What is a PIM for Ecommerce? Definition and Best Software Picks

You’re excited. You’ve just announced to the team that your business is ready to launch an international expansion strategy next year. Of course, the localization and currencies problem is just a minor one…

“We’ll just set up another store, and we’re set,” one of your ecommerce managers says.

Then, a product manager speaks up: “How on earth are we going to manage two or three times the product information and coordinate everything without third-party logistics?”

Maybe you’ve already crossed that line.

You knew managing the product information manually would be a nightmare, so you decided to set up an automated system to do it. You launched internationally, but it’s been a year since implementation, and now it’s hitting the fan. 

Whether that situation describes where you’re at or merely hints at some of the looming challenges, now is the time to evaluate how you’re handling and implementing product information management.

You’re not alone.

What is a product information management (PIM) system?

A product information management (PIM) system manages, organizes, and distributes product data to market and sell across various channels. It takes all product data from every distribution channel and centralizes it into one place.

You and your team can edit and manage all of your product information at once from the PIM system’s interface (e.g., item numbers, references, catalogs, SKU data, images and videos, translations, localizations, documentation, etc.).

Your PIM solution could provide consistent product information to all sorts of stakeholders, from internal business operations through to suppliers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and customers. Many companies consider a PIM system when they have thousands of products to manage, but even stores with a limited number of products may invest in one. 

As businesses increasingly pursue unified commerce strategies, in which sales channels, operations, and customer experiences are centralized and seamless, PIM systems play a big role. They act as the single source of truth for product information across all channels, whether that's ecommerce storefronts, physical retail locations, B2B portals, or marketplaces. 

This unified product data foundation helps ensure that customers experience consistent, accurate product information regardless of how they interact with your brand. For example, a customer researching a product online should see the same specifications, descriptions, and rich content that a sales associate can access in-store through their point-of-sale system.

Benefits of implementing a PIM solution

Centralized product data

Instead of having product information scattered across spreadsheets, databases, and different systems, a PIM connects to your commerce operating system and centralizes everything.

Product descriptions, prices, images, technical specs, and marketing materials all live in one system. This makes it much easier for teams to find and update product information, especially when you're handling thousands of products. This helps you optimize your commerce operations and improve time to market because your data is easy to use and always updated.

Improved data accuracy

Product data can be plagued with mistakes. A PIM system helps catch and prevent these errors by having one master version of each product's information. When you update information in your PIM, it updates everywhere the product appears, reducing the chance of outdated or incorrect information reaching customers.

Make data available across channels

Whether you're selling through your website, physical stores, or B2B channels, a PIM guarantees all these channels get the right product information. This is helpful when expanding into new markets or adding new sales channels, because you don't have to recreate product information for each one. The PIM can automatically adjust measurements, currencies, and languages for different markets.

Better automation

A PIM helps streamline how your business grows by automating many manual tasks. For example, when you need to launch products in a new market, the PIM can automatically adjust product catalogs for that region without requiring manual updates.

It can also automatically format your product content for different sales channels. This means your team spends less time copying and pasting information and more time on important tasks like improving product descriptions or developing marketing materials.

Improved customer service

When customer service teams can access accurate product details, they can help customers better. 

They can quickly find answers about product specifications, compatibility, or availability without having to check multiple systems. This leads to faster, more accurate responses to customer questions and fewer returns resulting from product information mismatches.

Important PIM features

When you’re choosing a PIM for your business, there are a few things you need to look out for to make sure it works for you. 

Any PIM system worth investing in should have at least some (if not all) of these features: 

• Manual and automatic product information collection
• Ability to handle multiple SKUs
• Customizable fields for item information: product descriptions, product attributes, sizes, etc.
• Ability to manage substitutions, replacement parts, and accessories
• Workflow automation
• Content and marketing material management for each product
• Integration with your CMS, IMS, ERP, 3PL provider, and other parts of the ecommerce ecosystem
• Customizable workflows for different departments and parts of the supply chain

Essentially, if you’ve got a large product range and/or a complex range of different product types, making use of a PIM is definitely a good idea. It'll save you a lot of manual data entry and save you from getting confused between different SKUs when things get busy.

Best PIM software

Jasper PIM

Jasper PIM centralizes all the important information you need about your products into one powerful system. On the customer-facing side, it stores pictures, video, and marketing materials about each product, and behind the scenes it stores supplier, inventory, and category data.

As a Shopify app, Jasper integrates nicely into the platform and offers an enriched experience for Shopify stores, like enhanced search capability and automatic product syndication to your store.

With Jasper, you can:

• Serve the same products through multiple brands and storefronts in different languages
• Syndicate products automatically to ecommerce platforms
• Schedule product content updates and promo pricing
• Organize your products along with rich media content

Price: From $99/month.(at time of publishing)

Akeneo

Akeneo is an extensive product information management system that promises to organize and enrich your entire product catalog. It’s designed to cover a range of different business needs and strategies from direct to consumer, click and collect, or ship from store.

Akeneo is an open-source SaaS PIM, which means there’s a range of pricing options to suit your scale, including a free option that requires some technical know-how and manual on-site installation. Alternatively, you could subscribe to a managed cloud version of the software.

Akeneo’s free PIM system includes the key features you’d expect, while the paid growth and enterprise editions include:

• Cloud hosting
• Automation and governance
• Data quality enrichment
• Localized translations and measurements for different locations
• Supplier management tools

Price: Free to install on-site yourself, or from $25,000/year for managed subscription. (at time of publishing)

Plytix

Plytix is designed with team collaboration in mind, so everyone can access the right product information at the right time. From supply to logistics to sales and marketing, nobody will be confused about the status and specs of a product when they’re using Plytix.

The Plytix team is proud of their UX and design. The software is nicer to look at and easier to use than most of the competition—something you don’t always see in back-end ecommerce business systems.

Plytix’s main features include:

• Unlimited users
• Filters and powerful search
• Digital asset management
• API for custom integrations
• Flexible variation handling

Price: Free plan available; $330/month for Standard; $1,200/month for Pro. (at time of publishing)

Sales Layer

Sales Layer is a cloud-based product information management system for product marketers. It’s a particularly user-friendly PIM platform that promises to enhance the customer experience by serving accurate content and data.

Sales Layer’s PIM has a notable focus on analytics: you can use it to analyze product information quality to ensure your catalog doesn’t have missing or incorrect data. This can be super useful for complex product ranges.

Features include:

• Real-time data updates
• Catalog status reports
• Digital asset management
• Workflow design and management

Price: Custom price available on request.

Catsy

Catsy is a user-friendly product information management platform that excels at helping you build catalogs. Its deeply customizable database functions can be used to make flyers, pricebooks, spec sheets, catalogs, and more. Its import wizards make it particularly easy to add new products and content without unnecessary manual entry.

It’s aimed more at brick-and-mortar stores and mail-order operations rather than ecommerce, but it’s still worth a look if you have lots of products that need organizing in a single place. Features include:

• Automated catalog building
• Predesigned templates
• Catalog style customization
• Ability to feed data to a wide range of marketing materials
• Many formats and data types supported
• Great customer support

Price: Custom price available on request.

Salsify

Salsify is a PIM that supplies product data to the entire “digital shelf”—the various touchpoints that consumers encounter on their way to a purchase.

Salsify brands its PIM system as ProductXM—product experience management—since the data it serves is so important to the end customer experience. As one of the more extensive options, it’s aimed at larger brand manufacturers, retailers, and distributors.

Features include:

• Enhanced content generation with custom templates
• Streamlined data import
• Automated data management workflows
• Maintenance of standards for data quality throughout the system
• Secure, SaaS-based architecture with regular updates

Price: Custom price available on request.

How to evaluate a PIM system 

When choosing the right PIM system, consider things like:

• How easy the onboarding and PIM implementation process is: Your team will need training and support to get the system running effectively. Look for vendors that provide clear implementation timelines, migration support, and training resources for your team.
• How the PIM integrates with partner networks: Your PIM should connect smoothly with your existing systems like your ecommerce platform, inventory management, and marketing tools. Check if the vendor offers prebuilt connectors for your essential systems to avoid costly custom development.
• Whether data syncs in real time: Changes in your product information should appear quickly across all of your sales channels and systems. Make sure the PIM can handle your expected volume of product updates and has clear processes for managing sync failures.
• Whether the vendor has limitations: Some vendors restrict how many products you can manage or how many sales and marketing channels you can connect to. Check that these limits align with your current needs and future growth plans.
• How the vendor sources product information. The system should make importing data from your suppliers and manufacturers in various formats easy. Look for features that help validate and standardize incoming product information to maintain data quality.

What is the difference between PIM, DAM, and CRM?

The difference between a PIM, a digital asset management (DAM) system, and a customer relationship management (CRM) system lies in the data they manage. 

CRMs manage customer information. This means they contain and organize all the data you gather about customers—from their beginnings as a lead, all the way through your funnel to making a purchase and becoming loyal repeat buyers. The purpose of a CRM is to understand and strengthen relationships with people who buy from you and are considering buying from you.

PIMs deal with product information. A PIM is designed to store and manage everything about the products themselves, in an extensive, connected database. It’ll contain the technical specs of a product, its category information, content and metadata about the product, and other related data variants. 

DAMs handle digital assets. These systems are designed to store, organize, and distribute digital content like images, videos, documents, and other media files. A DAM is a centralized library for all digital assets, complete with metadata, usage rights, and version control. It helps teams efficiently manage and deploy digital content across various channels and platforms.

All three systems can work together seamlessly as subsets of MDM—master data management—which refers to the organization of all the data throughout a business. For example, a PIM might pull product images from the DAM while sending product specifications to an ecommerce site, and the CRM can access both systems to provide sales teams with comprehensive product information and assets when working with customers.

The overall intention of this ecosystem is to maintain separate but interconnected sources of truth: the CRM for customer data, the PIM for product specifications, and the DAM for digital assets. Together, they provide an efficient system for managing a business and delivering the right product information and assets to customers through the right channels.

Is Shopify a PIM system? 

Shopify is not a PIM system itself, although it does integrate well with PIMs. 

Shopify is a platform and set of tools that enable you to run a thriving ecommerce store. However, it doesn't act as a central repository for your entire product range. Instead, if you use a PIM, Shopify can bring its data to your storefront.

Shopify isn’t really designed as a content management solution, so if your omnichannel approach requires lots of different photos, videos, or metadata to be pushed out through various distribution channels, a PIM is something you should look at investing in.

If you're a Shopify customer and you think you’d benefit from using a PIM, we’d recommend trying out some of the systems listed above. 

PIM as a business performance driver

Most people see PIM as a tool to minimize expenses —and with the incredible amount of cost savings that come with information precision, that’s not an unreasonable point of view.

But a PIM reaches its full potential when it’s used not just as a supply chain function, but as an asset to drive business performance.

The benefits of a PIM include expanding into markets and spaces your business couldn’t access before, and getting products to market faster—four times faster, on average. It can also enable sales by providing the entire team, and other parties, with easy access to documents and publishing, or help your marketing team by automating digital marketing and social campaigns.