journal > Ecommerce
PIM software: a powerful solution for ecommerce growing pains
July 3, 2020
Are you continually looking for ways to improve product management in your ecommerce business? Yes, said every ecommerce business owner ever. We get it – product information management (PIM) is a headache. It’s often time consuming, expensive, and unnecessarily complicated. Common PIM errors include duplicate item numbers, overstocked/understocked inventory, inaccurate SKUs, and systems failing to ‘talk’ to each other in real time. These errors negatively impact the customer experience, contributing to low conversion rates and an increase in abandoned carts and product returns. So what can you do to improve PIM in your ecommerce business? You could continue to tweak your existing PIM system (which is likely made up of multiple Excel sheets and data entry tools). You could also engage an IT expert to build a sophisticated PIM solution tailored to your business. However, both of these options have a wide scope for error. We’ve worked with many clients to tackle PIM issues, and we believe the best approach is to invest in reputable PIM software that connects with your website and ERP software, such as CommerceConnect by Fusion Factory. What is PIM software? PIM software is relatively new to the market; it’s been around for a few years. Strong PIM software syncs product information across all your business technology. The point of PIM software is to provide one accurate, real-time set of product data. It’s a central point of product information for the entire business. Everyone should be able to access the same data, leaving little room for discrepancies. Once generated, the data can be customised (think multiple currencies and languages) and directed through multiple sales channels. PIM differs from ERP software because it’s all about providing accurate data, whereas ERP takes the data and uses it to inform workflows and automation. Ideally, your business needs both PIM and ERP software working in harmony. Benefits of PIM software
- Centralised point of product data for your entire business
- Accurately track product progress and completion
- Customise product descriptions and meta data
- Reduce product discrepancies and errors
- Improve the customer experience
- Save time, money and manpower
- Sync product data across multiple stores, currencies, and countries
3 signs your ecommerce business needs PIM software PIM software is a powerful piece of technology, but is it worth the investment? The answer, of course, is it depends. It depends on how your ecommerce business is performing, whether you have ambitions to expand globally, and to what extent product problems are hurting your bottom line. Here are three signs it’s probably time to invest in PIM software. 1) Your ecommerce business is in high growth Sales are increasing rapidly and your systems are struggling to keep up. The more customers you attract, the more fires you’re putting out. Profit is on the rise, but so are customer complaints and returns. You want to keep growing, but not at the expense of customer satisfaction. Of course, PIM software is not a panacea for ecommerce growing pains, but it will help to streamline product management, minimise errors, and enhance the overall shopping experience. It will be an integral part of the stable foundation you need to build a high-performing ecommerce business, allowing you to scale fast. 2) Your ecommerce business is expanding globally You’re keen to expand into international markets but you’re worried about managing product across multiple currencies, countries, and languages. You want to invest in a system that will help things run as smoothly as possible and generate product information that you can trust. PIM software will streamline international product management and take the hassle out of being a global ecommerce business. It will provide a central, reliable source of data, helping you to accurately track products all around the world. 3) Your ecommerce business has recurring product discrepancies Product discrepancies are your achilles heel. No matter how well everything else is going in the business, you can’t quite get inventory management under control. You’re continually coming up against the same problems, and it’s frustrating your team, your customers, and impacting your overall workplace culture. PIM software will help to put these problems to rest once and for all, freeing up more time for you to focus on other areas of your business. It will also help to ‘future-proof’ your business, making it easy to scale quickly or expand internationally when the time comes. Conclusion: PIM software is an investment in your business PIM software is impressive technology that meets a real need in ecommerce and solves real-world problems. As with all technologies, it’s what you do with the data that counts. PIM promises accuracy and centralisation: what can you do with these benefits?
Development / Ecommerce / Shopify