What is PIM (Product Information Management) System?

PIM systems spread with ecommerce volume and with more professional online selling. The digitization push during COVID accelerated adoption. Product information management is still new in a lot of business and IT setups, so here is the short version.

Product information management

A PIM gives retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers one place to control their products. It is the single point of truth for the product and its data: where product content is gathered, improved, and sent out. It is the central tool for product data management, and it does more than that. In the IT landscape it sits between internal sources of product data and the external sales channels.

Seven reasons it shows up

Complex products

A PIM is built for products with many combinations, such as an outfit of pants, shirt, and shoes, or many variations, such as a T-shirt in several colors and sizes. You have to manage those and still publish them to several output channels without ambiguity. That is what makes the PIM a source of master data.

The overlap with MDM is covered in PIM and MDM.

Relationships

Spare parts, replacements, options, and accessories have to be stored and shown. A PIM defines parent-child links, cross-sell associations, and bundles, so the customer sees how the products fit together. It can also record required components and compatibility rules. The result is clearer guidance, fewer compatibility mistakes, room for cross-selling, and the same product information on every channel. That shows up in satisfaction and in sales.

International standards

Products are classified more often against global standards such as GS1 or eClass, including the characteristics those standards define. A PIM assigns categories to items or product groups, which is how you produce enriched product content that can be shared across platforms.

Using a shared classification keeps product data consistent with industry practice. The standards act as a common language between vendors, partners, and markets.

Importing product content

The same standards make import easier. Content stores that follow them can be searched through the classification framework and pulled into the PIM. That shortens the integration and raises accuracy and consistency across the organization.

Following the standards and importing through them is how a company stays aligned with industry practice, works with partners, and moves product information without rekeying it.

Selling internationally

Ecommerce crosses borders, and a PIM is how you manage that. Localization sits in the workflow: translations and regional adjustments, applied so product information stays consistent and fitted to each market as it changes. The software handles multiple currencies, languages, and regional requirements. You can run a global catalog and still adapt to local conditions. Customers see a version that matches their market.

Multimedia

A full PIM includes digital asset management. That part holds the multimedia tied to catalogs and products: photos in several formats, documents, and videos. From there you search for an asset, format and convert files automatically, cross-reference media with product data, and export in the format you need. Product information then carries the visuals, in one place.

How the two systems interact is in DAM and PIM.

Omnichannel

The PIM is the single point of truth for the product. Online shops, physical shops, mobile apps, social platforms, and marketplaces all read the same accurate data. Customers get the same product facts on every channel, which is what brand consistency and the buying experience depend on. In many setups the PIM takes the lead over the ERP for that product record.

For more independent briefs on PIM selection and product data, see our downloads library.

Why the systems you already have are not a PIM

ERP, a CMS, the ecommerce platform, and a spreadsheet between them already cover pieces of this. That is the usual objection.

PIM versus ERP

An ERP is built for data at rest. It stores product information well and edits or converts it poorly. Relationships such as upsell, cross-sell, and spare parts, plus several languages, are where it falls short.

Publishing downstream, to your own ecommerce system, to print, or to customers, is often a single export. Mapping is limited. Combining or transforming attributes is usually not there.

PIM versus PDM

Both manage product information. The split is the kind of data. More on PDM is here.

• Product data is the raw set: attributes and files from the early, often technical, life of a product. CAD drawings, design documents, 3D models, test specifications.
• Product information is the applied set, used to sell the finished product to wholesale, retail, or consumers. Styled photos, brand images, descriptive text, sales copy.

PIM versus Excel

Excel is still the most common competitor. It can hold almost any data problem. It is a poor tool for the volume and the relationships of a real catalog, in the same way a pocket knife is a poor tool for cutting down a tree. The robustness of a PIM is what you are buying against the cost of changing the current workflow.

PIM versus MDM

Master data management tracks records across the business: customers, suppliers, locations, and products. It keeps the organization on one "true" product, the golden record, even when departments use other versions at the same time, the silver records, with translated attributes or metric versus imperial measures.

Like an ERP, MDM is aimed at information at rest and at keeping it stable. It is strong at taking several inputs for one product. It is weak on the flexibility commercial teams need, and it is not built for publishing.

Selecting a PIM

You now know what a PIM is, when the alternatives fall short, and which of those alternatives you probably already run. The selection work comes next.

Requirements and stakeholders

Start with the requirements inside the organization. Yours will be obvious to you. Talking to other stakeholders does two things:

• Each discipline comes at PIM from its own work. IT, marketing, product design, and sales each have a narrow, deep use case. You only hear it by asking.
• Everyone will have to change a process to get the benefit. Bringing the key people in early removes obstacles during implementation and during the change that follows.

The current IT architecture

Know which other systems hold product information, and how they connect. Where a product is created, where it is enriched, and which systems it is published to: that is selection input.

A bird's-eye view of the architecture and the flows is enough. You do not need every interface drawn. Knowing how product data moves through the organization helps the selection, and it helps anyway.

The business case

A PIM has to make financial sense. The cost-benefit split:

• Direct costs: selecting, implementing, and licensing the PIM.
• Indirect costs: redesigning processes, training, and the extra complexity of another tool in the architecture.
• Direct benefits: people working faster, higher sales, lower return rates.
• Indirect benefits: faster time-to-market, more time to enrich, fewer errors in the product information.

Direct costs and benefits are relatively easy to count. Indirect ones are harder to explain, and they are what aligns the decision-makers. The detail is in PIM costs.

In practice most product information management systems are ROI-positive within 3 to 4 years. An upgrade from a PIM you already have brings some efficiency and some indirect gain. A first PIM, where there was none, brings large gains of both kinds.

The decision-makers

The people who decide need to be aligned on implementing a PIM, new or replacement. If they were in the stakeholder sessions and you can show a positive business case, that conversation is straightforward.

The people who will use it every day still have to change how they work. Getting them on board is what determines whether you actually get the benefit.

A PIM is a direct capital expense. Most tools are SaaS, so there is an operating expense as well. The business case has to show that it earns itself back, usually within 3 to 4 years.

Which PIM fits

Three free surveys:

• In-depth PIM survey: about 15 minutes of input, enough for an algorithm to produce an independent top-5 shortlist.
• Quickscan: a shorter scan for small and mid-sized businesses, with an independent top-3 shortlist.
• Cost calculator: whether a PIM fits this year's budget.