Need a Data Lifeline? Get a PIM System

Are you a busy marketer or e-commerce manager struggling with data overload?

In the gift and home space, we see small teams managing everything from the website and email marketing to print catalogs, sales support and events. Throw in the product data feeds, spreadsheets and reports used to execute and measure each effort, and the day-to-day data complexities become the most time-consuming challenges in today’s omnichannel marketing environments.

Overloaded teams need to do more with less. A Product Information Management (PIM) system is the busy e-commerce marketer’s best-kept secret to get out of the tedious, manual data weeds and focus on growing the business. Here’s how a PIM system works and three reasons it’s a must have for marketing and e-commerce teams.

PIM System 101

A PIM system is a centralized location to store all of your product data and images.

Using a PIM system, like Whereoware’s Product FastLane, you can replace images, search for products, create collections or change product descriptions from one dashboard. You then share those updates with your website, catalogs, key accounts and third-party marketplaces, like Amazon and Wayfair, with the click of a button.

This boosts efficiency, ensures consistency and enhances each product’s data quality, which makes a world of difference when you’re managing hundreds or thousands of products. (Hear Retailer Alison Anderson’s take on product data management.)

Improve Data Quality and Reduce Data Management Costs

Data is a nightmare when it’s housed in different files, outdated or incomplete. Data management is made more difficult when multiple team members are working on the same product data across spreadsheets or tools. Making a single change becomes cumbersome when you need to make it in multiple places.

A PIM system enables your whole team to work seamlessly on the same data in one place. You update a product in the system one time, instead of having to manually update a series of spreadsheets. You can track updates and roll back changes in the event of an error to ensure consistency and accuracy across the board.

You’ll improve data quality, streamline team collaboration and reduce organizational costs due to lost productivity.

Reduce Risk Across Marketplaces

Many brands also sell on third-party marketplaces like Amazon, Wayfair and Overstock. These marketplaces expose your products to a much wider audience, but each has its own data formatting rules and requirements.

Using a PIM system, you can easily match each marketplace’s data spec and send your updates with a click. Since the product data is pulled from one source, you always have consistent and accurate data across all your marketplaces.

Improve SEO, Increase Traffic and Conversions

According to Brightedge, organic search leads as the primary channel for website organic traffic, driving 51 percent of searchers to sites. More than half of your customers are finding you through a Google search, so it’s imperative that you’re optimizing your product data and imagery to return on relevant searches.

A PIM system incorporates important search engine optimization fields. You can tailor your product descriptions to cater to different audiences or incorporate seasonal language for promotions or holidays. It can also alert you when you’re missing images, links or other fields, so you always share complete data.

Complete and descriptive data improves your site’s search ranking placement and enables more searchers to find your products.

Free Yourself of Data Headaches: Get a PIM System

Gift and home marketers have their hands full promoting their products and company across online and offline channels. Data is the foundation of any strategic marketing plan, and a PIM system makes managing complete, accurate and accessible product data across teams simple.

Take control of your product data. Contact us for a free demo of our user-friendly PIM system Product FastLane.