What Are Examples of PIM Applications?

In recent years, many organizations have realized the importance of keeping all of their product information data in a centralized location. Product information management systems (PIMs) were built to do just that. The PIM market is rising and is expected to hit $60 Billion by the end of 2030 according to O2 Web. With a market growing like that, it’s important to understand why PIMs are seen as so valuable. 

These software systems have been built to create transparency for various product information content. They also reduce the information silos at larger organizations. With the proper PIM, all product information can be stored and edited in one location rather than having it reside in disparate data stacks that require users to update the same information in multiple locations every time there is a change.PIMs are a cost-effective way of reducing time spent on updating and distributing your product information throughout your organization.

What Is PIM Software?

Plytix states that product information management software “refers to the process of handling all the data, content, and other material that you need to market and sell products. PIM also ensures that quality data is created for internal use and multichannel distribution.” A PIM system can manage your organization’s product data and store it in one location. This is important because when your products change, that information is accessed in one location rather than multiple silos throughout the organization. For example, user manuals often change with new models and new software updates. The more digital experiences your organization has that reference the user manual, the more work it takes to update these digital experiences to have the latest version of the manual.

With everyone within your organization having access to the same product information, this ensures consistent messaging and information given to your customers. But what does PIM software include?

What Does PIM Software Include?

A PIM will often include storage for all types of product information ranging from product descriptions, product images, owner’s manuals, videos, pricing, SKUs, and more. This information is then used across various digital experiences such as websites, product guides, sales resources, and more. 

What Are the Key Components of PIM?

When reviewing documents such as the Gartner Market Guide for Product Information Management Solutions, or the Gartner PIM Magic Quadrant, you can see there are a diverse set of PIMs that have become industry leaders who offer stronger PIM strategies. With PIMs such as IBM, Lumavate, and Salsify, it is difficult to truly understand what the keys to a successful PIM are. Salsify breaks down the key components of a PIM into four sections.

• Quality Content: Ensure your organization has accurate and descriptive product information content from educational videos to proper SKU and price labels.
• Content Targeting:  Each brand in the PIM needs to be tailored to hit the proper target segments. This will increase conversations for your organization.
• Content Accessibility: Moving away from information silos and excel spreadsheets for product information is key to user accessibility.
• Content Governance: Accessibility is important, but so is security. You want to make sure that all of your product information content is kept under lock and key to avoid theft or tampering with your data. 

Your PIM should check all of these boxes to ensure that you have the best PIM possible for your organization. 

You probably get it, PIMs can play a massive role for many channels within your organization. But there are so many options, where should you even get started? 

What Are Examples of PIM Applications?

When it comes to picking the proper product information management software, this task alone can be daunting. There are dozens of PIMs that play extremely similar roles as the last. PIM applications range in price depending on how robust of a system you are looking for. ChannelSight has a list of a few PIM tools in the market that can help you make the right decision. A prime PIM application example is Akeneo or PIMcore. The best PIM solutions you will purchase are the ones that are easy to use, self-explanatory, and help update your product information in a timely and cost-effective manner. The major drawback to most product information management systems is the information being added or edited must be taken and manually placed in any digital experiences that your organization may have to circulate. This can be exhausting having to pay for and operate both a DXP and a PIM which are operated by different teams within an organization. 

Lumavate released its very own PIM that takes this problem out of the equation. With our PIM, you are able to add, edit and remove product information from one central location and every reference to that product information will automatically update in every applicable digital experience. This means that an updated product manual can be changed in one location and automatically updated in every single experience that product manual is used. 

You can save time and money with Lumavates DXP and PIM all in one place today. Click here to book a demo!