What is Product Information Management (PIM)?

How Does a PIM Strategy Set Up an Organization  for Success in 2021 and Beyond?

The outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 significantly accelerated the existing shift in customer buying behavior toward digital marketplaces and more convenient home delivery options. This trend will very likely continue in 2021 and beyond, as consumers are pivoting to online shopping at a much faster pace than before. Retailers, manufacturers, brands and distributors that are late to adapt may miss out.

The shift to eCommerce ultimately leads to an increasing demand for PIM solutions because companies need a PIM strategy in place to enable digital commerce. (For more on digital commerce strategies, check out our Digital Commerce & Supply Chain Summit, now available on demand.)

A PIM solution better positions organizations to effectively feed digital channels with trusted, rich, and relevant product data and create market resilience by equalizing declining in-store sales. For example, major apparel company PVH is supercharging e-commerce and grew e-commerce sales by 50% overall, including an 87% jump in sales on their own websites, compared with a year ago.

How Does PIM Relate to MDM and PxM?

PIM vs. MDM

Master data management (MDM) is the glue that binds together an organization’s systems and information. Mastering product data with MDM (Product MDM) provides a single source of truth based on trusted, accurate, complete product data. The primary purpose of Product MDM is to create relationships between data domains and fuel internal analytical and operational business applications with trusted data. The primary use case for PIM is to author product data in order to publish it to sales channels, like eCommerce web sites or print publishing systems.

PIM vs. PxM

Product experience management (PxM) is the action or insight that improves or contributes to an engaging and personalized customer experience. It involves using a PIM solution along with analytical and actionable insights (e.g., coming from channels or Informatica Customer 360 insights), machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. PxM is especially relevant to help market products more effectively across digital touchpoints. Successful PxM is impossible without a PIM solution to feed the product experience. Therefore, it’s fair to say that PxM is a result or subset of a broader PIM solution that usually covers more comprehensive use cases and functionalities.

Product Information Management Benefits

The main benefits of PIM include:

• Faster time to market

• Increased brand loyalty

• Ability to sell more products faster, including cross-sell and upsell opportunities

• Improved operational efficiencies by streamlining critical workflows and cross-functional collaborative data enrichment

• Better product data quality and compliance with industry standards

• A more engaging, omnichannel product experience.

Learn more about the business value of product information management in our blog, featuring insights from real PIM practitioners.  

Informatica’s Product Information Management (PIM) Solution 

Master Data Management (MDM) – Product 360 is Informatica’s product information management (PIM) solution. It empowers your digital commerce and business transformation with innovative and intelligent product experience management. 

Based on a trusted 360-degree view of all product content and with automated workflows, business users can manage product information much more efficiently. The intuitive task- and role-based user interface makes collaboration on product data smarter and more agile, both internally and in collaboration with business partners. 

Organizations like BMW Group, Unilever or Saint-Gobain select MDM – Product 360, because Informatica is a trusted and strong strategic partner with proven long-term PIM customer success, a clear market commitment, the broadest global PIM and MDM partner ecosystem, as well as the deepest innovation-driven PIM product functionality with enterprise scalability.  

Customer Success Stories: Product Information Management in Action

Australian retailer Kmart can introduce products much faster across all channels using a PIM solution incorporating Informatica MDM – Product 360 and Informatica Data Quality. Automated data checks and three levels of quality assurance processes yield accurate, high-quality content. Images are now automatically assigned to apparel SKUs, with no manual intervention required. Kmart Australia has also moved further into B2B sales opportunities, driving more revenue and helping the business grow 60 percent within two years.  Read the full customer success story.

Thanks to their PIM solution, online retailer KLiNGEL, one of Europe’s leading online fashion retailers, can publish product information online without delays or errors resulting in increased omnichannel sales, including digital marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and OTTO. It’s also improving the customer shopping experience. With more complete and detailed descriptions of styles and materials and more images of products, customers can find what they want faster and be more confident in their shopping.  Read the full customer success story.

Additional Product Information Management Resources

Learn more about PIM and how to apply it in your organization with these free and downloadable resources.

Ebook: 5 Ways to Enhance Product Experience

White Paper: Product Information Management? Product MDM? Or Both?

Blog:  Increasing Agility and Efficiency with Product Information Management

Article: What is Product Experience Management?