What are the greatest benefits of a reliable PIM system for your business in Asia?
In today’s fast-paced world, businesses are faced with a daunting challenge: how to manage a sea of product information. Keeping track of product catalogues with hundreds of data points from pricing and descriptions to region-specific safety standards is not an easy feat. One wrong step could affect your entire operations. This is where a Product Information Management (PIM) system comes in. Organising all your product information in one place, this tool enables a seamless data distribution across diverse sales channels. With a reliable PIM solution, you can streamline complex and disparate data into a single source of truth.
Why do you need a PIM?
To solve your most pressing business challenges, let’s break down 7 key benefits of having a PIM.
1. Enhance Data Quality
A PIM platform stores your data in one place. By using predefined lists and inherited values, it ensures data completeness and consistency. When importing information, it detects poor data and generates reports, showing incomplete fields. With the power of Generative AI, a PIM can even create product descriptions tailored to different platforms, saving time and enhancing your brand’s story.
2. Automate Using Workflows
PIM workflows simplify complex data management. For B2B companies, they help manage specifications and meet regulations. B2C businesses benefit from faster launches and engaging content. Ultimately, workflows improve data quality, efficiency, and customer experience.
3. Reduce Time-to-Market
A quick time-to-market is essential, especially during peak seasons like Chinese New Year. A PIM acts as a centralized hub to manage product records efficiently, enabling faster launches and helping you stay ahead of competitors.
4. Improve Omnichannel Capabilities
A PIM supports a centralized omnichannel strategy, helping businesses maintain a unified brand voice across platforms. Tailored content delivery allows flexibility in what you display across different platforms, and automated tools ensure accuracy across channels like Facebook, TikTok, Amazon, and Shopee.
5. Enhance Customer Experience
PIM personalizes product information based on customer preferences, ensuring consistency across platforms like Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Shopify. This leads to better purchasing decisions, higher satisfaction, and fewer returns.
6. Gain Insights from Better Analytics
PIM aggregates data and sales metrics to improve product performance. With built-in reporting and analytics, businesses can identify bottlenecks and make data-driven decisions. Scheduled reports also free up time for strategic tasks.
7. Go International Without Worries
A PIM simplifies expansion by uploading product data to multiple stores across regions. Integrated with translation tools and country-specific data, it ensures compliance with regulations, avoiding legal complications.
What are the key considerations before choosing and onboarding a PIM?
Selecting a PIM is a strategic decision that can have an influence on your business growth. Before you jump on board, there are some important factors that you need to consider to avoid choosing the wrong solution.
- Define your goals and plan your budget: First, before making any decision, you must have a set of clear business goals and objectives. Ask your marketing team if they need help for product content management and multichannel distribution, get the operations team’s point of view on inventory management, and consider your IT team’s preferences for system integration and data security. Once you are clear on your priorities, set a budget for a PIM system implementation. This allows you to get the most out of your chosen platform.
- Compatibility and scalability: Keep in mind that the PIM you choose must be able to integrate with your existing systems and software. It’s important to consider the size of your product catalogue and the complexity of your products. Look for solutions with robust data modelling capabilities that support hierarchical relationships such as parent product and accessories. As your business grow, you will face more complex customer interactions and manage higher volumes of data. A scalable PIM enables you to operate without interruption.
- Prepare for data migration: Many businesses underestimate the intricacies involved in data migration. You need to maintain robust access control, avoid data duplication, and incorporate custom fields for your products. This requires careful mapping of data to fit the new system. To prevent setbacks in your data migration journey, you need to have experts in your team. Don’t work in silos, get your departments on one page to make sure no data is lost or modified along the way.
What are the best PIM solutions in the market?
- Plytix: Plytix is known for its user-friendly interface and affordable pricing, suitable for small and medium sized enterprises.
- Syndigo: Syndigo serves over 14,000 global clients across various industries and prides itself on its omnichannel capabilities and end-to-end product content management.
- Salsify: A cloud-native solution, Salsify boasts a comprehensive suite of features and a multi-tenant architecture.
- Inriver: Built on elastic data model, Inriver is highly scalable and provide an end-to-end closed loop ecosystem.
- Akeneo: Akeneo features a clean and user-friendly interface and comes in a free open-source version or the enterprise edition offering extensive customization options.
Maximise your PIM transformation with VISEO
Managing product data is no longer complex with the right solution and tech partner. VISEO has extensive experience in helping businesses design and implement agile and efficient omni-commerce platforms. We are experts at implementing PIM solutions for high-traffic events in industries like fashion and apparel, luxury goods, pharma, beverages, and, kitchen & cookware with a proven track record of supporting clients with massive product catalogs (2.5 million+ items) and extensive digital assets (1 TB+).
Related insight
By bringing together VISEO’s comprehensive industry insights and technology experience with our various PIM partners’ advanced capabilities, we can make our clients’ digital strategy a reality, allowing them to be more productive, innovative, and competitive.