7 PIM Tools and Features to Look for in Your Software

With every new product, technology, or customer demand introduced into the world of ecommerce, the landscape shifts — and the competition gets stiffer. In this complex business environment, using product information management (PIM) software is essential.

Also known as a personal information manager, a PIM solution offers a central source of truth for managing all product data across your catalog. And with customizable data quality controls, a PIM allows you to streamline collaboration, ensure consistency, and get to market faster.

Just think: If you had an expert team available to design your PIM software, what kind of tools would you want? Here are the seven of the most common features of a PIM system.

1. Ease of Data Importation

Importing data is one of the most important aspects of a PIM solution — especially when you're using multiple devices, operating systems, and tools to store data.

No doubt you've had trouble importing content from one place to another without experiencing technical snags. You've likely had to look in multiple databases just to find specific content for a project. 

Avoid tech troubles, data inconsistencies, or governance issues by ensuring your PIM software offers a central source of truth for product data. Having one central location for quality-assured product data enables you to cut down on wait times considerably anytime you need to send data to another source.

You'll retain customers who don't want to wait to find specific data they need from your records.

2. Channel-Specific Data Views

When you're on the go, you want to have the ability to view all content posted on various channels without having to look in separate places. It's essential to have one database to consult on your mobile device so you see how well your data looks on those channels.

Even more important is the ability to see what the requirements are on each of those channels so you can adjust content accordingly. Optimizing for the consumer experience can otherwise become impossible without being able to manage unique versions of your product information per channel. 

Combining a central source of truth with data quality enforcement, a PIM solution can help you ensure product data aligns with each channel’s or region’s requirements.

Basically, you'll have an omniscient digital view of data through a working search engine. If you're working with a designer on PIM software, don't forget to include this feature.

3. Bulk Editing Capabilities

It’s difficult — sometimes impossible — to edit data in bulk when it’s strewn across multiple locations. The best PIM solution allows bulk editing capabilities so you can edit everything cumulatively.

Using a PIM with bulk editing capabilities will not only save you significant time but also help keep your product data consistent across all sales channels or endpoints.

If you've gone through a rebranding phase recently, for example, you'll need to edit data on other channels to keep everything aligned. Without this tool, you'll have to visit all those channels individually. 

In most cases, editing each channel individually is impossible and often leaves some inconsistent content on various sites. To avoid spending days manually editing product content, ensure your PIM software has this capability.

4. Channel Readiness

Having data in multiple locations also poses another problem: preparing data for proposed channels. Digital asset management (DAM) features in your PIM take care of this for you.

Retailer requirements are constantly changing, requiring brands to edit digital images, videos, user manuals, or buying guides. The right PIM solution lets you access all of these in one central source of truth so you can easily meet your endpoint’s requirements. 

In some cases, this might mean having to transform them into something different from their original intended use. Again, integrated editing tools come in handy here. You may need to ready your data for resizing, cropping, renaming, or image rotating. For images, you should be able to do this in bulk when pressed for time.

Channel readiness also requires high-quality data. A good PIM solution can also enable you to create data quality controls so any product data you send adheres to your endpoint’s unique requirements.

5. Creating and Managing Categories

Managing ecommerce product data can quickly become overwhelming. But a PIM solution that organizes that data makes it easy.

Ensure your PIM allows you to create and manage categories so you more efficiently store your data in places where it's easy to find and edit.

By storing your data in a central source of truth and categorizing it by the channels where you'll post also helps you organize things for the rest of your staff. Considering your marketing team may post some content, they’ll need to know where it goes and how to manage it.

Organizing products is equally important for supporting an omnichannel sales and marketing strategy. To reach shoppers with consistent product information on all the channels they prefer, you’ll need to post product data in multiple locations. 

Using a PIM solution can make it easy to ensure that no matter where your customer engages with your products, they’re getting a consistent picture of your brand.

6. Content Analytics

Look anywhere in the ecommerce world and you’ll likely see the word “analytics.” And for good reason: Using data to inform decision-making is crucial to ecommerce success — and it’s no different for your PIM. What you really need is analytics that helps you take action quickly.

Quality PIM software gives you analytics that is easy to read and compiled through machine learning. The latter works in real time so you see what's going on and take immediate action to correct a problem.

For monitoring how well your products perform online, content analytics brings some great benefits. You can see how well certain products are being represented and which ones need attention now. Easy-to-read analytics show you exactly what actions you need to take.

7. Managing Governance on a Global Scale

As your company starts to expand across the world, you'll need to keep up with regional data regulations to avoid violation fines. PIM solutions can streamline this process by enabling you to create — and follow — data quality rules and publish content in multiple languages.

The best PIMs allow you to manage global governance locally. By giving local control over how you optimize content, the PIM gives your marketing teams in other countries a faster way to manage content.

Maintaining consistency in the legal side of your content saves you from dealing with expensive fines or possible litigation later.

Putting Product Experiences First

Ecommerce today isn’t just about giving customers information about your products. It’s about creating cohesive, consistent experiences at every touch point that foster customer trust and loyalty.

A strong PIM solution, like Salsify PIM, enables you to put product experiences at the forefront of your marketing efforts. With high-quality, channel-specific, and accurate product content on every channel and endpoint, you’re sure to win on the digital shelf.