In today's competitive landscape, establishing a robust presence at every stage of the buyer’s journey is essential for success. As product information becomes increasingly crucial across various industries, businesses are discovering the advantages that a Product Information Management (PIM) system has to offer. Poor-quality product data won’t win buyers over – and can potentially cost time, revenue, and customer confidence. In fact, 40% of consumers have returned an online purchase due to inaccurate product content.
Lack of accuracy and reliability is impacting buyers’ productivity and company efficiency, with 33% of B2B buyers saying that it causes internal frustration. To make your products stand out, they must include accurate, complete, and up-to-date information. But with data coming from different sources and in multiple formats, creating high-quality product content isn’t always easy. If you spend a lot of time manually handling product information, struggle with incorrect product data, and waste resources on inefficient processes, you can certainly benefit from a PIM system.
From data onboarding, version and price management, localization, content personalization, multichannel publishing, as well as integration with various systems — there are countless advantages to PIM that can make your job easier. PIM will maximize your impact on the digital shelf by centralizing and enriching your product data. In this article, we’ll delve into the main challenges companies face with product information management, define the main benefits of a PIM system, and help you determine if PIM is suitable for your company.
Top challenges businesses face with product information management
With 57% of global consumer spending occurring online, it’s crucial for retailers to regularly update their sales channels with the information customers are actively seeking. Now, buyers can easily find more details and product descriptions from the comfort of their homes. But this also means that, in the field of product information management, brands are faced with ever-increasing daily challenges:
- Volume
More than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day by several types of enterprises. As a result, organizations now face new challenges in terms of obtaining, maintaining, and generating value from data. Hundreds of thousands of SKUs, item numbers, images, videos, documentation, and other product data need to be efficiently onboarded, monitored, and validated. - Data silos
47% of marketers indicate that their data is siloed and difficult to access. Storing data in a variety of formats and in different systems can introduce significant inefficiencies in organizations. Data silos can damage data integrity and have a negative impact on collaboration, information sharing, and decision-making. - Complexity
Businesses manage a massive amount of content for an increasing number of products, product variants, custom attributes, etc. Along with the product data, they need to manage information related to different sales channels, multiple services, distributed vendors and suppliers, and many other details that help deliver a better buying experience. - Compliance
Varied global standards need to be followed and maintained for a multitude of product types. Effective integration with global data pools such as GDSN enables retailers and distributors to comply with regulations while providing accurate, rich, and compliant product information. - Security
Compared to other data-related concerns, security is one of the most difficult hurdles companies face. Data is a valuable asset that is collected after careful research and resource allocation. It contains sensitive information that might be harmful to both the company and the responders. That’s why preventing data breaches is the top IT priority for organizations.
These challenges compound over time and, left unaddressed, lead to errors, inconsistencies, missing information, and duplicates, eventually resulting in penalties, slow time-to-market, shopping cart abandonment, poor customer experience, and revenue loss.
How can a Product Information Management (PIM) solution help?
PIM is designed to solve the issues that businesses repeatedly encounter when it comes to product information management. Whether brands are distributing product information to retail trading partners, marketplaces, or going direct-to-consumer (D2C), they need a powerful solution to help them manage their product data and create high-quality product content to share with the entire value chain easily.
A PIM solution is a single, centralized repository for product data and digital assets, with cleansing rules, data deduplication, matching and merging, and translation capabilities. It allows brands to streamline data management processes and monitor activities, create high-quality product content, automate product data syndication across multiple touchpoints, and seamlessly adapt to increasingly complex use cases of manufacturers and retailers.
Top 10 benefits of implementing a PIM system
PIM’s key role is to collect, manage, and syndicate product information to all your sales and marketing channels — in response to omnichannel demands. It streamlines collaboration among multiple teams and third parties, using structured workflows to enrich product content, ensure data accuracy, and simplify product launches. Beyond these core functions, what other benefits does PIM offer?
- Data centralization
One of the top five obstacles in leveraging data is making siloed data available. A centralized, cloud‑hosted PIM platform can help you reduce data silos by promoting data sharing internally and across company boundaries. It enforces data standardization, incorporates workflow management for collaborative creation and approval processes, and features integration capabilities with systems like ERP and ecommerce platforms. The entire process, from validation and enrichment to data distribution, is coded and executed from a unified platform. - Targeted provision of product data
Businesses must manage information from different sales channels, vendors, suppliers, and many other sources. But imagine you could effortlessly integrate suppliers and service providers into your system through tailored interfaces. With customized roles and access privileges, each party can access only the data that is relevant to their operations. Likewise, you can give partners the option of entering data directly into your PIM system. This collaboration fosters efficiency, ultimately saving you time. - Superior data quality
More than 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day by various types of enterprises. Organizations now face new challenges in terms of obtaining, maintaining, and generating value from data. This is where PIM's capabilities come into play. By integrating rule-based workflows, PIM automatically checks the completeness and quality of existing data. This careful validation process guarantees that only quality-assured data is released and made available — a crucial advantage at a time when data quality has a significant impact on competitiveness. - Shorter time-to-market
The more SKUs you have, the more important it is to have them organized in a way that can quickly be added, maintained, searched, and disseminated. PIM streamlines onboarding for new products, reducing the time needed for input, verification, and enrichment. PIM's automated and collaborative workflows accelerate updates and streamline business processes — enabling you to quickly expand your product offerings. This allows you to control prices and react quickly to changes. - Translation and localization
Translating product content is crucial as only about a third of visitors speak English, and 72.4% prefer shopping in their own language. A PIM system equipped with translation features can alleviate these challenges and minimize costs. It allows teams to quickly identify the content that requires initial translation or correction. However, localization goes beyond language; it includes adapting to cultural, legal, and regional nuances. For example, different product versions may be necessary to comply with local regulations. Digital assets also need to be adjusted to suit local preferences. This may entail changing visuals to include people who reflect local demographics and align the message with cultural sensitivities. With PIM, you can reach global audiences while respecting unique regional characteristics. - Personalization and customization
Customers are increasingly seeking personalized experiences, with 69% of companies ranking personalization as a top priority. Technologies like voice assistants, chatbots, AI, and AR have transformed digital commerce, but they rely on structured data for maximum impact. With a PIM system in place, you always have enriched and accurate product data, enabling seamless integration with next-gen technologies. Built-in content personalization and segmentation capabilities allow you to deliver targeted content to specific customer groups. Real-time updates enable dynamic responses to customer behaviors and trends, while personalization engines enhance the delivery of personalized content, such as recommendations. - Better buying experience
According to Gartner, “companies that deliver a great buying experience grow twice as fast as those that deliver average experiences.” With 74% of consumers making purchases based on experiences alone, businesses are increasingly recognizing PIM’s role in creating a superior buying experience. PIM's advanced features (structuring, cross-channel syndication, calculated fields, etc.) give customers access to the right product information at every stage of the buying journey. With automation, AI, and insights such as shelf analytics, you can streamline internal processes to provide consistent, channel-ready product content. Prioritizing an "experience-first" approach enhances efficiency and builds customer trust for long-term success. - Increased Return on Experience (ROX)
Boosting Return on Experience (ROX) is crucial in today's market, with 86% of customers willing to pay more for better experiences. ROX evaluates the value organizations get on investments in customer experience (CX), which often involves technical data and content. Through data governance, seamless integrations, and advanced analytics, PIM not only minimizes returns and cart abandonment rates but also enhances transparency, scalability, and the overall buying journey. That’s where the foundation of excellent CX and higher ROX is laid. - Data insights and analysis
Organizations are increasingly investing in data management (65%), data governance (63%), and advanced analytics (60%). With greater ability to track and monitor product performance, customer behavior, and market trends in real-time, you can optimize your operations and identify valuable patterns for effective marketing. PIM enables a seamless integration with analytics tools, allowing you to analyze customer behaviors and preferences. By accessing key metrics and insights, you can make data-driven decision-making and quickly adapt to changing market conditions. - Improve revenue and productivity
A PIM system enhances revenue and productivity by centralizing product data and fostering collaboration. Internally, teams benefit from real-time access to accurate information, promoting efficiency. Externally, the system enables smooth communication with partners and suppliers, reducing communication gaps and enhancing supply chain transparency. High-quality product information captures buyers’ attention and creates up-selling and cross-selling opportunities. When product data is presented contextually at the right time on the right channel, it contributes to higher sales conversion rates.
Is PIM suitable for my company?
Assessing the value of implementing a PIM solution for a company requires thorough consideration. Basically, the lower your product data quality is, the sooner you should integrate a PIM solution. And the need for a PIM solution increases with the number of channels you have. PIM systems prove most beneficial for manufacturers, suppliers, and brand providers aiming to efficiently share extensive product data with retail partners or directly engage with their customers. Brand manufacturers, fashion suppliers, and retailers in particular can optimize their omnichannel management with the support of PIM software and thus improve both customer loyalty and sales.
The best approach is to conduct a brief audit based on the following questions:
- How sustainable is our current product data management? Are there delays and/or errors that can be avoided with the help of PIM software?
- Do we have sufficient control over the quality of product information, and can we guarantee a consistent and personalized customer experience?
- Can we efficiently and quickly provide product data to our partners?
- Is our current system capable of handling future growth processes?
Based on the answers, you will get a helpful initial assessment and can then plan your next steps. You can also take our quiz to find out if you are well-equipped to face most of the challenges of digitalization or if you need some help to simplify the use of your product information.
How can I implement efficient product data management in concrete terms?
Getting started with a PIM solution is most effective with advance planning and the support of an experienced implementation partner. The right partner can provide you with targeted advice before the implementation and help you run a successful PIM project. Choosing a PIM solution depends entirely on your business requirements and goals.
Overall, carefully consider what you require in terms of deployment, performance, updates, accessibility, and technology. Take the time to weigh the importance of such factors to make a final choice that matches your product experience goals and data management strategy. If you’re ready to explore the advantages of an all-in-one AI-fueled PIM system, Contentserv can help.
Our PIM platform provides everything you need to master the challenges of product information across all your channels and succeed on the digital shelf. Ultimately, it will give your business a winning edge by creating product experiences that build long-term customer connections and engagement.
Ready to future-proof your business?
If you are serious about long-term growth and putting the customer experience first, implementing a robust PIM system is a great way to help you maximize productivity, drive sales, and expand your market reach. Contentserv PIM enables you to streamline the creation, personalization, and syndication of product content across all your channels, providing you the flexibility to support future initiatives and growth opportunities. Ultimately, it will give your business a winning edge by creating product experiences that build long-term customer connections and engagement. A PIM solution isn’t just another piece of software in your digital suite. It’s essential for the digital presence of the most important part of your company: your products. As technology continues to move forward, ask yourself if you’re moving along with it.
