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"3 PIM features any e-commerce business can benefit from"

Excerpt: We show how a PIM system automatically takes over some of the most important disciplines for companies in e-commerce and helps to save enormous amounts of time in day-to-day business.

As we already mentioned in the article “PIM simply explained“, PIM systems focus on workflow automation, among other things. By minimizing manual processes, the aim is to reduce error rates in data maintenance, optimize cross-departmental collaboration, and accelerate the delivery of data to the relevant channels.

#1: PIM as your reliable data distributor

With a PIM system, companies can quickly distribute all necessary data and media assets to all relevant channels. In this way, they ensure consistent product communication in the onlineshop, on the website, in the product catalog, on the marketplaces and other brand contact points.

“As internet access and adoption are rapidly increasing worldwide, the number of digital buyers keeps climbing every year. In 2020, over two billion people purchased goods or services online, and during the same year, e-retail sales surpassed 4.2 trillion U.S. dollars worldwide. In the year of the pandemic, global retail e-commerce sales grew with more than 25 percent”.

Source: Statista “E-Commerce Worldwide – Statistics & Facts”, 2021

With the ever-growing number of digital buyers, companies must always keep their product information up to date so that their customers have quick access to all the important information for their information and purchasing process. If potential customers are missing important product information, they will quickly leave the channel and jump to the competitor’s offer. In times when customer experience is becoming increasingly important for differentiation, retailers also need to go beyond just selling products and nurture and strengthen their customer relationships with compelling content. To ensure an outstanding product experience, multimedia content such as images, videos, and 3D visualizations are therefore becoming increasingly important for state-of-the-art product communication.

Regardless of the amount of product data to be managed, PIM systems ensure the reliable distribution of up-to-date and complete product information. At the same time, PIM systems bring order to the tasks of teams. Companies agree that data security and monitoring are important. With a product information management system, they can conveniently manage their product data and the access to editing the data. Authorizations can be used to define specific roles in the system for different user groups. In this context, roles can also be managed at combined levels, e.g. for selected product categories, for certain attributes, for editing the original language or for the authorization to publish or delete the data records.

#2: PIM as a helpful sales navigator

To meet the specific needs of e-commerce companies, PIM systems have the important function of easily assigning products to individual groups. This makes it easier to categorize products and simplify the alignment of product attributes. The defined categories and attributes support customers in detailed product searches and product comparisons. The numerous filter options also enable improved navigation in the corresponding output channel. Customers and prospects find what they are looking for more quickly. Furthermore, a PIM system also creates relationships to related products, which makes it easier to exploit additional sales potential in e-commerce:

  • Recommendation of related products (cross-selling)
  • Suggestions for better versions of products with a higher price (up-selling)
  • Offers for spare parts
  • Recommendations for replacing old products with new ones

#3: PIM as your global advisor

“70% of online customers purchase from foreign websites and 80% of retailers around worldwide agree that cross-border trade has been profitable or sellers have successfully increased their sales as much as 1,000% after expanding their marketplace presence globally.”

Source: eMarketer “Global Ecommerce Forecast”, 2021

The globalization of the e-commerce market is progressing rapidly. Manufacturers and retailers should therefore increasingly consider selling abroad and recognize it as an opportunity to increase sales. For small and medium-sized companies in particular, it is also advantageous that opening up new markets via the Internet is possible without high investment and thus without major financial risks. Companies do not need a subsidiary or a sales force on site. Logistics are also not a major problem today, as the major parcel service providers now deliver to almost all countries.

Although economic and environmental factors are an increasingly minor barrier to internationalization, internationalization does present some technical challenges, such as

  • translating thousands of product information and digital assets (images, videos, documents, instructions, certificates, seals, etc.) into multiple languages
  • observing different currencies, scales, dates and times, and data formats for different audiences
  • the distribution of product information to foreign channels and marketplaces
  • the controlled access to specific product information for different stakeholders

The technical challenges listed can be successfully mastered with a good PIM system. The localized product data in the PIM system ultimately forms the basis for efficient expansion into new markets.

Find out more now

Feel free to contact us and learn more about how we can support you in your expansion plans in a non-binding online demo.

More articles:

Comparison: PXM vs. PIM vs. DAM

How do the disciplines PXM, PIM and DAM differ? We demonstrate the differences between the various data management systems and show how they relate to each other and for which business models they are most suitable.

PIM simply explained

Product Information Management (PIM) is becoming an increasingly important discipline for managers from marketing, sales and technical product management due to increasing digitalisation and the merging of different brand contact points. We show what is behind the term “PIM” and what advantages PIM software brings to companies.

Process optimization between suppliers and retailers using PIM

Manually collecting product data from numerous suppliers and manufacturers can result in very time-consuming and error-prone processes for retailers. We show how retailers can use intelligent supplier onboarding to transfer product data quickly and securely, thereby ensuring scalable workflows.

The leading marketplaces and how to sell successfully on them

Due to their enormous reach, online marketplaces are increasingly being taken into account in B2B and
B2C when designing their own e-commerce strategy. We show which online marketplaces are leading in
Germany and give you tips on how to market your products successfully on them.

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