and severe errors
• Global teams may struggle to coordinate due to varying time zones

What’s the mistake?

Following inefficient methods of collaboration over email threads, spreadsheets, and phone calls instead of real-time collaboration in a centralized platform.

  PIMworks pro tip

PIMworks’ collaboration helps your team members – marketing teams, catalog managers, product managers, SEO writers, manufacturers, and IT teams work together without any limitations. They can manage multiple versions, tag a colleague, comment on someone’s work, and assign on the go.

Productivity Hack #5: Manage data from a single source of truth

Spreadsheets are not the only medium on which product data is messily managed. eCommerce businesses manage product data on ERPs, CRMs, digital images in local folders, content in CMS, and DMS.

This hampers productivity in many ways:

• Integrating data from various legacy systems and databases can be complex and time-consuming
• Ensuring the accuracy and consistency of data across all platforms requires extreme quality control measures
• Manually working on product catalogs by curating data from different sources
• Doing repetitive tasks while syndicating content

What’s the mistake?

Managing data in multiple systems instead of a single source of truth.

  PIMworks pro tip

PIMworks is a single source of truth that helps in centralizing product data to a unified location. This enables easy access, and streamlines the process of product data management, content creation, and syndication.

Final thoughts

Incorporating a Product Information Management (PIM) platform into your business operations can be a game-changer, revolutionizing the way you manage and distribute product data. 

By implementing the five productivity hacks outlined in this blog, you’ll not only harness the full potential of your PIM system but also propel your organization toward unparalleled efficiency and success. 

From centralized data management to seamless collaboration, from streamlined workflows to data consistency, these hacks empower you to unlock the true value of your product information. 

Embrace these hacks, unleash the power of your PIM platform, and embark on a journey of enhanced productivity that will shape the future of your business.

The post 5 Productivity Hacks You Need To Know If You Have A PIM Platform appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.