Definition of PIM

The simple answer to “what is PIM” is: PIM stands for product information management that helps eCommerce businesses centrally store and manage product data. PIM system unifies unorganized product data from sources like spreadsheets, CRM, ERP, and local folders into a single, centralized eCommerce management platform. By organizing product information into one source of truth, businesses can eliminate errors, improve efficiency, take products to market faster, and ultimately boost revenue.

There’s often a lot of confusion between master data management and product information management. Master data management refers to managing an organization’s critical data like customer data, employee data, product data, and more. It acts as a single point of reference for all the data in an organization. A PIM is a subset of master data management; it helps specifically manage product data.

A PIM is also not a DAM, CMS, or PLM.

Importance of accurate product information

The impact of accurate and consistent product information on customer experience and business operations can’t be overstated.

Without a PIM system, the data remains trapped in disparate systems leading to inaccurate information. Here are some reasons why your product data needs to be accurate:

• Builds customer trust
• Enhances buying decisions
• Reduces returns and dissatisfaction
• Boosts brand reputation
• Improves SEO and discoverability
• Increases sales and revenue

How PIM Works?

Product Information Management (PIM) systems work by centralizing and streamlining the management of product information within an organization. Here is a general overview of how a PIM system works:

Product data sync:

PIM acts as a centralized repository for all product-related information, consolidating data from various sources such as suppliers, manufacturers, and internal systems.

Data import and integration:

PIM imports data from various sources including spreadsheets, databases, and it integrates with external marketplaces and channels for data distribution

Data standardization and normalization:

PIM standardizes and normalizes product data to ensure consistency across all attributes, formats, and units of measurement enabling high data quality and accuracy

Enrichment and attribute management:

Users can enrich product data by adding additional information, filling missing information, and enriching catalogs with media assets

Workflow and collaboration:

PIM systems often include workflow management tools, allowing teams to collaborate on approval of product information.

Data governance in PIM:

Data governance in PIM includes lifecycle management processes, stringent access controls, and continuous monitoring of data quality. It ensures compliance with regulatory requirements – by establishing data governance you can ensure customer trust and satisfaction.

When do you need a PIM system?

A product information management tool is an immediate need for your company when you experience one or all of the following.

• When product SKUs are growing
• You collect data from multiple suppliers
• When you expand your sales channels
• You want to achieve an omnichannel experience
• Difficulty in managing multiple teams
• A lot of time and energy goes into manual tasks
• Dealing with frequent updates
• Handling complex product data
• Struggling with data inconsistencies

Here’s a quick summary

Get a step-by-step analysis of how to evaluate the need for a PIM

Learn More

Key Components of PIM

Centralized data:

A PIM system helps in organizing data from various sources – ERPs, CRMs, CMS, spreadsheets, and local folders to a single source of truth. This helps eCommerce businesses manage product data efficiently, maintain data accuracy and consistency, syndicate content seamlessly, and increase overall revenue.

Instant syndication:

The major challenge that eCommerce businesses face today is publishing content on different sales channels and adhering to the unique channel requirements. Without a platform like PIM in place, businesses spend endless hours on standardizing and creating channel-specific content.

A lot of human effort goes into this that impacts productivity and results in delayed time to market. But, with PIM’s instant syndication and native integrations, products can be instantly published on channels meeting the exact requirements.

Team collaboration:

Creating a final product catalog goes through multiple iterations and contributions from multiple stakeholders. But, the pain here is, without a PIM, the internal and external stakeholders end up writing long email threads to follow up and communicate. Some stakeholders collaborate on spreadsheets leading to costly errors.

A PIM can turn this around by enabling real-time collaboration. The teams can tag, comment, assign and collaborate with one another. They can create workflows and ensure productivity.

Vendor data management:

Vendors often find it difficult to collaboratively work on product data and make it market-ready. You can also assign roles and controls where one vendor cannot view other vendors’ data.

A PIM helps in reducing the complexities of unorganized vendor data and streamline, standardize, and structure high volumes of data with pre-built rules and templates.

SEO:

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for product catalogs is an essential to maximize online search visibility and drive targeted organic traffic. By optimizing product descriptions, titles, images, and metadata with relevant keywords, you enhance the chances of your products appearing in search engine results.

A very few PIM platforms understand the significance of optimized product catalogs and provide options to optimize content with the help of performance metrics and content integrity tracking.

Channel personalization:

A PIM helps in personalizing product data based on the unique requirements of each channel with its in-built templates. Let’s say for example, you sell on 2 channels (Matrix and Nexus). Your apparel (red shirt) needs to be called out as “Red” on Matrix and “Maroon” on Nexus – PIM helps in standardizing this based on channel requirements.

Not just that, the content can also be localized based on the language of a particular region.

Data Enrichment:

Enriching product catalogs with rich and comprehensive information helps in improving customer experience and enables your customers to make informed decisions.

With a PIM, product data can be enriched – missing data can be automatically updated by scraping relevant information from the web.

Analytics and reports:

Analytics and reports are integral components of a Product Information Management (PIM) system, providing valuable insights into the performance and effectiveness of your product data management strategies.

With robust analytics, you can track data quality, user engagement, and the impact of your product information across various channels.

Benefits of Implementing PIM

Enhanced Data Accuracy:

With a PIM, all your product information lives under one roof which means your data is managed efficiently reducing the errors, inconsistencies, and inefficiencies. This ensures that your final catalogs are error-free, crisp, and engaging.

Reduce time to market:

You can save hours of manual work involved in standardizing product data to make it comply with unique channel requirements. You can take your products to market faster by automatically syndicating data with in-built templates.

Multi-channel consistency:

A generic one size fits all product catalog does not make the cut if you are selling on multiple channels. A PIM helps in maintaining brand consistency and channel adherence by standardizing product data.

Ease of collaboration:

Communicate with you marketing colleagues and catalog managers within your organization or with suppliers and manufacturers who’re external collaborators at ease with a PIM.

Who needs a PIM?

Suppliers and vendors:

Suppliers and vendors utilize a PIM to store, send, and manage product information. They collaborate with the companies to share any updates or changes. They also assign approval workflows on a PIM to ensure data consistency and accuracy.

IT teams:

IT teams help in evaluating a PIM system for its security, efficiency, and other aspects and implementing it across the organization.

E-commerce managers:

E-commerce managers play a crucial role in product content creation. They are under constant pressure to create, update, and modify product information. A PIM system helps in managing and refreshing the content.

Marketing teams:

Marketing teams create and finalize the customer-facing product catalogs. They coordinate with multiple stakeholders to finalize the catalogs. The content should also be optimized for search engines. The centralized management in the PIM system facilitates optimizing product content and syndicating accurate data to the websites.

Expand to global markets with product data that is presented in multiple languages to build loyalty and attract new buyers.

Retailers & Brands:

Retailers and brands need an efficient and advanced PIM system to manage huge volumes of product information. The information is acquired from different sources – suppliers, retailers, brand owners, agencies and internal teams. This data is poor in quality because it comes in large volumes, different standards and inconsistent in formats.

A PIM system helps retailers organize, normalize and enrich product content that is consistent with every channel.

What kind of data is managed in a PIM?

Basic product information

Product title, descriptions, SKUs, and features

Digital assets

Images, documents, music, videos, and other multimedia content

Technical details

Measurements, variants, specifications, and ingredients

Sales data

Customer reviews, pricing information, and testimonials

Marketing data

Keywords, meta information, and promotional content

Why is PIM not the same as DAM?

Often PIM (product information management) and DAM (digital asset management) are used interchangeably. While there are some similarities, PIM and DAM are different concepts. While PIM is product information management, DAM is handling of digital assets like videos, images, documents etc.

The Ultimate Guide To
Digital Asset Management (DAM)

Learn More

How to choose the best PIM solution?

There are a ton of PIM software in the market. But, business needs are different. Depending on your unique needs, you have to choose a PIM. You must also be watchful of what utility you gain from investing in a PIM. A good product information management system will help you:

• A PIM tool should help you manage product experience and not just data. Creating contextual customer experience can be achieved when a PIM helps you define overall data quality
• A good PIM platform should enable ease of onboarding data, workflows, and integrations. An important aspect of successful change management is the usability and intuitiveness of the system
• Product data management becomes holistic and becomes a unified infrastructure only when you are able to manage information even after syndication
• A PIM solution gives product information performance and in-depth insights to help you understand the perception of product information by the customer and allows you in an informed overall strategic planning
• Product information management system should extend a 360-degree view of products by incorporating additional data assets such as transactional, interactional, observational, and analytics data to enable greater business insight

For more guidance on choosing the best PIM solution for your needs, check out our blog How to Choose a PIM.

What are the best PIM tools to get started with?

There are bunch of good PIM tools in the market that you can get started with. Here are the top five that you can explore:

PIMworks:

It is a product information management tool that helps small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses manage their product data centrally and get their products to the market faster with instant syndication and native integrations.

With PIMworks, you can:

• Centrally store and manage your product data.
• Integrate with leading marketplaces and channels like Amazon, Walmart,Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Magento.
• Enrich product catalogs automatically.
• Collaborate with external and internal stakeholders with automated workflows.
• Syndicate products instantly with in-built channel templates
• Personalize product content and translate them to suit any language or region.

Plytix:

Plytix is a user-friendly Product Information Management (PIM) platform that caters to small businesses and helps them establish a single source for their product data.

Akeneo:

Akeneo is a leading Product Information Management (PIM) solution, that helps businesses efficiently manage product data and create omnichannel experiences.

Salsify:

Salsify is a robust Product Experience Management (PXM) platform, offering end-to-end solutions for product content management, digital asset management, and syndication.

Pimcore:

Pimcore is an integrated digital experience platform that includes Product Information Management (PIM) capabilities. It provides a centralized solution for managing product data, digital assets, and other content.

Check out our latest blog on the Best PIM software to discover and compare top solutions for effective product information management.

What are the different industries that a PIM caters to?

Apparel:

Manage detailed categories, attributes, and minute product information for the apparel industry.

Consumer goods:

Manage diverse product portfolios, optimize marketing content, and ensure accurate and consistent information for consumer goods such as apparel, electronics, and household items.

Automotive:

Handle extensive product data related to vehicle parts, accessories, and specifications, improving collaboration across the supply chain.

Healthcare:

Manage product information for pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and healthcare equipment, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards.

Food and Beverage:

Handle detailed product information including ingredients, nutritional facts, and compliance data for food and beverage products.

Electronics:

Manage technical specifications, compatibility information, and marketing content for electronic and technological products.

Industrial equipment:

Streamline the management of complex product data for industrial machinery, equipment, and components.

Home and Furniture:

Centralize and optimize product information for furniture, home decor, and appliances, ensuring accurate details for customers.

PIM Implementation Process

Needs Assessment:

The first step in implementing a PIM Software for your organization is understanding the need and finding out how a PIM can transform your business and change the way things are done

Vendor Selection:

Next step is to evaluate the players in the market and identify the best PIM platform that serves your business needs. PIMworks is a leader in the industry that helps eCommerce businesses solve all their product data challenges. You can talk to a PIM expert before making a decision

Data Migration:

After finalizing your PIM provider, you should think about the process of data migration. Involve your IT team at this stage

Integration with Other Systems:

Integrate PIM with other business systems like ERP, CRM, and other platforms that your business currently uses

PIM Integrations

A PIM system integrates with internal systems like ERP, CRM etc. and external systems like marketplaces and channels. Here’s an overview:

1. Amazon and PIMworks integration

If you are selling on Amazon, integrating with PIM helps you publish products on Amazon with a click of a button. You can stay compliant with the constantly changing rules and guidelines of Amazon easily

Learn more about this integration

2. Magento and PIMworks integration

If you are selling on Magento, integrating with PIM helps you import inventory in a single-click and link multiple Magento stores to your PIM account.

Learn more about this integration

3. Shopify and PIMworks integration

If you are selling on Shopify, integrating with PIM helps you publish products on your Shopify store with a click of a button or in batches. You can manage multiple product data, SKUs, and variants in your Shopify store from a central location.

Learn more about this integration

4. Walmart and PIMworks integration

If you are selling on Walmart, integrating with PIM helps you manage and edit your product data in bulk and expand your business globally with automated data syndication.

Learn more about this integration

Future Trends in PIM

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are among key trends in the further development of PIM by automating data categorization, enrichment, and personalized recommendations.

Integration with emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality will give customers an immersive product experience. PIM will continue to advance its omnichannel competency by ensuring seamless distribution of information across all the touchpoints.

Hence, as companies continue to acknowledge the existence of such trends, PIM will continue to be a decisive tool for managing data and improving customer experience.

Conclusion

PIM is not just a mere data management tool; it empowers organizations to centralize, enrich, and distribute the product data efficiently across various channels. By adopting PIM solution, businesses ensure accurate and consistent product data, streamline workflows, enhance customer experiences, and accelerate time-to-market.

The ability to harness the power of PIM Software not only leads to operational efficiency but also positions companies to succeed in the competitive market, create marketing campaigns, and foster trust among the customers.

FAQs

The post What Is PIM? Must-Read Guide for Newbies appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

There is no straightforward way to pick a PIM platform. The ideal solution for your business can sometimes feel like navigating the mysterious world of ‘Stranger Things’ – the popular Netflix show. 

While we may not have Eleven’s supernatural abilities to effortlessly uncover the perfect solution, the ideal platform for your business is derived from the analysis of the business objectives, pricing expectations, ROI capabilities, feature fit, and more.

Today, we’re going to dive deep into the factors that you must consider to make an informed decision between Salsify and Syndigo.

Salsify VS Syndigo: A Side-by-Side Comparison

1. Salsify VS Syndigo: A Quick Glimpse

What is Salsify?

Salsify is a PXM platform, which enables brands and retailers to manage product content, centrally store them, and automate it for better growth and efficiency. Salsify positions itself as a leader in the PXM space that helps e-commerce businesses own, win, and rule the digital shelf.

The platform allows users to create, manage, and syndicate product content across various channels, improving the overall product experience for consumers. It also helps teams collaborate under one roof and get the products to market faster.

Salsify’s focus includes providing tools for data management, content creation, and syndication to ensure consistency and accuracy of product information across different platforms.

What is Syndigo?

Syndigo is another player in the PXM space, that helps in managing and syndicating product content across multiple channels. It also helps in optimizing product content and creating rich catalogs that improve “add to cart” rates.

Syndigo’s solutions include features for digital asset management, content syndication, product data optimization,  data normalization, and compliance with industry standards.

When comparing Salsify and Syndigo, it’s essential to consider your specific business needs, the scale of operations, and any unique requirements you may have. 

2. Salsify VS Syndigo: Features

The next key factor to consider while comparing Salsify VS Syndigo is the features that each of these platforms has to offer:

Salsify features:

• A PXM platform  that focuses on improving product data accuracy by consolidating and storing all product information in a centralized repository
• Enhance product data with rich content, including images, specifications, and descriptions
• Streamline the process of updating and adding new information. Facilitate collaboration among teams with customizable workflows
• Easily syndicate product information to various sales channels, e-commerce platforms, and marketplaces. Ensure a seamless and consistent brand presence across different touchpoints

Syndigo features:

• Store and manage all product data in a centralized location. Ensure consistency and accuracy across various channels and touchpoints
• Streamline the process of enhancing product information with automated enrichment tools. Add detailed specifications, rich media, and other relevant content effortlessly

• Syndicate product information to multiple sales channels, e-commerce platforms, and marketplaces. Maintain a uniform brand presence across diverse online and offline channels
• Organize and manage digital assets, such as images and videos, for effective marketing and sales efforts. Ensure easy access and utilization of media resources
• Publish product content seamlessly across various channels, websites, and catalogs. Optimize content for different formats and platforms

3. Salsify VS Syndigo: User reviews

When it comes to choosing between Salsify and Syndigo, insights from users can offer valuable perspectives on real-world experiences. Let’s take a closer look at user reviews for both platforms.

Salsify reviews:

Pros:

• User-Friendly Interface: Many users praise Salsify for its intuitive and user-friendly interface, making it easy for teams to navigate and utilize its features efficiently
• Comprehensive Syndication: Users appreciate Salsify’s robust syndication capabilities, allowing seamless distribution of product information across multiple channels and marketplaces

Cons:

• Customer Support: Some users express dissatisfaction with Salsify’s customer support, citing instances of delayed responses and challenges in getting timely assistance
• DAM (Digital Asset Management) Limitations: A few users highlight limitations in Salsify’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities. Issues with the system lacking advanced features in DAM functionalities may impact users with specific content management requirements

Syndigo reviews:

Pros:

• Rich Content Management: Users appreciate Syndigo’s emphasis on enriched content, especially its capabilities in managing high-quality visuals and rich media, enhancing the overall product presentation
• Customer Support: Several users commend Syndigo’s customer support, citing responsive and helpful assistance when addressing queries or issues

Cons:

• Interface Complexity: A few users mention that Syndigo’s interface may have a steeper learning curve, particularly for those new to PIM platforms
• Customization Limitations: Some users express a desire for more flexibility in customization, stating that certain features could benefit from additional adaptability to meet specific business needs

Final thoughts

As we explored the features, capabilities, and nuances of Salsify and Syndigo, it became clear that both platforms offer robust solutions tailored to the unique needs of businesses in 2024.

Both Salsify and Syndigo present compelling options for businesses seeking effective product information management and syndication solutions. Your ultimate choice should align with your unique business requirements, goals, and the specific challenges you aim to address. As you embark on this decision-making journey, keep in mind that success lies not just in the platform you choose, but in how well it aligns with and supports your broader business strategy.

However, these are not the only best PIM platforms. There are several other good players.

These popular PIM tools include:

• PIMworks
• Plytix
• InRiver
• SalesLayer
• Pimcore

PIMworks emerges as a centralized solution for efficient product data management, offering automated enrichment to eliminate gaps in catalogs. The platform integrates seamlessly with major marketplaces and key e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Amazon, Magento, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce through adaptable APIs.

Its collaborative features enable streamlined workflows for both internal and external stakeholders, fostering efficient product information management. PIMworks also stands out with built-in catalog templates, allowing businesses to personalize content according to each channel’s requirements, ensuring visual appeal and compliance.

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

The post Salsify Vs Syndigo: Which platform to choose in 2024? appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

To answer this, we have to unravel a lot of things: 

• Who are the players? 
• What problems do they solve? 
• How do they solve it? 
• What do the users of the platforms think? 
• Do they fit your business goals?

All of these are critical questions to understand who is the better player. 

In this blog post, we’ll delve into an in-depth comparison of these platforms, exploring their features, use cases, and more.

Pimcore VS Inriver: A side-by-side comparison

Here’s a quick snapshot of the key features of Pimcore and InRiver:

What are these platforms used for?

What Is Pimcore Used For?

Pimcore is an open-source data nd experience management platform that provides a unified solution for PIM, digital asset management (DAM), content management systems (CMS), and master data management (MDM). It serves as a centralized hub for managing product data and comprises of all essential features and ficntionalities to create perfect product data.

Pimcore is used for:

• Data modeling
• Data management
• Data quality management
• Workflow management
• Digital asset management
• Product feed management
• Product data syndication

What Is Inriver Used For?

Inriver, on the other hand, specializes in PIM solutions designed to empower organizations to efficiently manage, create and distribute high-quality product information that are compliant across various channels. It focuses on simplifying the complex process of handling vast amounts of product data, ensuring consistency and accuracy in every customer touchpoint.

Inriver is used for:

• Single source of product data
• Scalable platform for growing SKUs
• Create personalized buying experience
• Stay compliant with regulations
• Powerful syndication

What are these platforms best suitable for?

Pimcore:

• Ideal for businesses seeking an open-source, all-in-one solution for PIM, DAM, and CMS
• Suited for organizations with diverse digital needs, such as e-commerce, marketing, and content management
• Businesses (large in size) belonging to any industry including manufacturing, retail, wholesale distribution, technology, food & beverage, travel & hospitality 

Inriver:

• Tailored for companies prioritizing precision and efficiency in product information management
• It is suitable for companies who are in the growth phase and struggling to manage the information behind SKUs that are expanding swiftly
• It is also ideal for businesses with a specific focus on delivering consistent, compliant, high-quality, and personalized product information across multiple channels

Reviews of real-users

Pimcore:

User reviews often praise Pimcore for its versatility and robust feature set. The open-source nature attractsa set of audience thus promising continuous improvement and innovation.

The users find the onboarding, implementation, and customization to be a tad bit time-consuming and complicated.

Source: Capterra

InRiver:

Users appreciate InRiver for its focus on PIM, providing a dedicated solution that ensures the highest standards of product information quality.

However, there are a bunch of users who find the platform a bit complicated to use. A couple of customers also highlight the issues with implementation and onboarding attributing it to the customer support and the platform is a bit buggy.

Pricing – Pimcore Vs InRiver

Pricing structures for both platforms can vary based on factors like the size of the organization, specific requirements, and additional features. It’s recommended to consult with each provider for a tailored quote.

Pimcore:

Open-source, customizable to fit budget constraints.

InRiver:

Inriver does not offer a free trial or a free plan. You have to take a demo to learn about the pricing.

Final Thoughts

Managing product data is a tough sail. Unless your boats are sturdy, gliding through these difficult waves saps your energy. 

Choosing between Pimcore and InRiver ultimately depends on your organization’s unique needs and priorities. However, the PIM market is broader and there are a lot of other powerful, modern, and efficient PIM tools available:

Some of the top tools are:

• PIMworks
• Plytix
• Salsify
• SalesLayer
• Akeneo

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

• A centralized hub to store, manage, enrich, and syndicate product data
• The automated enrichment ensure that there are no missing information in the product catalogs and the customers get detailed information on the product pages while shopping. This ensures better customer experience and conversions
• PIMworks natively integrates with all the key marketplaces and has APIs to connect with 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 Pimcore VS Inriver: Who’s the better PIM player? A Snackable Guide appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

However, the world of business rivalries does not work that way.

Whether it is the classic showdown between McDonald’s and Burger King or Apple and Android, there is always a lot of logical reasoning, factual data, and hands-on user experience that can substantiate everything that is said.

Today, we’re going to delve into one such pair of competitors – the face-off between two PIM platforms Akeneo and Inriver. 

So, why are we here? Well, it’s not to throw confetti at a winner, but to understand which side of the digital playground suits your business needs better.

Let’s dive right in.

Akeneo VS Inriver: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Akeneo VS Inriver: Key Differences

1. The fundamentals of Akeneo VS Inriver

What is Akeneo

Akeneo is a product information management platform that helps e-commerce businesses achieve omnichannel presence by delivering consistent product experiences across channels. It enables efficient management of product data, enriching of information, and cutting-edge technologies to rectify data errors, improve searchability, and improve time to market. Akeneo is also AI-powered and helps automate product description writing, translation, and pricing.

What is Inriver

Inriver is a product information management solution that caters to brands, manufacturers, and retailers to centrally manage product data. Inriver focuses on helping e-commerce businesses make more profits, drive experiences backed by data, and ensure product data governance and security, syndication, and distribution.

It is a comprehensive PIM platform that emphasizes rich media handling and supports intricate workflow processes. It also has AI capabilities that are GPT-powered enabling listings, SEO-based description writing, translations, and more.

2. Features of Akeneo and Inriver:

Akeneo Features:

• Akeneo, like any other PIM, helps establish a single source of truth and manages product data centrally enabling easier access and distribution. It offers the ability to handle diverse product information, including images, descriptions, specifications, etc.
• It enables the management of data and associated information like attribute variants, and other aspects in bulk automatically thereby eliminating manual works
• You can be omnichannel with Akeneo’s product distribution and syndication that helps you create relevant information for each channel including e-commerce sites, print catalogs, direct mail, distributors, dealers, direct sales, and more
• Akeneo helps you narrate consistent product stories that are more than just plain product data. You can tell compelling stories with brand narratives, images, and your core values
• Capability to manage product information in multiple languages
• Ability to define and customize product attributes based on business needs

• Collaboration tools for managing workflows and approvals in the product information creation process
• Version control for product information to track changes over time
• Integration capabilities with e-commerce platforms, ERP systems, and other business applications
• Data governance with single sign-on capabilities and version control

InRiver Features:

• Inriver helps you centrally manage product information
• It helps you syndicate content by mapping, transforming, and distributing product content to all downstream systems with templates and APIs
• Tools for enriching product data and ensuring data accuracy
• Workflow management to streamline the creation and approval of product information
• Tools for maintaining data quality and governance standards
• Integration capabilities with various e-commerce platforms, CMS, and other systems. You can syndicate to marketplaces, online retailers, social commerce, instore, mobile, print, and distributors
• Scalable architecture to handle growing product catalogs
• Reporting tools for analyzing product information and performance

3. Pricing of Akeneo vs InRiver:

Akeneo has an elaborate pricing plan and Inriver has a custom pricing model.

Akeneo Pricing: 

Akeneo offers a free Community Edition with features like centralized product data and catalog enrichment. The Growth Edition, starting at $25K annually, is a SaaS product, adding automatic updates and a customer success manager. The Enterprise Edition, with a custom quote, includes advanced features.

Edition Comparison:

Inriver Pricing: 

Inriver does not offer a free trial or a free plan. It has a custom pricing model and the pricing information is not exposed on their official website. To know more about their pricing, you may have to take a personalized demo.

Source: SaaSworthy

4. User Reviews of Akeneo and Inriver:

Akeneo User Reviews: 

Users often praise Akeneo for its flexibility, ease of use, and the vibrant community supporting the open-source edition.

Users have encountered challenges with Akeneo, particularly with integration issues. The major complaint revolves around the use of an implementation partner; after the setup of the environment, users felt capable of handling 90% of tasks independently. 

Inriver User Reviews: 

Inriver receives accolades for its robustness, scalability, and the comprehensive solutions it provides, especially for large enterprises. However, there is some feedback from the users on certain areas that need improvement.

These are primarily revolving around cost, customization, and usability. Users express dissatisfaction with the high annual subscription cost, which they perceive as not aligning with the software’s usability and functionality. 

The need for significant internal or external investments for implementation and development adds to the financial burden. 

Usability concerns include challenges in navigation experience and difficulties in the import/export process. Users also report bugs, particularly in the Digital Asset Management (DAM) capabilities

Source: Capterra

What are the other popular PIM tools?

Choosing between Akeneo and Inriver boils down to your business’s unique needs and preferences. If you prioritize flexibility and an open-source solution, Akeneo might be the right fit. 

On the other hand, if you require a scalable platform with a strong emphasis on media handling and workflow, InRiver could be the answer. 

However, there are other good PIM tools in the market:

• PIMworks
• Plytix
• Pimcore
• Salsify
• SalesLayer

PIMworks is a comprehensive product information management platform designed to assist e-commerce businesses across industries and sizes in efficiently managing their product information. 

By consolidating data from ERPs, CRMs, spreadsheets, files, and other legacy systems, PIMworks establishes a unified source of truth, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and accessibility for all team members. 

Key features include establishing a central source of truth, enriching product catalogs, integrating with major marketplaces, facilitating workflows and collaboration, personalizing product content, and seamless product syndication.

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

The post Akeneo vs Inriver: Which one should you choose in 2024? appeared first on PIMworks Blog | Fresh Retail Insights.

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.