5 min read

Product information management (PIM) solutions 2024: trends and innovations to look out for

Digest

eCommerce

Trends

Managing a successful business is all about staying on top of your data. Keeping every product and service listing updated and relevant is the key to customer satisfaction, high retention, and continuous business growth.

But as the company grows, it becomes increasingly harder to keep tabs on everything. That is where product information management solutions come into play. With effective data management, companies can benefit from streamlined data management and removed friction in everyday operations at any scale.

What is product information management software?

First of all, it is important to define the notion of PIM software, so we can better understand the features it offers. PIM stands for product information management and is a system that allows businesses to aggregate, organize, and edit information on products and services. A PIM system makes accessing and managing product information effortless, allowing organizations to streamline their everyday operations and efficiently achieve business goals.

PIM software pulls the data from upstream systems and keeps it consistent across the entire organization, facilitating easy product information updates. This way, the employees can easily track product information across the supply chain, and the customers can benefit from an informed shopping experience.

In an era of heightened customer expectations, PIM software plays a pivotal role in maintaining uniformity and precision in product descriptions and specifications across websites, applications, and social media. Its adoption is driven by the need for efficiency and accuracy, enabling businesses to provide customers with dependable and precise information.

Product information management software trends

As technology continues to advance, product information management becomes increasingly important for organizations to stay competitive. The reports reflect the rising demand from the companies, projecting the product information management market to grow from $12,2 billion in 2022 to $23,8 billion by 2027 at a compound annual growth rate of 14,3%.

In 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak served as a major boost to PIM adoption rates among businesses. Due to the restricted physical interactions imposed in many countries, a completely digitalized product information management system allowed businesses to continue operations amid the global pandemic.

Having embraced the digital transformation of product and service management, organizations are aiming to sync the shopping experience across several channels, which requires a centralized data processing solution. Therefore, the demand for software such as product information management systems continues to grow.

Meeting the demand from businesses, eCommerce software development companies further polish their PIM offerings, building more features related to data management and improving the ways their software integrates with other apps and systems a business might have.

Here’s a breakdown of what technological trends shape the PIM software now.

Enhanced product experience management (PXM)

Since technology has entered our everyday lives, we regularly use vast volumes of data that inform our purchasing decisions. Finding a suitable product or service has never been easier with online stores, social media pages, and marketplaces. Shoppers look for reviews and product user experiences and meticulously compare the products to choose the best one. As a result, customers are now expecting businesses to match their data-oriented shopping with better-targeted products and personalized experiences.

Here’s where product experience management comes into play. Called PXM for short, it is a part of the PIM software system that uses data collected by organizations to drive sales with powerful decision-making. From product or service recommendations to targeted online content, PXM helps organizations build long-lasting relationships with their customers.

Product experience management allows businesses to provide the right product or service to the right consumers and educate them on benefits and use cases. The content informs purchasing decisions, improves customer retention, and goes a long way in building trust in the brand.

PXM is a perfect answer to the rising demand for proactive and personalized service from businesses. Paired with product information managing software, the PXM system can create a clear and complete product picture by aggregating all information into a single concept story that drives consumer engagement and increases sales.

Growing demand for AI in PIM systems

With AI becoming ever more affordable and accessible to businesses of all sizes, they are looking into ways to have the technology take charge of data analysis. AI is best at sorting through large volumes of information and extracting meaningful insights so companies can benefit from more efficient decision-making.

Customer behavior monitoring. AI can study customer behavior, including their search queries, patterns, the time they spend on particular pages, etc. It can then use that information to assess how easy it was for them to find the desired info on the product or service and offer ways to improve product discoverability. On top of that, segmented data on different customer groups allows PIM software to target them independently with unique offers, further personalizing the experience and raising brand trust.
Product content generation. Natural language models are also beneficial for the PIM system, as they can streamline product content generation. Automatically creating product descriptions and filling out their specifications helps businesses save time on manual info processing and ensure the descriptions are consistent across multiple channels.

Artificial intelligence automates routine tasks and gathers data that aids in strategic decision-making, which is why more and more businesses seek out PIM consulting services to implement AI features into their PIM software.

Get a hold of your product data to empower your business.

Product information management software streamlines sales across multiple channels.

Accelerated adoption of cloud-based PIM software

Implementing a software solution to optimize business processes is just a part of a digital transformation journey. As time passes, an organization may require scaling the solution to cover the expanding operations. In case the company has an on-premises solution for data storage, this may result in further investment in hardware and software.

On the other hand, cloud-based solutions are much more flexible in that regard. With the data stored and managed on the remote server, companies can save resources on managing the hardware infrastructure and quickly scale the operation up to match their business expansion.

Cloud also allows for streamlined access to the information, meaning the employees can edit the information or add new product entries from a variety of devices like company-issued smartphones or tablets.

Cloud solutions are also more secure. Experienced cloud engineers comply with specific security regulations and maintain the cloud, patch vulnerabilities, and update the infrastructure to keep up with new malware and other threats.

Cloud-based PIM solutions allow businesses to move faster, keep their product or service catalog up-to-date, and support operations of any scale. As the demand for efficient digital transformation approaches continues to rise, organizations will be looking into cloud-based PIM software as a feasible option.

Improved data visualization and product data analytics

When embarking on the journey of becoming data-driven, just collecting the data isn’t enough. It’s not just the data but insights extracted from it that inform efficient decision-making, and many businesses have already recognized that.

Data visualization and advanced analytics help companies make sense of vast volumes of information collected through various sources. The technology can extract valuable insights that empower organizations to reduce operational costs, improve customer satisfaction, adjust marketing campaigns, and do much more to stay competitive in their respective industries.

As time moves on, more and more companies are relying on data visualization and analytics to identify trends, analyze their actions, find growth opportunities, and make smart and timely decisions.

Streamlined integration of IoT into PIM solutions

The integration of PIM with IoT brings several benefits to organizations. IoT devices gather the data from the surrounding areas in real time, whether those are the warehouses or store locations, and feed it to the product information management system. For example, businesses can use the data from smart shelves to get a clear picture of what products customers prefer and tweak their offerings.

Connected technology also enhances maintenance routines. IoT-enabled products can transmit performance data, allowing businesses to address maintenance needs proactively: IoT sensors can track the performance of a product and send that information to the manufacturer so that they can address production flaws. This seamless interaction enhances customer trust and satisfaction.

Moreover, IoT integration aids in creating a more dynamic and interactive product catalog. Products can use IoT-powered hardware to communicate their features, usage statistics, and even user reviews directly to the PIM system. This level of interactivity transforms static product catalogs into dynamic, engaging, and informative resources for customers.

Bottom line

Striving to offer a unique and enriching customer experience, organizations adopt intelligent technology to aid them in their business operations. When just selling products isn’t enough and a personalized customer journey is the name of the game, PIN solutions help companies delve deeper into understanding consumer needs and preferences and offer products that resonate with them the most.

PIM offers a significantly enhanced shopping experience for customers. Now, they can benefit from a more engaged and informed purchasing journey with product information tailored to their specific needs. The advanced technology goes past presenting cookie-cutter descriptions and informs decisions with immersive images, videos, and user-generated content.

On top of that, PIM technology facilitates the adoption of advanced product recommendation systems that are powered by vast amounts of data. The system analyzes historical data, both internal and extracted from customer interactions, and suggests products that are relevant to a particular consumer. Product suggestions enable a focused and personalized shopping experience, which is highly valued by customers.

The double-sided benefit – from enriching organization operations with valuable data to providing the consumers with an experience that reflects their preferences – is the main driving factor of PIM innovation. As technology continues to get better, it will surely redefine the standards of customer experience and business operations in the retail and eCommerce sectors.

Dmitry Nazarevich CTO

Date: Jan 22, 2024

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