What Is an Example of PIM?

A Product Information Management (PIM) solution unifies product data and generates consistently accurate product experiences that drive revenue. 

What Is a PIM?

PIM stands for product information management. It's a process of compiling, storing, and managing all product information in one place — a single source of truth. A tool that performs a product information management function is also known as a PIM, Product Information Management software, or PIM tool.

Manufacturers that market, sell, and service products use a PIM solution to ensure the company is always referencing and communicating the most up-to-date and accurate product information. A PIM, typically owned and managed by a marketing team, allows a business to deliver a consistent product experience to customers across various channels.

So, in effect, the strength of your PIM determines the effectiveness of your Product Experience Management (PXM). At the end of the day, it's a consistent product experience that drives revenues by turning customers into advocates for your brand.

Why Do Companies Need a PIM?

Companies need a PIM because customer experience matters. Forbes compiled compelling stats on the importance of customer experience from recent research, notable findings include:

• 61 percent of consumers say they'll pay at least a 5 percent premium for a good customer experience

• 95 percent say that customer service impacts their loyalty

• 88 percent report the experience brands build matters as much as the brand’s products or services

• 87 percent of customers avoid buying from companies that they don't trust

Your PIM solution helps every team, from sales and marketing to procurement and compliance, access real-time product data that is reliable and up-to-date. It eliminates the friction of misinformation. Ultimately, this leads to an improved customer experience at every touch point.

Given its importance, you'd expect PIM technology to be an industry standard. The truth is, it's an emerging solution. Many product manufacturers still use spreadsheets, shared file folders, or worse, store critical product information on an employee’s personal drive, meaning it is inaccessible to other team members

With this fractured data storage approach, team members have to hunt for product information across files and sift through duplicate data, draining productivity.This makes it impossible to keep product info accurate and up-to-date, let alone use it consistently for customer experience.

A product information management software fixes all of this. It centralizes all product data, eliminates duplicate entries, and makes it easier for multiple, authorized users to access approved product records.

By organizing and enriching product information in PIM, manufacturers enhance customer experiences, improve marketing campaigns, and facilitate faster time-to-market for new products. PIM enables better collaboration among teams, streamlines workflows, reduces errors, and provides a comprehensive view of product data, ultimately improving operational efficiency and driving sales growth.

What Is an Example of PIM?

There are many PIM tools in market today. Among them, some PIM software examples include:

• Plytix PIM

• Salsify PIM

• Sales Layer PIM

• InRiver PIM

• Pimcore

• Pimworks

• Catsy

• Lumavate

PIM software companies come in many shapes and sizes. While each provides the baseline functionality of centralizing product data for more efficient product information management, it’s important that you understand the different features each solution offers.

The best PIM software 2023 is the one that meets your unique needs. Your objective is to identify the PIM tool that can help you get more out of your product information to deliver consistently fantastic product experiences. 

For example, some PIM tools offer a more robust solution by including a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution and Digital Experience Platform (DXP) within its suite of functionality. Lumavate is a full product experience management (PXM) platform that offers a PIM, DAM, DXP, and text messaging functionality. 

With a PIM like Lumavate’s, you can store all your product-related assets, such as product demos and tutorial videos, as well as product documents and images in the DAM. All product data is cataloged in the connected PIM and relates digital assets to each product record. Lumavate further separates itself from other PIM solutions by offering a no-code DXP. This enables marketers to quickly build digital product experiences that pull product data from the PIM and assets from the DAM. 

How Do I Choose a PIM?

Selecting the right PIM for your team and brand comes down to answering five fundamental questions:

• What functionality do you need? Some PIM solutions offer tools for managing an approval process, version control, and analytics. Familiarize yourself with what a robust PIM can offer. For example, Lumavate is a full PXM platform that in addition to offering a PIM, also includes DAM, making it easy to store related product assets. What other systems do you need to integrate with? You don't want to end up with a tool that doesn't work with tools you already use. That wouldn't solve the problem., it would create more inefficiencies. Consider the value created when tools communicate with each other seamlessly, from research to ideation to creation to distribution.

• How will the product information be used? What kinds of digital and physical content assets do your teams need to build around your product lines? Most manufacturers use a PIM to create product guides, product detail pages, marketing campaign landing pages, and trade show digital experiences.

• What type of budget is defined for this initiative? Every PIM solutions has a different price point. Going into the evaluation process with a known budget will ensure your team identifies the PIM that works best for them and the company’s budget.

• What is your timeline for implementing a solution? Some PIM tools can be set up in a day, such as Lumavate. Other solutions require months of onboarding and programming to  get more advanced features up and running.

Once you've considered these five questions, take another look at Lumavate. It's often the best PIM software for manufacturers looking to deliver more cohesive and memorable product experiences.

Lumavate offers an all-in-one Product Experience Management (PXM) functionality. It gives you control over how, when, and where customers experience your product messages. Lumavate's Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools keep all product-related assets in one place.

Other PIMs claim to do this. But do they really? How-to videos, troubleshooting guides, images, blog posts, social posts — all of these are digital product assets.

Then, the Digital Experience Platform (DXP) draws information straight from your PIM to generate digital product experiences in minutes. You have text messaging capability and complex form-building options to generate opt-ins, downloads, and purchases.

Here's the honest truth:

No other PIM solution in the market takes this broad — and much-needed — approach to product management. That's why Lumavate is 75 percent more cost-effective than the competition, with more features, better functions, and, dare we say, an elevated product experience.