eCommerce PIM System – Software Solutions for Online Shopping

Right off the bat, I want to say that an eCommerce PIM system is always a good idea when you run multiple storefronts and / or channels. Having a product information management (PIM) solution just helps you keep everything organised without a lot of manual input, which is prone to error.

Selling to an international audience definitely requires a few considerations. First, you have to make sure you’ve done your eCommerce localisation. The language, currencies, pricing and all that need to be catered to the region you’re selling to. The other thing you need to consider is how to manage the extra product data you’re getting from these storefronts. Some hire third-party logistics companies to handle the inventory management, warehousing and order fulfilment processes, but this solution isn’t possible for everybody.

So what do you do? Set up an eCommerce PIM system.

Why?

Imagine having to cross-reference all the transaction data or available stock or having to update product descriptions or titles on every different version of your store. This might be doable if you cater to only a few regions, but it’s still cumbersome. This is definitely not feasible for the long run, especially for sellers looking to expand to several different regions with hundreds upon thousands of new customers and transactions. The sheer amount of information to process manually would require a team of people working countless hours.

During all this, transactions continue to happen and work piles up. Eventually, this can lead to errors in cross referencing the information and customers interacting with a poorly updated storefront. Clearly this is not an effective way to go about doing this. Thankfully, a PIM solution can help you with that.

A PIM or product information management system is a software tool that basically collects all product data from every place where you sell into one central information hub.

This means that instead of having to manually change information on every single version of your storefront, you can manage information all in one place via the PIM system. All changes made on the PIM system automatically apply to every single storefront version.

The information within a PIM includes:

• Product titles and descriptions
• Digital assets such as product images and videos
• SKUs
• Product variations (colours, sizes, etc., including which variations don’t apply in certain locales)
• Accessories and relationships to other products
• Number of items in stock
• Products categories
• Product bundles
• Localised information
• Shipping info
• Marketing data such as SEO info

The PIM solution you use can also send valuable product information to stakeholders who would need to stay updated. These include:

• people working within the business operation itself,
• suppliers and manufacturers with whom you can arrange automatic product orders when you reach certain inventory levels, and
• customers who opt in to receive updates on products like what to hurry up and buy because it’s running out, what’s back in stock, and what’s new in store.

Whether you are a large business or a small seller, PIMs can provide a ton of value. They save on resources in a big way by eliminating the manpower needed to input changes to information manually for each storefront and channel. Additionally, businesses that sell many products or a range of product types will greatly benefit from product inventory management systems. A PIM can keep track of differences across marketplaces, for example, and consolidate transactions.

Aside from the given requirements of automated and manual information gathering options and the capacity to manage a large number of SKUs, the eCommerce PIM system you choose to go with should ideally include options for:

• Customising item information fields (e.g. product descriptions, product attributes, product variations)
• Managing replacement parts, substitutions, and accessories
• Workflow automation and customisation within the supply chain and in different departments
• Managing content and marketing materials per product
• Integrating with your CMS, IMS, ERP, 3PL provider, and whatever else you have going on as part of the eCommerce ecosystem you function within

In addition to these options, using a PIM solution also affords you at least three major benefits. First, a PIM system saves you a lot of resources such as the labour required for manual input and the time needed to complete uploads and changes. Second, it saves you a lot of expense by facilitating improved logistics. This is because you get a much higher level of accuracy in the order and inventory information available. Third, it ensures that your stores show consistently precise information. These two areas are vitally important to running an online business. With the PIM solution saving time inputting data, businesses are able to focus their efforts to make sure all the information is accurate.

MDM refers to master data management or basically the record of all the information within a business, like products, customers, and location. CRMs and PIM systems are subsets of this. As such, these tools can be used effectively in tandem with each other to help you improve the management of your stores. The difference between a PIM solution and your average CRM really depends on the type of data that the tool is managing for you.

CRMs, or customer relationship management systems, focus on and deal with customer data. A CRM is a kind of technology that houses all this customer data. This data includes interactions and relationships that you have with them. It holds information on current customers as well as potential buyers and the journey from leads to to loyal brand champions. The goal of CRM is to improve the relationships between organisations and their customers. It works by getting a better understanding of the people purchasing from them. This is what a CRM is designed to do. A CRM is not an order tracking system or a product management system or an inventory management system. It will not work well in these areas.

As we’ve learned, PIMs are all about product data. A PIM system holds all the information that you have entered for all of your products. It keeps this product data in one centralised hub for organisation and management purposes. Because changing information from an eCommerce PIM system alters all the pages connected to it, the accuracy of input is crucial. So, a PIM is designed for accuracy as well as the ease of information transfers to facilitate simultaneous updates across multiple channels.

Shopify was built as an eCommerce platform with all you need to get started with online selling. While it was not created to be a database for managing content, Shopify does partner well with PIM systems. Shopify can take all the data gathered by a third-party PIM software and apply it to your product pages.