Do I need a PIM for my ecommerce to succeed?

Ecommerce seems to be booming, and more and more people are deciding to start an online business.

Even businesses that used to rely on brick and mortar stores have been forced to innovate and open online channels to increase sales.

It is true that nowadays creating an ecommerce store is easier than ever, since there are many options that allow you to create them depending on the technical knowledge or the initial investment.

But solely creating an ecommerce website does not guarantee its success. It will partly depend on a previous business analysis and on applying all the marketing and communication strategies necessary to reach the target audience.

One of these strategies is applying a PIM solution.

What is a PIM?

PIM is the abbreviation for Product Information Management. In other words, the management of all the product data of your company’s catalog.

The PIM works as a multi-channel marketing software tool that allows you to maintain control over all areas of your ecommerce.

It tracks in real time all the data corresponding to the company’s catalogs and inventory. Then, it sends them to the necessary channels making sure they harmonize with each other.

How can I know if I need a PIM?

Look at these factors to determine if you need to implement a PIM in your business.

The size of your business 

A PIM becomes essential when your e-commerce business produces considerable quantities and volumes of sales.

Distributors, manufacturers, companies, and large retailers, who handle a large number of sales channels, information, and product updates, should have a PIM.

When your business handles a large catalog, you can’t afford to have errors, repetitions and mismatches between the sections of the team that are continually updating your catalog because that means massive waste of time and money.

On the other hand, If your ecommerce business has just begun its journey and does not offer many collections, a PIM will probably be unnecessary for the time being.

When a high volume of goods and loads of information are making the centralization and data management of your products an impossible task, consider integrating a PIM in your ecommerce.

Need of internal communication improvements

But a PIM not only affects the amount of product information in an ecommerce, but also its quality.

A PIM can immediately discover if communication failures are occurring between different team members in charge of updating different databases.

This will result in you being slowed down and distracted from other more important decisions in the process, again, a PIM avoids wasting time in duplicated unnecessary processes.

To create an ecommerce website you have to build a lot of trust so that your customers feel like family and safe. Something that really influences customer traffic and consequently also sales figures.

A customer must be able to trust the information provided about the products in the store.

That’s why it’s important to have a PIM if your business generates high volume of sales. And if you have just started, think about integrating it later to be more successful in your ecommerce.

Adam Hansen
 

Adam is a part time journalist, entrepreneur, investor and father.