What PIM system implementation delivers: organized product data, content automation, and integration with corporate systems.
6.12.2019 A PIM system is an indispensable tool for managing product information. It not only simplifies information administration, but also improves the financial performance of e-Commerce and other businesses.
What disorder in product information leads to PIM system: one system to manage all product information When a PIM system is indispensable Result of PIM implementation Reading time: 9 min.
It is often the case that product information is stored in different sources at the client. In Excel there are production specifications and planning data, in 1C there is general product data, the file storage contains high-quality images and certificates, and the website contains information about properties needed only for the site.
All this creates chaos and multiple errors, leading to lower conversion and sales.
This article will be useful for those who have to manage large volumes of product and category information - e-Commerce platforms, delivery services, and omnichannel retail chains. CMS systems or 1C suites are simply not designed to conveniently maintain product data at the required scale. Information distributed across separate, unconnected repositories gets lost, duplicated, fails to update on time, does not reach the sales channel, or reaches it in an incorrect form.
Work processes and time to market for new products slow down. Sales suffer. It is hard not to remember that "who owns the information owns the world."
More precisely, "who controls information controls the business."
Each product item can have up to 200 attributes (go to the Forrester site to view the full study →) and specifications: basic details: SKU, barcode, name, description, packaging, etc.; catalog placement and product variants: categories and subcategories, versions, special notes, etc.; technical properties: dimensions, materials, ingredients, warranty terms, etc.; digital information:
images, video, documentation, etc.; marketing data: keywords, SEO elements, tags, etc.; sales information: prices, user reviews, recommendations and feedback, etc.; design and usage details: designer notes, style recommendations, assembly instructions, etc.; sales-channel-specific information: titles for Amazon, categories for Yandex Market, descriptions for the mobile app
etc.; localization information: multilingual copies, translations into different languages, etc.; manufacturer information: manufacturer, place of production, supplier, etc.
All of this is stored in several systems, sometimes even in plain Excel spreadsheets (yes, they are still used even by large international businesses).
Information is duplicated, and different sources partially or fully contradict each other.
Data is spread across different systems, and process management becomes problematic even for a single product.
Questions arise even with minimal catalog changes triggered by routine events:
Which fields should be filled in first? Where should key information be stored?
How do you align information entered by different responsible people? And what if there are thousands of product items...
The longer a company works this way, the faster the problems multiply.
In short - lower conversion, abandoned carts, and inefficient ad spend. Imagine how many actions are needed to change just one parameter!
Even a small edit triggers a long process of finding the right repositories, changing the data in each one, reconciling it, and double-checking the information.
The situation becomes more complicated when you have to manage complex products and descriptions in different languages.
Employees reach unprecedented heights in juggling Excel.
But the information management process does not become any less labor-intensive or more transparent.
The load on other systems, which are assigned product information management functions, increases and slows down their core work.
Errors appear in product page displays: empty fields, incorrect descriptions and photos, outdated prices. Seeing this, customers simply leave.
They do not want to take extra steps and search elsewhere on Google.
Why would they buy headphones from you without specifications if your competitor's site provides more complete information and the price is not much different?
Customer satisfaction drops: they cannot get the information they need, and orders do not match expectations. Remarketing campaigns show irrelevant or duplicate products.
A real case: a user searched for a plaid shirt on a marketplace.
After that, he was "followed" for a week by a banner with six identical shirts that differed only by size. Because of the "surprises" with price and the actual contents of the SKU, the number of abandoned carts and returned orders increases, while repeat orders decline.
According to AT Kearney researchers, companies lose up to 3.5% of revenue because of poor product information management. And I suspect that figure is understated.
The business is not just losing revenue here and now - its growth slows down.
It is harder for businesses to enter new markets and adopt new platforms: it requires more resources than it should.
The solution to many, if not all, problems with fragmented product information is the Product Information Management System (PIM System) master system. A PIM system handles the collection, storage, and export of information related to products.
Through its integration system, it imports and exports text information, media, analytics data, attributes, regional flags, prices, etc. to external resources.
Now you work not with a dozen fragmented sources and channels, but with one database and one interface.
It is easier to control data quality.
If 1C requires data with a category specified, and the website must include an image, the PIM system will check that the required attributes are present and will not send the product to the channel until the errors are fixed. Agree: it is much easier to find, add, and correct information in one PIM system than to chase it across ten sources.
Another benefit: unrelated parts of the organization's information structure are relieved of extra workload, and risks are reduced with every information change.
If editing product pages used to affect all or some sales channels, changes now happen smoothly.
PIM is not a "magic pill" that will save a company from all information problems. Nor is it a universal solution that integrators recommend to everyone without exception. I have selected six cases where a PIM system is truly necessary. Proven by global practice and our clients' experience.
Monitoring the quality of information for thousands of products with ordinary tools is nearly impossible, and it consumes human and information resources. A PIM system collects all existing data into a single database and displays it clearly: you can immediately see how complete the product pages are and what information is missing or incorrect.
The composition and number of units in the SKU change, and so does its description.
PIM lets you edit information once and export it to external systems in just a couple of clicks. In some PIM systems, you can configure rules for automatic updates on a set schedule.
Among our cases is this one: a major retailer that changes SKU contents and the catalog every two weeks.
Before PIM was implemented, problems regularly arose because product information was outdated and simply could not be updated in time.
Incorrect descriptions, outdated images, and attributes were a constant source of customer dissatisfaction. With a PIM system, the catalog is updated on time, and customers get what they expect.
With every season change, the catalog has to be reviewed manually and individual product pages disabled or enabled. In a PIM system, rules are created for automatic management of seasonal products: they can be turned off in just a couple of clicks. For example, you can set watermelons to appear in the catalog only from July to October, and New Year's decorations from November 15 to January 15.
Each channel needs its own description, language, currency, analytics data, and remarketing data.
Tarkett had a similar situation (source link →): the brand sells flooring and sports surfaces in more than 100 countries through 30 websites.
For each site, legal requirements, market specifics, and customer needs must be taken into account.
At the same time, 15% of the catalog (about 30,000 items!) is updated every year, as products leave or enter the market.
Before Akeneo PIM was implemented, information was stored in ERP (SAP), marketing team's CSV files, with suppliers and in DAM - and it was delivered to 30 websites, printed catalogs, partners, and Tarkett representatives. The Akeneo PIM master system made it possible not only to gather all the information in a single database, but also to account for the specifics of each market when creating product pages.
This creates a need for MDM or PIM that processes all information sources, merges duplicates, and standardizes product pages and attributes. You can set rules for product pages that encourage suppliers to complete the information.
PIM systems allow different access levels for editing product pages and preserve all versions of changes. A department head can review all changes at any time, approve them, comment on them, send them back for revision, or roll back to any previous version. At Tarkett, which I mentioned above, 60 people across different regions of the world manage product information.
The PIM system records the changes proposed by each of them and allows the administrator to control all current and previous versions regardless of language and sales channel. One thing to keep in mind: there are many PIM systems on the market, and each has its own functional specifics. For example, in its projects kt.team integrates Akeneo PIM and Pimcore.
And if the first is a "pure" PIM system, then Pimcore is more than just a master system for managing product information:
The first thing even non-technical employees will see is a simple product information management interface.
There is completion statistics, problematic fields are visible, descriptions are available in several languages and for different sales channels, and you can sort categories or hide and show individual products or categories.
Over time, other positive effects of implementation will also emerge: fewer errors and contradictions in product pages; shorter time to market for new or seasonal products; more efficient use of resources (human, time, technical) for entering, changing, and approving information; easier and faster content optimization for different sales channels; and simpler, more effective remarketing campaigns;
customer satisfaction and loyalty will increase.
Studies say (source link →): after PIM is implemented, time to market is reduced by 400%, sales growth reaches 50%, and returns decrease by 23%. These are, of course, the best results from global practice, and not everyone achieves them.
For example, headphone maker Skullcandy increased checkout conversion by 15% within six months after implementing PIM.
A small brand team easily manages information across four websites (in three languages and with three different currencies) - and still has enough time to develop and grow Skullcandy.
Our practice confirms global experience: we have worked on implementing PIM systems in the infrastructure of large and mid-sized organizations, and each time the projects showed conversion growth. Of course, it is impossible to cover all the capabilities of PIM systems in one article.
I am ready to answer questions about the functionality in the comments.
