PIM (Product Information Management) software is a solution for managing product catalogs and any associated content to make them available across all channels. Find out here about the relevance of PIM for SMEs, and advice on how to choose the right solution for your company.
What are PIM solutions for?
PIM tools entered the market in the early 2000s. This concept meets a simple requirement: get it over with Excel tables from product databases. This is not a trivial issue, we have seen large companies manage their product information in spreadsheets. The result is disastrous: duplicate information, line breaks, typing errors, unwanted characters, etc. Therefore, PIM is used to streamline the management of product catalogs.
How does a PIM solution work?
It all starts with downloading files from your suppliers, your management system, or external databases. At the heart of PIM, you will use other descriptions to enrich the data, add translations, product series, product categories, not forgetting to check the quality of the data and the integrity of the database. As output, you can use this data to deliver print catalogs, e-commerce sites (in combination with another CMS), mobile applications, and view POS, so you can connect this data to online sites to enhance the multi-channel customer experience. In short, a PIM solution provides a single point of access to data and multiple views across all channels.
What type of PIM solution should I choose?
SMBs rarely choose the same solutions as large enterprises. Generally, they will go for the best value for money and try to keep the size of the IT project to a minimum. What matters to customers and the company is the result. The good news is that almost all PIM solution providers meet the needs of small and medium-sized businesses. You can even try 11 solutions for free. To find a solution that offers this possibility, just click on the "free" filter in the comparison list. The market for PIM solutions is very rich in vendors and the dangers of small and medium-sized enterprises are easy to analyze.