Top 10 Benefits of a PIM for Product Data Management

A product information management (PIM) system is where a company collects, manages, enriches and distributes the information about the products it makes or sells. That information already exists, spread over an ERP, an ecommerce platform, an image database and a collection of Excel files, and the problem is keeping it consistent across all of them. A PIM brings it together and organizes it, so that one version is maintained and every channel reads from it. The full definition is in what is PIM.

The ten benefits below describe what that delivers in practice. They overlap, because most of them follow from the first: once product information has one place, accuracy, speed and consistency become much easier to achieve. Each section explains how the benefit shows up in daily work and what it depends on.

Why companies need a PIM

Companies rarely start by looking for software. They start with a problem that keeps coming back, and the PIM question follows when someone traces that problem to scattered product information. The problems we hear most fall into three groups.

The first group is about data that cannot be trusted. Products come back, and revenue is lost, because the product information was wrong. The same product is online in several versions and is recorded differently in each system, so nobody can say which version is right. Information is incomplete, out of date or simply wrong, and the catalog data follows a logic that nobody in the company can explain any more. As a result there is no clear view of the range the company actually sells.

The second group is about time. New products take too long to introduce, and competitors have the collection online first. Much of the working time goes to copying product data from one system to the next, and getting a single product online takes several systems and several people, each waiting for the other.

The third group is about missed sales. Someone else lists your products on marketplaces and takes revenue that could have been yours. And the copy on your own pages does not help a customer buy, or is too weak to be found in search.

If several of those are familiar, the underlying question is how you manage product information, and you are not alone in that. According to Ventana Research, 74% of the organizations in their research need "some or significant effort to manage their product information" (Ventana Research, 2019). A majority of omnichannel trade organizations in the EU already manage product data centrally, but only 25% use specific PIM software for it (Markets and Markets 2022 report). Collecting the data in one place is a first step; enriching it and publishing it to every channel is the part a PIM is built for.

The 10 benefits of a PIM at a glance

The sections below explain the ten benefits one by one. They run roughly from the foundation upward: the first three are about the data itself, the next four about what customers and channels see, and the last three about working with partners, growing and keeping control.

1. One source of truth for every product.
2. More accurate product data, checked before it is published.
3. Less manual work in the product data process.
4. The same product on every channel, with control per channel.
5. Higher conversion and fewer returns in ecommerce.
6. Faster time to market for new products and changes.
7. Product and media in one view, together with a DAM.
8. Better collaboration with suppliers and partners.
9. Room to scale without adding people for every channel or system.
10. Control over who changes what, for governance and compliance.

1. One source of truth for product information

A PIM consolidates product data into a single source of truth. It replaces the mix of spreadsheets, databases and disconnected systems where versions drift apart, often without anyone noticing until a customer points out the difference.

Whatever exists about a product is collected in the PIM, automatically where it can be. Sources include data pools, ERP systems, supplier files and Excel. Marketing adds descriptions and images on top. The organization then has one system with the complete, correct product information, and every channel can show the same product. This is often called the golden record: a single version of the truth.

2. 2More accurate product data
3. 3Less manual work
4. 4The same product on every channel
5. 5Higher conversion and fewer returns
6. 6Faster time to market

1One source of truthThe golden record for every product

It rests on

• Implementation
• An agreed way of working
• A method that holds data quality

Software alone: the other nine do not follow

7. 7Product and media in one view
8. 8Better collaboration with suppliers and partners
9. 9Room to scale
10. 10Control over who changes what

Day to day, the change is noticeable in a few places. Product content is entered or imported once, instead of separately in the ERP, the webshop and the marketing spreadsheet. Looking something up becomes a query on one system instead of a search across several, so colleagues stop hunting for the latest version or asking each other which file is current. Marketing, sales and logistics work from the same, current record. And an update goes out once to every channel instead of being repeated per channel, which is exactly where most copying errors used to creep in.

2. More accurate product data

Wrong product data costs money in ways that are easy to see once you look for them: a customer returns the product, support answers a question the page should have answered, or a marketplace rejects the listing because a required value is missing. A PIM reduces those errors in four ways.

The first is structure. All product information is stored in one format and one classification, so the same product is no longer recorded three different ways in three systems. The second is validation before publication: the PIM checks data against quality rules and flags or blocks records that miss them, and because incomplete records do not go out, what reaches a channel is complete. The third is version control. Changes are tracked, so you can see who changed what and revert a mistake when needed. The fourth is metadata and relationships: clear categories and attributes make products easier to find and keep the right details attached to each item.

For the customer, correct sizes, colors and specifications mean an informed purchase. A buyer who orders a pump with the right connection size, or a jacket that fits the way the size chart promised, has no reason to send it back. Fewer products come back, fewer questions arrive by phone and email, and the customer has a reason to buy from you again.

3. Less manual work in the product data process

Much of the time, and many of the errors, in product data are lost in the process around it. Several people usually create and maintain product information, each in their own way, which produces different formats and different processes for the same kind of product. A PIM pulls them into one process. It automates the repetitive tasks, such as imports, channel exports and pre-filling new products with the values they share with existing ones. It makes the status of the data visible, so everyone sees what is missing before a launch instead of finding out afterwards. It gives teams a shared place to work with an unambiguous workflow, and it stops the same information being kept twice.

That also lowers cost. Marketing, photography, DTP, product owners and data managers each do their part of the product in the same system instead of passing files around. Errors show up sooner, and the hours that went into copying and correcting go to work that improves the range.

The PIM also connects to the rest of the stack. Linked to the ERP and inventory, it receives the operational data (SKU, price, stock) and adds the commercial content on top. Where one system ends and the other starts is in where ERP stops and PIM starts.

4. The same product on every channel

Customers move between your webshop, marketplaces, social media and stores, often within a single purchase, and they notice when the product looks different in each place. A PIM keeps the product the same wherever they meet it. That removes the familiar mismatches, such as an article name that differs between the webshop and the back office, or prices that are not the same everywhere. At the same time you keep control per channel: you decide which information appears on which channel, and the assortment can differ by channel, for example a smaller selection on a marketplace than in your own shop.

Publishing to marketplaces and feeds becomes routine work. XML feeds to marketplaces such as Google Shopping and Amazon are straightforward, including required values such as GTIN / EAN and MPN (manufacturer part number), and publishing to marketplaces, data pools and webshops stays manageable as the number of outlets grows. The same detailed attributes help marketing, which can use them to segment products and audiences, for example green products for buyers who filter on sustainability. And once sales data is connected to product information, you can see which items perform on which channel.

Marketing needs complete product information to market a product, new or existing, and in a PIM every department involved puts in its part: specifications, videos and images. Sales gets the same benefit. Account managers see the current product information, so prospects and customers are not handed an old or wrong version. One source is easy to open and share, which shortens the sales cycle.

5. Higher conversion and fewer returns in ecommerce

On a digital channel, product content decides whether the range is found and whether a visit becomes an order. Buyers research before they purchase, and they lean toward sellers who put a full product display online.

A PIM holds that rich content for every product: images, detailed descriptions and specifications. The same names, descriptions and specifications are what search engines and on-site search use to find the product, which makes search engine optimization part of PIM work: better product information brings more traffic and a higher conversion. Relationships between products, maintained in the PIM, drive cross-selling and up-selling, which raises the number of lines on an order.

The same content lowers returns. When the page lets the customer choose the right item, fewer orders come back and fewer complaints follow a wrong choice. Because a change in the PIM reaches every connected platform, new products and price changes also go live sooner, so the page the customer sees is the current one.

A PIM also makes a broader and deeper range possible. An orderly categorization leaves room to expand, and complete data lets you sell a large number of products without losing the overview. Slow movers, the long tail, do not all have to sit in stock: drop-shipment works when the product information is good and the supplier delivers quickly.

6. Faster time to market

Each stage of a product's life, from development and launch through growth and maturity to phase-out, needs different information, and a PIM gives that information one home. At launch, workflows in the PIM bring a new product online sooner, with the product information it needs, because the steps and their owners are defined and everyone can see what is still missing. New products and SKU alternatives, including custom products, have a place to live: information is reused from similar products instead of rewritten, and information that changes is updated without a parallel copy.

Later in the life cycle the benefit lies in reacting quickly. When the market or customer feedback calls for a change, you update the record once and push it to every channel. Sales trends and customer feedback per product help you decide what to improve and what to phase out, and the phase-out itself becomes a status change in one system instead of a search through every channel.

Engineering data usually starts upstream, in PLM. How the two systems divide the work is in PLM and PIM integration.

7. Product and media in one view

A PIM manages product data, while a DAM (digital asset management system) manages rich media: images, videos and documents. Connected, they give teams one view of product and media, so they see product data with its images, videos and documents in one interface instead of switching between systems. Every channel uses the latest approved images together with the latest content, which keeps the branding consistent. Product information and the related media are prepared together, so campaigns and launches do not wait on one or the other. On the product page, well-organized data next to good images or instruction videos helps the customer decide, especially for products that need explaining, such as tools or technical parts.

The difference between the two systems, and when you need both, is in what are DAM and PIM systems.

8. Better collaboration with suppliers and partners

Accuracy also matters outside the company. When suppliers and buyers share one version of the product information, in a format that fits, everyone works from the same record. Wrong data passed along the chain is one of the ways supplier and buyer relationships get damaged, because each party ends up correcting the other's mistakes.

With a PIM, supplier data comes in once. Producers often supply the item information, and rich product information also comes from data pools with millions of products, such as GS1 Data Source, Icecat and 2BA. That data is mapped to your own structure on import, and when a supplier changes something, the PIM updates. Partners start from the same source: a new sales channel, sales partner or affiliate starts from the record you already maintain, without a separate assembly job.

Over time this opens up new markets. When product information no longer has to be matched by hand on every transfer, product handovers get shorter and the supply chain delays caused by bad matching shrink. That makes markets outside your home market easier to serve, because adding a country becomes a matter of translations and local requirements on a record that already exists.

9. Room to scale without extra headcount

A PIM is the central product system that other systems talk to and stay aligned with. You can add channels, markets and systems without hiring a new operator for every extra system, because the scale sits in the PIM instead of in headcount. A retailer that adds a new marketplace, for example, maps the existing records to that marketplace's requirements once, instead of assigning someone to maintain a separate product list for it.

Most PIMs are sold as cloud software, which adds to that. New product lines, new markets and more users do not require new servers, and teams in different locations can work on the same product records at the same time. A subscription replaces large upfront investments in hardware and on-premise maintenance; what a PIM costs per tier is in PIM costs compared. Cloud providers invest in security measures that protect your data against unauthorized access, and the vendor handles updates, so you get new features without an upgrade project.

Open source PIM is the other route, when flexibility and control matter more than a packaged product. You typically avoid license fees and pay for implementation and support instead, you can shape the data model, workflows and integrations to your processes, and you decide when updates go in. The options are in open source PIM compared.

10. Control over who changes what

A shared record needs rules, and a PIM is where they live. Roles and permissions decide who may change which attributes, including sensitive data, so a marketer can edit descriptions without touching the technical specifications that engineering is responsible for. Version control gives you an audit trail of who changed what and when, and lets you roll back a wrong change. Compliance information is easier to track when it sits with the rest of the product record, and validation rules stop incomplete records from going out.

Data governance teams that have to track and meet compliance get one place to do it. That matters most in sectors where wrong or missing product information has legal consequences, such as food or health products. More on that in product information governance.

Who gets the most from a PIM

Dedicated PIM use is still most common among wholesalers and retailers, although producers and brand owners have started managing article information centrally as well. What these companies share is a lot of product data, coming from different parties, in a situation where centralization pays off. Many products, users, channels and customer segments point the same way, and so do sales in several countries, complex products, and data that has to stay in sync with external platforms.

Producers often supply the item information. Wholesalers and retailers add their own products and the details their customers need, then publish to the webshop and other channels. Each party in that chain benefits in its own way: the producer delivers one complete record to all its customers, while the wholesaler or retailer takes that record over instead of retyping it.

Inside those companies, the people who feel it first are marketers who have to deliver one product experience across channels, retailers and brands that need a cleaner relationship with suppliers, ecommerce managers who already see product data quality move online sales, and data governance teams who have to track and meet compliance. For a longer answer, see who needs a PIM solution.

How to get the benefits

The benefits depend on a system that fits, and on the way the organization works with it. The steps below cover both: choosing the system and preparing the organization to use it.

1. Assess your requirements

   Start from your business size, the industry-specific features you need (retail, manufacturing, wholesale) and how the PIM must integrate with ecommerce, ERP and other systems. A wholesaler that imports large amounts of supplier data needs different strengths from a brand that mainly publishes to marketplaces, so write the requirements down before you look at products.

2. Check vendor experience

   Ask for client references, documented case studies and experience in your sector. A vendor that has implemented its PIM for companies like yours knows the typical data structures and the usual pitfalls, which shortens the project.

3. Look at the features you will use

   Focus on what your team will use every day: a usable interface, data validation, bulk editing, reporting, and user access controls for sensitive data. Whether these basics work well for the people who maintain the data matters more than the length of the feature list.

4. Plan for growth

   Check whether you can add features as you grow, and how hard it is to migrate the data if you switch later. A system that fits today's catalog but cannot take on new channels, languages or markets will force a new selection sooner than you planned.

5. Test before you commit

   Ask for a demo or trial, and let the team that will use the system test it before you sign, preferably with a sample of your own products. As Chris Jobse, co-founder of PIMvendors, puts it: "The best way to know if a PIM vendor is right for you is by getting hands-on experience upfront."

6. Plan support, training and the way of working

   Check the support channels, documentation and training material for onboarding. Then agree how the organization will work with the PIM, including who owns which data, because the benefits in this article depend on those agreements as much as on the software.

Product data management and master data management (PDM and MDM) are related but different. They focus on registering new product developments and master data, so the center of that work is making and storing, where a PIM is about editing and selling. See what is PDM and the basic principles of MDM.

Once the records are in order, they are the base you optimize from, both for findability and for whether the product can be sold. Done properly, the gains are tactical, operational and strategic, and for some organizations a central PIM is a condition for continuity. The full selection method is in how to select the right PIM, and the business case in numbers is in PIM costs and ROI.

Where to go from here

Both tools are free and independent of any vendor.

Not sure you need a PIM yet?

A short check that shows whether a dedicated PIM helps your catalog, or whether spreadsheets and ERP still do the job.

Check if a PIM fits

Ready to compare vendors?

Answer questions about your scale, sector and must-haves and get a ranked shortlist.

Build my vendor shortlist