PIM Systems: Why Well-Maintained Product Data Has Long Been a Must-Have [5 Reading Tips]

At the heart of every purchasing process is always a product or service. Nevertheless, additional services and communication through various channels have long been more than just a nice-to-have for customers. With increasing digitalisation and additional customer touchpoints, expectations regarding the presentation of products and services are rising as well. Up-to-date, comprehensive and engaging product information is simply part of this.

Not only does the right product information management (PIM) system make it possible to individually distribute content for different channels, but it also facilitates the storage of data and thus reduces the administrative workload for all employees.

PIM Systems: Single Source of Truth for Product Data

The range of product data is as wide as that of the products themselves, covering everything from consumer goods to services. In the form of attributes, product data describes products, classifies or categorises them and makes it possible to find them both on and off a website or online shop. Besides product data, appealing product texts and high-quality product images ensure a positive customer experience.

PIM systems are software solutions that store product data as well as related marketing information from various external and internal sources and put it into a structure that can be used by other tools.

PIM Systems Are Worth It

By automating input and separating the maintenance structure from the output structure, the right PIM software eliminates the need for time-consuming repeated maintenance. Once translated, attributes and components are automatically available for any future product. Furthermore, a data model can be designed in such a way that information from a higher-level product model is inherited to multiple variants of a product. If a shoe model features lace fastening, for example, this information is also displayed for all its different colour and size variants. If you bear in mind that a single shoe model in three colours comprises around 18 individual stock keeping units (SKUs) due to different size variants, it becomes clear that you can save a lot of time and prevent data inconsistencies with the right software.

Automated product data maintenance, mass processing of product data, rights management and approval workflows also contribute to efficient data management and maintenance. By means of file-based transfer or dedicated interfaces, a PIM solution can be integrated into heterogeneous system landscapes. It can receive information from various sources and distribute cleansed data to different channels.

Benefits at a Glance

Central management of almost all domains
Support for collaborative work on them
High degree of automation, resulting in reduced workload for employees
Management and transformation of countless formats for import and export
Versioning of data
Increased data quality (completeness and accuracy of data)
Structuring of data through categorisation, validated attributes, creation of variants, localisation
Faster time to market
Reduced number of returns