How does PIM increase e-commerce sales?
Today we ask the question: can PIM help increase e-commerce sales? Let's consider two situations. One is a direct increase in sales and the other is an indirect impact on sales in an online shop.
What is PIM?
PIM stands for Product Information Management, which is a system for managing product information. In addition to this, the task of PIM is to make this information available externally, to other systems.
For any PIM, the 3 basic aspects of this concept and system are:
- Information Architecture,
- Integrations,
- Business Processes.
In other words, when implementing a PIM we focus on how we will work, how the information stored and shared will be structured and to whom we are sharing.
With PIM, we eliminate the uncertainty surrounding the correctness of the data and where the current version of this information is located.
At first glance, this may seem trivial. However, with large product catalogues, or organisations where multiple departments are involved in building and enriching product information, this becomes a real issue.
Does PIM in e-commerce increase sales?
To directly answer the question posed in the introduction, yes, but not directly. This means that after implementing a PIM, unlike a UX improvement or a marketing campaign, we will not notice an immediate effect.
That effect will come after time. When the organisation learns to unify and work on a new set of business processes and in a new place. Then usually come many benefits.
How will PIM help increase sales in an online shop?
Centralised information management
With PIM, you bring a single source of work into the organisation when it comes to products. Descriptions, images, technical and marketing data. All in one place and always up-to-date.
This directly leads to fewer errors. Not only in e-commerce. Everywhere these data will go. The people who are in charge of entering products into the online shop either don't have to do it at all because the data comes in via the API, or their work is minimised.
Faster time to market
In addition to the R&D, production and logistics processes, one important element is the preparation of the product information that goes into the online shop.
Thanks to a standardised way of sending this information to e-commerce, as soon as the product is properly described in the PIM it can be launched online.
The process of building the product card is simplified because everyone works on one system. Their work is immediately visible for verification. In addition, modern PIM systems have mechanisms for checking the completeness and sometimes also the correctness of this information. To a limited extent, of course.
If, on the other hand, you need to make a change to a product card, it will also get to the online shop faster thanks to the PIM.
Better SEO
Product meta data management also takes place in the PIM. SEO is also included in this group. Since SEO specialists should also work in PIM then they have access to the context of the product data, which would be hard to provide otherwise.
This allows SEOs to build descriptions and meta data that are more precise and simply better quality.
Better Customer Experience
The right information and personalisation. These two issues are easier to achieve in organisations that work on PIM.
It doesn't need to be particularly elaborated on that properly structured product descriptions improve conversions. For that matter, there are studies that say descriptions with no less than 600 characters have an impact on e-commerce conversions.
And product recommendations can be an element of personalisation. Their source is the relationship between products set up in the PIM. This is where specialists work who know best how to link them together. They are not always involved in this process in e-commerce. With PIM, you can use their knowledge and improve the customer experience.
All together
If we consider all the small benefits of implementing a PIM for e-commerce, we can expect a really significant impact on conversion.
E-commerce is made up of many layers. Working on them is a tedious and methodical task. However, the effects are not only visible in e-commerce. Implementing a PIM will certainly help to sort out many other areas of the business.
Implementation tips
Implementing a PIM always starts with choosing the right system or platform. There are quite a few solutions on the market, it is worth checking thoroughly. Identifying the right one in terms of your business development strategy and product roadmap is a good idea to start with.
In our experience at Monogo, for companies that grow after PIM comes the time to sort out other areas of the company. This is why we recommend PIMCORE. It is not only PIM, but also DAM and CDP. Two very important building blocks in building a cohesive digital ecosystem.
In addition to choosing a platform, it is worth identifying at the outset what integrations you want. Or, in other words, with which systems the PIM is to be connected. This way, you will immediately be able to check the connectors available on the market. These will allow you to speed up implementation as you will not have to build everything from scratch.
I would caution, however, against being full of optimistic enthusiasm in vendor quotations. It is hard to find an example of an implementation that has run on off-the-shelf solutions. There is always some even minor customisation (adapting to the specifics of your business).
The last and most important part of implementing PIM in your organisation will be training and adaptation. This is the hardest of the stages because it involves working with the people who will be using the tool. The hardest because it involves a cross-section of characters and the requirements of different jobs.
I recommend setting aside a substantial budget for this stage. Even the best system if it is not backed up by a proper adaptation process will not bring as much value as you expect.
Summary
PIM will not immediately increase sales, but its implementation will improve the quality of work for many departments and people in your company. Do not look at the implementation of this system only through the prism of e-commerce.
Of course, e-commerce will benefit greatly from PIM, but this is only part of the benefit story. Not only will there be an end to the exchange of excels and Word documents on emails, but most importantly the people in your company will gain confidence in the source of the data.
Find out the benefits of implementing PIM in your organisation by contacting our sales department!