E-commerce is booming. According to the German E-Commerce and Mail Order Association (bevh), gross sales in Germany amounted to around 83.3 billion euros in 2020. This figure is expected to rise to 94 billion euros in 2021. Digitalization has received a further boost in the past two years. More and more people are shopping online. As a result, consumers' experiences and expectations are increasing. They want to be able to find all relevant product information at any time - quickly and clearly.
At the same time, a recent study shows that 65% of companies have difficulties accessing product data from different areas of the company. Reducing the amount of data is not a solution, as the system setup requires valid data in order to offer consumers the best possible user experience.
Companies need to know their target group. Only then can they provide the necessary product data in the appropriate quality and improve the user experience (UX) - for example in the online store.
The problem is that the individual requirements of each sales channel often cannot be flexibly mapped in existing systems such as ERP or online stores. And if so, then only with a great deal of manual effort. The most efficient solution to this problem is a product information management system (PIM system).
65 percent of companies have difficulties accessing product data from different areas of the company.
You can bundle all product-relevant information from different source systems in a PIM system. In this “single point of truth”, you can record, manage and add to your product data and digital assets such as images or videos. Further advantages are that the PIM structures and classifies your data and translates it for local applications - or identifies it as local information. You can also define roles and authorizations for individual PIM users and thus define workflows individually.
Products are only output to the online store, print media or your POS once they have the appropriate data quality and have been approved by the authorized employees. Intelligent tools such as validation rules, mass processing tools and approval processes support you in this process. For your company, this means that the optimized and expanded product information demonstrably increases the conversion rate while reducing return rates. Customers feel understood, which sustainably increases customer satisfaction and customer lifetime value.
The optimized processes also help you to open up new sales markets more easily and quickly. This gives you a competitive edge and greater reach. Looking for the catch? Here it is: the truth is that the introduction of a PIM system requires preparatory work and know-how.
When introducing a PIM system, you are initially faced with the challenge of merging data from different sources. Many companies have several systems that have grown over time and that send product information in fragments to various output formats.
Employees from different departments maintain product data independently and decentrally. As a result, there is no overview of responsibilities and overarching product data.
In the search for the “golden record”, we therefore hold workshops with our customers to identify all data sources and their export formats. We also analyze the various processes with the responsible employees. In doing so, we pay attention to channel specifics in order to apply them in the restructuring and subsequent export.
Once the PIM system has been introduced, you no longer have to go through the time-consuming process of collecting and processing data in different systems. The product data is then bundled and ready for the subsequent systems without any further formatting work.The next step of the PIM project consists of mapping the data model and assigning product data to a logical variant formation for the inheritance of information.
Our aim is to minimize your manual maintenance and development effort for possible subsequent integrations. These can arise, for example, because products cannot be represented in the existing data structure and hardly any information can be inherited or additional output channels are added.With our workshops, we support customers in defining a flexible data model and a new product hierarchy using variant-forming attributes - including inheritance of product information.This allows you to efficiently map your product data and simplify your maintenance processes through optimized variant creation.
Use our checklist to optimally prepare your company for the introduction of a PIM system.
Your checklist
Which systems serve as data sources?
Which data formats go to the PIM system?
Who maintains product data?
Where is product data currently maintained?
What current product data maintenance processes are in place?
Which output channels are available?
Which countries and languages need to be taken into account?
Which data and data formats are required for which channel?
What does the current product data structure/hierarchy look like?
What product types are there (single products/variants/bundles)?
Where and in which assortments is product data structured?
Customer expectations of your product information have increased. A good UX is the key to success in e-commerce. At the same time, companies are finding it increasingly difficult to keep track of and prepare their product data.
A PIM system can solve this problem. It provides a central location where you can collect, structure and optimize your product data and send it to the sales channels. Using a wide range of process definitions in the PIM system, you not only reduce maintenance work and costs, but also increase data quality and accuracy. Which in turn pleases your customers.
When introducing a PIM system, you must first and foremost invest time in analyzing the existing system. The more precisely you approach this, the more you will benefit from the introduction. If you have any questions or need support, please do not hesitate to contact us.
