5 reasons that your company needs PIM
Why is reliable product information so important? Because thankd to this customers are more willing to make purchases, having at their fingertips all the data relevant to them. Coherent product information, therefore, drives sales and thus generates company revenues.
Enterprises attached to traditional methods of processing information about products available in the offer should definitely transform their management systems – from delivery to selling products to customers. It is worth doing it not only to enter new markets and offer your customers better product experience, but above all to increase the conversion rate, enable multi-channel marketing activities and reduce the total time of introducting new products to the market.
If you are wondering if your company needs a product information management system, learn about 5 warning signs that indicate that you need PIM.
DON’T YOU KNOW WHICH PRODUCT DATA IS TRUE?
Obsolete systems for working with product data are usually based on spreadsheets. They have problems with the consolidation and synchronization of information. Especially if the data comes from various sources – from suppliers, partners, employees and other entities. Each of them must therefore change and update necessary information. Without a centralized platform, there are often misunderstandings between different contact points. For example, if one employee sends a spreadsheet with product-specific data to another employee and simultaneously makes changes to it, the latest updated file with both input data is often lost throughout the entire transaction process. As a result, this leads to inconsistent, outdated and inaccurate information about the product. So if you feel that a similar situation is taking place in your company, consider introducing PIM!
YOUR EMPLOYEES NEED TO CONSTANTLY MONITOR PRODUCT DATA?
Unfortunately, in outdated systems, the long-term lack of product information management directly affects the performance of an enterprise. Because data is used by many different systems, in many locations and by different departments, the loss of even one unit of information can cause huge chaos. There may also be further errors in other data. This situation will certainly affect the efficiency of the company’s operations, and what’s more, it can also contribute to misleading customers.
As a responsible entrepreneur, you should avoid this kind of situation at all costs. To this end, employees must constantly monitor, track and record all data transactions and carefully filter out the incorrect ones. This is a very tedious work that can contribute to overloading employees and reducing their productivity. What’s more, with more products and even more product-related data, it’s easier to make a mistake. And these, in turn, can exhaust the time and energy of employees, leading to loss of revenue. So if you want to run a stable business, ensure the comfort of your employees and not waste their time on unnecessary tasks, go for PIM!
DO YOU GET FREQUENT COMPLAINTS RELATED TO CUSTOMER SERVICE?
The manual process of updating spreadsheets at many contact points is prone to human errors and other unavoidable inaccuracies. The result is often incorrect distribution of product information to customers. So there are several problems – dissatisfied customers, low quality customer service, bad opinions issued and numerous complaints.
The error may appear in any part of the entire product management process. It may occur due to old, outdated, expired or completely incorrect data. There may be inaccuracies in the storage units (SKUs), which will become the main cause of minor discrepancies in the event of serious errors in orders.
So if you are unable to manage and check the quality of data at every stage – from inventory management, through ordering, order processing, to delivery, you will not be able to acquire new customers efficiently or you may lose your current ones. Prevent this in advance by using the available methods.
ANALYTICS WILL NOT HELP IF DATA IS WRONG
All information and data you have is strategic assets of the company. So if they are inadequately organized, incorrect or inaccurate they will not help you run your business effectively. What’s more, these types of errors can cause serious problems in operation, because no industry and business can cope with incorrect data.
The relation between data quality and accuracy of decisions is strongly related. In particular, this applies to departments that play a key role in creating the company’s sales strategies. The decision makers rely heavily on data analysis, on the basis of which they make business decisions and take directions. However, if all these actions are based on incorrect data, the intended goals will never be achieved. Profits may turn out to be unprofitable, and the analysis of historical customer data, purchasing patterns, cost sharing, product catalogs or predictive analysis, a huge waste of time. Don’t let this happen!
IS DATA MANAGEMENT FROM DIFFERENT LOCATIONS PROBLEMATIC?
Data management may not seem like too much trouble when managing a small business with limited data resources, even with branches located in different locations. However, with the expansion of the warehouse and the development of products, an increasing amount of information begins to be embarrassing. Also, if you operate in many regions, different stores, and multiple storefronts, managing a large number of products using different SKUs can be very difficult. In particular for marketing and sales teams who have direct contact with external clients.
Your product input data most often comes from many suppliers. Any attribute, quality or orientation updates must be consistent across all trade channels. Organizations that can efficiently and dynamically manage all data gain a clear advantage over their competitors. So you can say that the PIM system is your chance!
In the world of high-quality digital transformation, properly formatted and normalized data are becoming a necessity in efficient business guiding. Both among producers and retailers. User-friendly and scalable PIM solutions are therefore becoming an indispensable tool for most companies. Thanks to such a centralized platform for storing and managing data (product descriptions, SKU numbers, prices, photos and other formats appropriate for a given sales channel), you can easily and effectively lead your company and contribute to its development.
If you get the impression that your business is struggling with any of these five problems, it is an indisputable sign that you should bet on a PIM solution. Content marketing, data processing or product catalog presentation requires professional service. Only the right tool will give it to you!
