Centralising Product Data and Unlocking Scalability with an Ecommerce PIM

Product information management (PIM) itself isn’t new, as it’s merely the practise of managing your products — from their specs to their pricing to how you market them. But, with many businesses selling online and serving larger audiences than ever before, ecommerce PIM platforms have taken centre stage.

The benefits of PIM are plenty for digital commerce businesses, from enabling catalogue growth to enhancing product specifications and product content to ultimately influencing purchasing decisions for customers.

Think: Where an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform will consolidate back office functions like those found in HR or logistics, a PIM solution will streamline everything product.

But, is an ecommerce PIM platform necessary? Worth any extra costs and the trouble of setting up?

(You know the answer is “yes,” but have a sense of adventure.)

The growing need to use a PIM

It’s easy to think of a PIM as something you “just” use for product information. While it’s called product information management software for a reason, the need for an ecommerce PIM solution is greater than simply wanting a glorified catalogue.

As an ecommerce business, one of your greatest assets is the ability to grow: your customer base, your marketing efforts, your business itself, and your product offerings.

With each scaling of your ecommerce empire, the need for a PIM grows too:

• More product SKUs means more entries on a spreadsheet and more opportunities for error. (Snell, a BigCommerce customer, has more than 25,000 SKUs. That’d make for one nightmare of a spreadsheet.)

• More digital channels means more marketing messaging to manage across products, and again, more chances to make mistakes.

• More warehouse locations means having your SKUs housed in more places, and more chances to have shipping and inventory-related mistakes.

• More product listings means more images and descriptions to manage, more difficulties with search engine optimisation (SEO) within listings, and — surprise — more chances to make mistakes.

• More updates for a growing product catalogue means more manual description updating, SKU tweaks (if different versions of a product launch), more taxonomy management, and increasingly bogged down product workflows.

• More sales channels means more chances for incorrect product information to wind up in the hands of customers, and a slower, more stressful sales process for your team.

A small product catalogue and a small, localised customer base doesn’t come with the above product experience management (PXM) or logistical nightmares outlined above. It also limits your growth and what’s possible for your company.

If your ecommerce company is looking to grow in any capacity, an ecommerce PIM system will serve only to help.

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Platform Overview

Data collection capabilities of an ecommerce PIM

An ecommerce PIM platform can have a ripple effect across your company, from improved operational efficiency to improved product page conversion rates to a smoother user experience. But, this is only possible because of the sheer data collection and housing capabilities of a modern ecommerce PIM solution.

Media files. 

It’s not digital commerce without digital files, and this includes a number of media assets. Every successful ecommerce site has countless high quality images, videos, and in some cases, 3D renderings.

The right PIM platform should house all your product media files, no matter the format. Beyond this, it should keep them organised, making it easier to find those needed for product descriptions, marketing channels, and beyond.

Marketing data.

Product marketing requires accurate product information. A PIM can help here as well, storing:

• Marketing assets associated with a specific product

• Any keywords or key phrases to use when optimising a page or post

• Campaign data associated with specific products

• Meta titles and descriptions as they relate to each product

Beyond campaigns, you’ll likely create content around your various products, even well after they launch. Having your marketing data housed in a single location makes it easy to quickly pull accurate, current messaging when writing about a specific product.

Emotional data. 

Technical and SEO-related descriptions are important, but it’s important not to neglect the emotional, human side of things.

A PIM can store product stories and emotional language used to describe each product as well. With this, you can quickly plug in the right emotional language for a social post, speak about a product in a consistent manner when working with customers, and drive a cohesive narrative overall.

Rohan, a clothing company and BigCommerce customer, is a great example of using this data for good. Their product pages feature a general description, as well as the “Full Story,” which uses a more emotional, personal description that helps customers imagine how the product could fit into their life.

Localisation data.

Localisation can be a big hurdle for businesses looking to expand into other markets. A PIM can be a huge boon here, storing localisation data like:

• Product descriptions in different languages

• Technical specs and dimensions that fit regional unit measurements

• Imagery tailored for different areas

• Pricing in local currencies

• Localised content with relevant references

Ecommerce localisation is a big undertaking. With a PIM, product data doesn’t have to be the thing that holds you back.

Advantages of implementing a PIM

Marketplaces, whether Amazon or elsewhere, are the number one destination for customers looking to find shopping ideas. This means your product details need to be accurate on your site and anywhere else your products are listed.

In general, a PIM will help you ensure this accuracy for the entire lifecycle of a product, no matter how many sites or marketplaces you decide to syndicate your product across.

But, this isn’t the only advantage.

Reduced manual data entry.

There's no shortage of data entry where products are concerned, especially during the initial launch. Even after launch, product updates can and will happen, requiring tons of additional data entry.

A PIM can automate numerous data entry tasks, requiring you only enter the correct data once before it updates:

• Product pages

• Marketing messaging

• Printed catalogues

• Pricing sheets

• Marketplace listings

• And more

Consistent product information is a must in ecommerce, especially as omnichannel becomes the expectation. Customers have more and more potential touchpoints, and you want to ensure they’re seeing the most current, accurate product messaging and data.

More efficient time-to-market.

No matter the type of retailer, a delayed or slow launch can result in a significant blow to your company. You lose out on time, lose revenue, and give competitors a chance to continue passing you by. Not only this, but a faster-time-to-market and quick start to a new fiscal year sets the tone for the months that follow.

In fact, 65% of companies can tie their year’s performance to how they did in Q1, with “fast starters” doing 6x better than those who start slowly.

An ecommerce PIM solution can help you achieve your launch goals and improve your time-to-market with:

• Automated workflows and data entry across channels

• More efficient distribution of assets across channels

• Quicker publishing of SKUs across any number of pages and marketplaces

• Automated language localisation in all of your markets

Take EXPRESSO, transportation developer and BigCommerce customer, for example. They integrated Pimcore, a PIM system, into their BigCommerce site, which allowed them to efficiently manage their regional ecommerce stores and Google Merchant Centre presence. This saved them precious time, and played a crucial role in their 26% increase in conversion rate.

Central database.

With just one central database, you have a single source of truth for product information. This is much simpler and easier to manage than maintaining multiple databases, especially when you need to make updates and changes. 

This benefit only grows in value as your company and catalogue grows, too. With each additional product and marketing channel, the central database powered by your PIM will enable your sales channels to be more efficient, marketers to pull assets with ease, and customers to receive the latest product descriptions.

Scalability.

When it comes to needs as a growing ecommerce business, scalability is an inevitability. Just as the right ecommerce platform can enable further growth via multi-store functionality and the like, a PIM can enable it by acting as an ever-expansive product repository.

As your operations grow, you’ll need a way to reduce duplicative data entry and work, distribute messaging across your org, and ensure pages and marketplaces are updated without errors. Without a PIM, all of these tasks can hinder your scalability in a big way.

As an added bonus, a PIM solution can make it easier to work with distributors, should the opportunity arise. Distributors will require accurate messaging for your products, and a PIM can give them exactly that.

Omnichannel efficiency.

Omnichannel retail is quickly becoming the norm, serving as a foundation on which to build a consistent, multichannel business.

The success of an omnichannel approach rides almost entirely on how consistent your presence is across numerous customer touchpoints. With a PIM, you can make sure your product messaging is accurate and up-to-date.

A PIM makes it easy to export product data directly to:

• Social channels

• Marketplaces

• Your ecommerce site

• Ad copy

With your product messaging streamlined and largely off your plate, you can focus on refining the rest of your omnichannel presence and customer experience, and maybe even relax a little.

Improved marketing campaigns.

If you've ever spearheaded a marketing campaign, you know that even the best laid plans (like those hashed out during 80 hours of meetings) can fall apart in a hurry. A little organisation goes a long way in reining in the chaos.

A PIM gives your marketers a single source of truth from which they can pull consistent messaging for marketing campaigns. This not only enables more consistent language across assets, but also increases the chances of a faster launch time for campaigns.

As an added perk, your marketers can add updated marketing messaging into the PIM when it's finalised, which can then be pulled when needed down the road.

Potential PIM disadvantages

Nothing is perfect, and that includes an ecommerce PIM. There are a handful of factors and scenarios that can wind up possible disadvantages when using a PIM:

• Poor customisability: Some PIM systems aren't as flexible as others, making it difficult to customise fields or tweak workflow automations.

• Few integrations: A lack of integration support can result in a PIM that won't fully integrate with your ERP, inventory systems, or ecommerce platform.

• High learning curve: some PIM systems are harder to use than others, which can result in time lost to extensive training with the tool, low adoption rates, or mistakes.

• Cost: Many PIM solutions are aimed at mid-size and enterprise businesses, coming with a monthly cost to match.

It’s worth noting that data quality is a huge factor in a company’s success with a PIM as well. If your company isn’t practising good data hygiene and keeping quality data, even the best PIM solution will struggle to deliver results and justify its price.

When does it make sense to implement a PIM?

Every ecommerce PIM software will come with resource requirements, from a time investment to a financial one. Implementing a PIM is a big decision and not one to take lightly.

Consider the following as you weigh whether it’s time to implement an ecommerce PIM:

• Product catalogue: If you’re managing more than 1,000 SKUs or you have numerous complex products with equally complex product details, a PIM can be an organisational powerhouse. The same applies if you have a number of new products on the way.

• Manual product work: Take a close look at how much time you’re losing to manual product tasks like data entry, page updates, and so on.

• Market diversification: If you’re expanding into new markets with different languages, currencies, and/or units of measurement, a PIM can be a big benefit.

• Omnichannel efforts: Establishing an omnichannel presence and marketing effectively requires consistent product messaging. If you’re struggling with an omnichannel approach, a PIM can help streamline efforts.

• Errors: If you’re seeing a high rate of product-related errors, whether in descriptions or marketing or sales channels, consider if a PIM might help reduce these.

• Sales channels: If you have a complex sales pipeline, with numerous channels or more planned in the near future, a PIM could be a good investment.

If you can afford a PIM and any of the above applies, then you should strongly consider one. Just keep in mind the cost as you begin to look.

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Choosing a PIM

There are numerous PIM providers out there, each with varying capabilities and different target customers.

Before entering the magical realm of product organisation, ask the following to help identify which PIM is for you:

Does it integrate with your current systems?

PIM systems typically don’t work in isolation. If you’re planning on using a PIM, ensure that the solution you select can integrate seamlessly with your current systems. 

A PIM should integrate with your:

• ERP system

• Ecommerce platform

• Digital asset management (DAM)

• Warehouse management system (WMS)

• Marketplaces

• Marketing tools

With the above integrations, a PIM can successfully disseminate product information, drive marketplace page accuracy, power campaigns, and ultimately ensure you get the maximum value out of this powerful platform.

Is it built to accommodate growth?

Few people start an ecommerce business with grand dreams of stagnation. You likely want your business to grow to some degree, and a PIM needs to accommodate that.

Think five or 10 years ahead and check if the PIM vendor can reasonably scale over that period.

• Can they support multiple marketplaces?

• Thousands of SKUs?

• Does this PIM growth come with a price tag you won’t be able to afford?

Thinking about scalability and growth capabilities before selecting a solution can save you headaches down the road. 

Does it support multiple languages?

One of the most difficult challenges that face businesses working in information is multi-language support and organisation.

When choosing a PIM solution, it’s important to ensure that it supports multiple languages, and can tailor content and data accordingly. Otherwise, any of the time a PIM saves you will be spent trying to accurately localise product information.

Or worse — you simply won’t be able to reach these new markets at all.

Does it have the right general features?

While evaluating potential PIM systems, you’ll want to cover a few details with each vendor to make a complete comparison based on your needs. Start by asking:

• How has their product evolved over time, and what features and functionality do they see coming from the product roadmap? 

• How easy is the onboarding and implementation process? How long does it take? What is the time to market? 

• How does their product integrate with their partner network? Are integrations and optimisations pre-built, or will you need a developer to manage them? Are they open-source?

• Does data sync in real-time?

• Does the vendor have limitations around the number of sales channels, languages, currencies or storefronts? 

• How do they source their product information? Are they compatible with your product provider(s)? 

• If you have to tap into multiple manufacturers’ feeds, will you incur additional costs?

When in doubt, perform a general gut check and determine if they have the following baseline features:

• Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

• Data Modelling, Normalisation, and Conversion

• Advanced Merchandising and Search Tools

• Bulk Product Editing

• Advanced Pricing Rules

• Secure Data Backups

• Static Content Scheduling

• Variant Products and Bundled Products

• Multi-Language and Multi-Currency Support

• Digital Asset Management (DAM)

• Google Merchant Centre Publication

• Custom Product Readiness Status States

• Readiness State Change Events

• Easy-Build Custom Product Attributes

• Ecommerce Platform Publication

• Legacy Data Conversion

• Cross Channel Inventory Synchronisation

• Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) Integration

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration

• Shipping and Fulfilment Integration

• Product Feeds and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

• Sitemap Generation

• REST API

• Custom API Endpoints

• Third-Party Marketplace Publication

• Live Online Training Sessions

• Order Management Integration

• User Permissions and Roles Settings

• Advanced Pricing Engine

• Smart Categories

• Custom Business Objects

Popular ecommerce PIM solutions

Ruling out every PIM that doesn’t meet the aforementioned criteria still leaves numerous choices. To help you pick a PIM that sets you up for success, here are some of the most popular solutions.

Salsify.

Salsify blurs the lines between PIM and DAM. Offering a single source of truth for all things product, and the media storage capabilities you’d expect from a DAM, Salsify gives you the tools to deliver a consistent product experience across any number of channels.

Some stand out Salsify features include:

• Readiness report: A Salsify readiness report measures if your product info is ready for primetime, or needs a little more love.

• Attribute syncing: Changes to your product on BigCommerce are reflected in Salsify, and vice versa.

• Streamlined publishing: Setup automatic publishing of product content to specified channels.

If you have especially complex product data and/or multiple channels, Salsify is a great choice. With a Salsify BigCommerce integration, you can get up and running in no time, too.

Akeneo.

Akeneo is a powerful PIM solution that offers rich customisation across the board.

Some key Akeneo features include:

• Data mapping: Automatic mapping of data ensures product information stays up-to-date and correct, no matter the number of sources.

• Category customisation: Highly flexible product category support allows for advanced SEO plays, organisation of large SKU counts, and improved organisation.

• Version support: Teams can work on different versions of a product without altering the live version.

For companies looking for more customisation or rich data management, Akeneo is one to consider. As an added bonus, the Akeneo BigCommerce integration is quick to set up, allowing you to sync product categories across platforms at regular intervals.

Syndigo.

Syndigo offers PIM that's backed by master data management (MDM), powering expansive syndication of content across product channels.

Syndigo has a number of unique features, including:

• Agentic AI readiness support: Automatically convert product content into an agentic-ready format, making it easier to implement chatbots powered by agentic AI, have your content surfaced by answer engines, and more.

• Advanced reporting: Intuitive dashboards provide access to real-time reporting and rich analytics on content performance, distribution gaps, and beyond.

• Simple onboarding: The option to use a low-code or no-code interface makes it easy to quickly onboard product data.

Syndigo has a network of more than 2,000 retailers in their Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN), making them a great choice for ecommerce looking to distribute to other retailers. With the BigCommerce Syndigo integration, you can plug into this network in no time, too.

Plytix.

Plytix offers a PIM that's tailored to mid-sized businesses, with an intuitive UI that makes product management truly accessible.

Some standout Plytix features include:

• User-friendliness: Plytix makes PIM quick and easy, making it suitable for those wanting multiple teams to collaborate, regardless of technical prowess.

• Unlimited users: Plytix doesn't limit seat access, letting you give anyone and everyone access at no additional cost.

• Completion tracking: A visual tracker makes it easy to track whether a product has complete data based on custom goals.

The BigCommerce Plytix offering starts at $99/month, which makes it more affordable than the vast majority of PIM solutions on the market. If you're unsure about whether you need a PIM and want to explore it firsthand, Plytix is a great contender.

JasperX.

The JasperX PIM solution is all about herding your product data into one place.

JasperX prioritises data centralising with:

• Advanced connectors: Sync data across channels, whether it's on major ecommerce platforms or needs to be brought in via custom connectors.

• Custom market rules: Set specific rules for each market, using included templates for product pages or by designing your own.

• AI assistance: Simplify troubleshooting with support from JasperX AI, which can even provide summaries for the most recent changes to data.

For ecommerce businesses focused on data and wanting more customisation, JasperX is a compelling option. And, with the BigCommerce JasperX integration, you can begin centralising your product data even sooner.

Unbxd.

Unbxd brings PIM to the masses, with operations spanning more than 45 countries and 1,300 sites.

Unbxd brings a number of unique features to PIM:

• AI Product Builder: Upload an image and quickly generate a detailed listing, which can then be localised to fit more than 100 languages.

• Expansive toolkit: Simplify product management with tools like Find Duplicate, Bulk Transformation, and UPC Generators.

• Visual search: Users can make searches by uploading images rather than entering phrases.

Unbxd supports multiple sites and multiple users, making it especially ideal for distributed teams. With the BigCommerce Unbxd integration, you can import data from your BigCommerce site, publish across channels, and start streamlining product operations ASAP.

TruPIM.

TruPIM offers an automated, streamlined catalog management experience, especially for those on BigCommerce.

With TruPIM, you can benefit from:

• Quick access: Start using TruPIM in as little as three minutes and begin importing your BigCommerce catalogue within a handful of hours.

• Centralised content management: Edit pieces in bulk, publish across all your BigCommerce storefronts, and edit product details with ease.

• No SKU limits: TruPIM allows for limitless product growth, letting you add as many SKUs and channels as you want.

TruPIM is a solid choice for any company, but especially so if you're on BigCommerce. The BigCommerce and TruPTM cross-capabilities can have you organise your catalogue in a flash, without the hassle of jumping from one platform to the next.

Pimberly.

Pimberly goes beyond standard PIM solutions, with advanced automation and AI-driven optimisation features.

Pimberly has numerous standout features, including:

• Product lifecycles: Set completion criteria for products, making it easier to track if a product has all the right information, and that any relevant content is optimised.

• Channel controls: Automate the publishing of product content within certain channels, based on preset criteria.

• Advanced DAM: Set parameters for automatic asset tagging and perform reviews with a visual dashboard.

For those on BigCommerce, the Pimberly integration simplifies the product update process with a special connector that syncs changes across both platforms.

The final word

There’s an omnipresent nature to ecommerce that makes it capable of impressive scalability. It’s that same quality that makes it easy for things to get out of hand.

An ecommerce PIM can help you maintain control and insight over your product efforts, prevent assets from being siloed, and open the door to a more successful venture into the omnichannel world.

But a solid ecommerce PIM is only part of the equation. You need a capable ecommerce platform to match.

BigCommerce is just the platform for the job, with support for more than 130 payment providers, multi-store and region support, and of course — countless PIM integrations.

Sign up for a free demo and discover how BigCommerce can help you grow your catalogue and your business with none of the fuss.

FAQs about ecommerce PIMs