PIM development: 15% increase in sales with a centralized system

Innowise has developed a web PIM system that serves as a central repository for gathering, optimizing, and distributing product content data.

Customer

Industry

Retail, Consumer goods

Region

Client since

2022

Our client is a large EU-based clothes retailer with a wide assortment that needed to consolidate and harmonize all product content data to manage it more efficiently. Detailed information about the client cannot be disclosed under the provisions of the NDA.

Challenge

Before approaching Innowise, our client previously used a Magento-based online store to sell clothes. With new trade units comprising different properties, marketing managers found it challenging to collect, operate, and add information about goods. It took them hours to upload new information and navigate incoherent text files, multiple PDF/Excel files, videos, and millions of spreadsheets scattered throughout the company’s folders. In this way, launching every new product resulted in fragmented, often incorrect information on the website and, as a result, hampered deadlines and missed time-to-market.

To put things in order and provide automation and flexibility for product data management, our client came up with the idea of a PIM implementation compatible with the customers’ online store.

Solution

To address the customer’s challenge, we have built a full-fledged custom PIM system that consolidates product content data in one place and keeps it updated and uniform. Our team enabled the addition of product descriptions/translations, SKUs, prices, labels, supplementary content (images, videos), and other product specifications seamlessly. Ultimately, we created one central source of truth where all information is unified, eliminating the need to switch between spreadsheets and folders.

To achieve rich functionality and data consistency, we leveraged best-world PIM practices and our own expertise. Accordingly, our project team employed EAV (entity–attribute–value model) architecture to create entities of any type containing the product name, description and unique identifier (UI) with any attributes and hierarchy. Since EAV implies a heavy structure and storing information in several sources, we configured a relational database for main storage and a non-relational one (ElasticSearch) for indexing and quick access based on instant caching. To access video files, we configured cloud storage for media.

The PIM system gives managers a great deal of flexibility when choosing types and attributes for new products. Thanks to that, our client, for instance, can easily switch from selling clothes to selling iPhones, screwdrivers, or even online gardening courses without having to restructure the existing platform.

Furthermore, we ensured that default product types could be customized. Thus, our client could add new trade units as follows:

Simple. A single product is sold with fixed properties (size, weight, material, etc.) and does not have variations.
Configurable. Configurable implies many simple products that include several sizes or color options.

Virtual. Unlike visible and physical products mentioned above, a virtual one can be a service, membership, warranty, or subscription that does not require shipping or delivery.
Grouped. Purchasing them together is usually more advantageous than purchasing them separately since they share similar characteristics or have a relationship with one another.
Bundle. Shoppers have no choice but to purchase all items in a kit containing bundle products.
Downloadable. As the name suggests, customers might download software, files, ebooks, videos etc., after watching trailers or sampling.

As a big online retailer, our customer manages a lot of product information related to clothes. In this manner, every item includes such attributes as size, color, material, care instructions, shipping information, and marketing data (titles, descriptions, photos, etc.) With that in mind, Innowise has implemented the following PIM features.

Product data modeling

For adding new product content data, we developed a web-based tool that enables drag-and-drop operations without requiring any coding. This tool allows users to create entities, attributes, and relationships, as well as keep SKUs organized throughout the product lifecycle. Furthermore, it comes with pre-built templates that simplify the organization, aggregation, classification, and translation of product information.

Omnichannel publishing

Customers expect accurate, consistent information throughout their customer journeys. To ensure that data about the product is up-to-date across various sales and communication channels, we implemented omnichannel data updating. For example, if the price for a certain product changes from 30$ to 50$, marketers should update the information on the website, price sheets, and catalogs accordingly. With the PIM system, managers change prices once, and thanks to pre-built connectors to the Magento e-commerce platform, they will be accurate across all touch points.

Product data dashboards

To track analytics about customers’ goods, we tuned specific and configurable dashboards. The dashboards provide custom widgets to visually present any report about sales, highlighting relevant information, critical workflow states, and specific notifications.

Smooth integration

The PIM system is seamlessly integrated into the client’s IT landscape and ties all the product content together, making it easy for marketing specialists to access necessary information. With easy-to-use APIs, our client can search for and retrieve information in real time. Additionally, the system allows incredible connectivity with business enterprise systems (ERP, CRM, etc.) and external third-party applications. A standard API, a full-featured REST API, and a Data Hub GraphQL API provide everything needed for two-way communication with other systems. Specifically, we ensured integration with Magento since the customer employed this e-commerce platform to sell goods. If the project brings high ROI, the client plans to expand the number of external integrations significantly.

Technologies & tools

Back-end

PHP 8.0 (Laravel), NodeJS

Front-end

React, JavaScript, Magento, HTML / CSS

Databases

PostgreSQL

Qase, Postman, Swagger, TestFlight, Arduino, Thonny

Process

Innowise completed all the project stages, covering requirements elicitation, design and prototyping, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance.

We began with PIM consulting and defining the project goals, scope, and limitations as well as evaluating the solution’s main technical and business requirements. Then, based on our solid Magento experience, our team developed a custom PIM system that complies with our client’s vision and corresponds to the client’s sales strategy.

The project was managed using agile Scrum with bi-weekly sprints and daily team meetings. All the tasks were assigned via Jira, while communication was held via Google Meet.

The project is finished, and our client currently plans to integrate the PIM system with the ERP warehouse management module.

Team

Project Manager

Business Analyst

Back-End Developers

Front-End Developers

UI/UX Designer

QA Engineers

Results

As a result, Innowise launched a full-fledged PIM system that gives a clear view of all product-related information allowing to add and edit data in one place. The system allows our customer to centralize and harmonize all marketing, sales and technical product information in a simple and unambiguous manner.

The PIM system enhances sales by facilitating data-driven decision-making through the creation, editing, updating, and storage of product information.

From now on, marketing managers don’t have to spend hours searching, analyzing, and consolidating information about goods. Thanks to omnichannel publishing and Magento integration, the PIM system presents outstanding product experience across all touch points due to consistent, accurate, and up-to-date data.

Project duration

May 2022 - January 2023

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PIM development: 15% increase in sales with a centralized system

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PIM development: 15% increase in sales with a centralized system

Customer

Challenge

Solution

Technologies & tools

Process

Team

Results

Related cases

Contact us!

What happens next?

Let●s develop software together!

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