What’s a PIM, Does this term ring bells somewhere.? How important is PIM in the E-commerce business.?
I will write a detailed content about product information management in this post.Now without taking much of your time , Let me quickly take you into the crux.
Distributors and wholesalers typically handle many thousands of products, and they need product information management technology to accurately define even larger numbers of product attributes. Otherwise, customers will have trouble finding those products on a seller’s eCommerce site or printed catalog. If you are having online store you should provide consistent customer experience with detailed product information, ensuring customer engagement—and purchases
ERP vs PIM
Now you may think why do we need a PIM though we have a ERP which acts as a central source of everything……
Product Information Management (PIM) is a business software that allows managing the product information of a producer, wholesaler or online retailer centrally, as in a repository. PIM software ensures the collection, processing and maintenance of product data as well as providing partners and distributors with this information through various output channels and media.
ERP
An ERP focuses on organizing and optimizing all sales-related business processes such as purchasing, manufacturing, warehouse management, order processing and logistics, but not on the product description itself. The information contained in an ERP is neither sufficient in scope nor in quality to meet the requirements for marketing of the products.
So now we have got the idea about both ERP and E-commerce, what does a PIM really do ?
Collect
Collect data from existing resources like your ERP and supplier bases.
Define and clean the data you want to integrate with your catalogs.
Specify priorities between different data sources.
Enrich
Enrich product information/descriptions with technical , usage and emotional information.
Classify products and associate them with one or several catalogs.
Translate product information into multiple languages.
Control the product data quality and product completeness.
Spread
Manage multiple sales chanel like e-commerece ,print,mobile applications ,social networks and market places
Take a decison which catalog has to go which channel
Send data to web-to-print software to easily create printed catalogs
Where is PIM used and who needs it ?
Reasons for Increase
The main reason for the increase of the PIM market has been due to the increased demand for cloud-based solutions in information storage. With master-data in the cloud, essential business functions can be performed much quicker, and product information is consistent across different platforms.
A company that sells online, on mobile, and in printed catalogs must have a consistent view of the product information. Big internet selling companies that work with different suppliers, in different countries, with different price lists and multiple promotions must have a way to manage all of that information.
Market Predictions
Reports show that the PIM market is on an uphill curve, and there are predictions of substantial increase over the next five years.
From 5.1 billion USD last year, predictions have been made that the PIM market will increase to over 15.7 billion USD by 2021. Thus, the estimated CAGR is about 25%. This incredible increase means that the Product Information Management Market is truly reaching its potential, providing necessary solutions to businesses around the world.
PIMs used in the indusrty,
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