PIM – what is it?

Before we go any further, it is worth citing the definition of PIM. The shortcut extension is Personal Information Manager, that is, product information management. It refers to the processing of all data, content and other materials necessary to market and sell products. PIM also provides the ability to create high-quality data for internal use and for multi-channel distribution. To understand exactly what product information management is, you need to take a closer look at its individual functions and applications.

What product information should be managed?

There is often a lot of data that supports a single product throughout its life cycle. So it is important to be able to properly manage them. A good PIM process can handle a ton of inbound, outbound, and cross-departmental product data. They mainly include:

• Necessary information about the product: SKU, UPC, names, titles, descriptions and other such parameters.
• Taxonomy and relations: categories, labels, varieties and types.
• Technical specification: measurements, materials, components, guarantees, etc.
• Digital assets: images, videos, documents.
• Marketing Specification: Marketing Data, Keywords, Personas, SEO Parameters, etc.
• Sales information: prices, testimonials, customer reviews.
• Design specifications: style sheets, designer notes, assembly instructions.
• Channel-specific information: Google categories, Amazon titles, descriptions of mobile devices.
• Localization: localized information, multilingual copying, translations.
• Supplier and manufacturer details: spreadsheets, certificates and other documents.

Tools for PIM

Companies interested in digital transformation have a lot to choose from, as there is a wide range of tools to help manage product information. So these are systems that help companies to consolidate and manage the entire product offer in one place. This is a great convenience that saves time and resources. This can be done through bespoke, hosted cloud solutions, home clouds, and even those that can be configured on-premises.

The available PIM tools have many different English names. So you can meet with:

• Product Information Manager (PIM) – Product information manager
• Product Image Manager (PIM)
• Product Content Manager (PCM) – product content manager
• Product Data Manager (PDM)
• Product Resource Manager (PRM) – product resource manager
• Item Master

Regardless of the name, however, the purpose of each tool is exactly the same. Thanks to them, you will create a central database of products or their library that will help you standardize information so that the entire company can use it.

Tools similar to PIM, which are also willingly used in companies, are DAM – Digital Asset Management and CMS, i.e. a content management system. However, these are not analogical programs, but only based on similar principles of operation. While they can be used in conjunction with PIM, their main purpose is to solve other problems related to digital content.

What can you use the PIM system for?

If you have a large number of products in your company, PIM is essential for you. Thanks to it, you will be able to effectively manage all the information related to the articles, including in particular:

• you centralize and segregate all distributed data,
• enrich product descriptions and specifications,
• you will track the sale and condition of your products,
• you will combine photos, documents and multimedia with the appropriate products,
• you categorize products and files,
• you will manage the output data and prepare it appropriately for all sales channels,
• you will manage relationships between products,
• create and publish product sheets,
• you will create custom product data files,
• you format product data for multi-channel syndication,
• you will automate the creation and maintenance of the brand portal,
• you will find everything in one central database.

Learn about the benefits of using PIM

As we mentioned before, a PIM system is great for companies that trade a lot of information about products that they sell in many different channels. The benefits of having such a solution are enormous in this case! PIM definitely increases productivity and saves time for all employees. What’s more, it also improves data quality and allows you to take total control of all your products.

The decisive advantages of the PIM software also include:

• Reduce the number of errors and redundancies by relying on a reliable data source.
• Eliminate manual data entry and updating.
• Possibility to enter the market quickly, often ahead of the competition.
• Reduce overheads and wasted resources.