What is PIM? Product Information Management explained

What this episode covers

The first episode of PIM Academy answers the question that comes up in every conversation about digitising sales: what is a PIM system, actually. Karolina from the Macopedia team explains where the need comes from, what data belongs in such a system and where that data ends up.

Key takeaways

• PIM stands for Product Information Management. It stores product data, manages it, and delivers it to the channels that need it.
• Price, name and description stopped being enough. Buyers expect specifications they can filter and compare before deciding.
• Product data usually lives on shared drives, in email, in the shop database and on desktops. Sometimes only in people’s heads.
• Two source files for the shop and for a marketplace produce two versions of the truth, and then returns and complaints.
• The main gain is centralisation: one source of truth, a standard specification, measurable completeness and shorter time to market.

Where this starts

Every shop, B2C and B2B alike, needs at least a price, a name and a description. Except that the days when this was enough are long gone. Today buyers expect a reliable specification, because that is what powers filters and comparison tools, and only then do they decide.

So a single product carries much more: product and technical specifications, logistics data, images, manuals, PDFs, icons, marketing copy and translations. A shop in two languages is the minimum, and selling across several markets adds more.

Where that data sits today

Survey answers are always similar: on shared drives, in folders, in Teams, in email, in the shop database, on people’s desktops. In the worst case, only in their heads.

The consequence is predictable. Publishing, updating and every correction involves several people and is complicated. Data in the official shop often differs from the same product on a marketplace, because there are two source files maintained by two different people. The result is returns, complaints and a drop in trust, which is exactly what you want to avoid.

What a PIM system does

It removes that pile of sources and creates one central knowledge base about products. Data is stored, enriched and transformed there, then distributed to the channels that expect it: the online shop, marketplaces such as Amazon, the website presenting the full portfolio, and also print materials, catalogues and files handed to distributors.

Data is pulled automatically through API-based integrations, or as a product feed: a set of files with an agreed structure that feeds other systems.

What you get out of it

Centralisation comes first, because it changes how people work. Product managers, marketing and sales get one source of truth, a standard specification, the ability to track data completeness, and an end to hunting for files.

Then come the operational effects: adding a new product to the portfolio is faster, time to market is shorter, and managing multiple channels, translations and channel-specific copy becomes efficient. Customers get accurate information, so trust and the quality of the buying experience both rise.

The last benefit is the most strategic: scalability. With a PIM system in place, entering a new market or a new sales platform stops being a project, because the data is already ready to be sent somewhere new.

Later episodes get concrete: which data does not belong in a PIM system, how long an implementation takes and what it costs, and how to choose the system. If you are facing that choice, get in touch or see our PIM implementation page.