When purchasing a product online, you likely have a set of parameters in mind before you even click the “place order” button.
For example, if you’re buying a new pair of jeans, you’ll want to know what sizes are available, the length they offer, the style of jeans, the color options—the list goes on. If the product listing isn’t telling you exactly what you need, you’ll move on to another supplier.
Today’s customers demand a personalized and meaningful shopping experience, whether they’re B2B or B2C buyers. We all want the products we purchase to be presented consistently across all platforms, and we want product descriptions to include details that matter to us.
While this may seem like a big ask for ecommerce companies, there is a straightforward way to ensure your customers are satisfied every time—by having your PIM set up properly. A PIM system is the backbone of ecommerce website data, as it centralizes all critical information fields about your products. Your PIM interface informs consistent, critical fields about your products for your ecommerce website, including images, SKUs, and more.
You may have known that a PIM was the solution all along, but maybe you weren’t sure where to start. Continue reading for four best practices to set up your PIM for ecommerce success.
What is a PIM?
A PIM (product information management) is a software solution whose foundation is a robust centralized repository for inputting, storing, organizing, and modifying product content. For ecommerce websites that offer multiple products from multiple manufacturers, a PIM ensures all product data is uniformly entered and displayed for your customers.
Essentially, implementing a PIM will allow you to organize products and their attributes (e.g. size, color, material) into categories for easier findability and a cleaner user experience.
>>>Check out our PIM Dictionary to learn more about these key terms.
1. Include Consistent and Complete Product Information
One of the first things you can do to find success in your PIM setup is to ensure your product data is complete and consistent.
Research has shown 88% of buyers say product content is essential to them. They want as much insight into a given product as possible—this helps them decide whether a product is right for them.
Your PIM is going to be the holy grail of your organization in this step. It’s going to serve as the central location for product collaboration and information management across all platforms. These steps will make sure your data is complete and consistent:
- Get the right people in the right roles for PIM implementation—this includes securing full team buy-in for the data model's organizing principles, taxonomies, and attribution schema—and identifying product data experts for support.
- Structure your data so it can be used across all platforms downstream of PIM.
- Keep your data updated and current so all products are listed accurately.
- Connect your platforms to increase convenience for your customers (apps, desktop, mobile).
Incomplete or inconsistent data is one of the key drivers in the product return process. And that all traces back to the product details and description.
2. Incorporate Unique, On-Brand Touches
A big way to stand out from your competitors who offer similar products is to upgrade the quality and uniqueness of your product information. You may be thinking, “Well, how do I do that?”
It’s simple: Enhance the product experience you deliver to customers. By taking your basic product data and enriching it with branded descriptions and photos, you’re already creating a more colorful experience for them.
While your competitors may be selling the same parts or products, they don’t have the personalized tokens of your brand. These steps will make sure your data is unique and high quality:
- Implement strong emotional appeal in photos and videos when possible.
- Manage your media assets in a DAM (digital asset management) for easy access across all platforms.
- Use creative language that is tailored to your brand when putting together product descriptions.
- Include well-defined product descriptions that are personalized to your target customers.
- Provide comprehensive, accurate product specifications that can be used to filter product listings and assist in selection.
3. Enable Custom, Personalized Experiences
As we mentioned, today’s customers expect their preferred suppliers to know about their past purchases and preferences. Not only that, they expect the communications coming from your company to reflect what you should know about them.
By making your product data more custom and personalized to your customers, you can easily:
- Make purchase recommendations.
- Improve the experience of your customers no matter what platform they are using (apps, desktop, mobile).
- Target product information better based on where your customer is (e.g. at home, in the store).
- Facilitate up-selling opportunities.
What’s the best way to enable this at scale? By having plenty of organized, consistent attributes about each product in your PIM so you know which characteristics appeal to your audience. This also requires robust product relationships within PIM in addition to strong attribution. Up-selling and cross-selling are all done through product relationships (e.g. related products).
4. Create a Simple Path to Purchase
In today’s buying environment, brand loyalty is slowly vanishing. Why? It’s mainly due to consumers pouncing on the brand or store that’s offering the best deal.
To keep up, ecommerce websites need to keep things simple. The easier your brand makes the online purchase-decision journey, the higher the chances of returning customers.
- Aid navigation by creating a more efficient buying path that reduces the number of information sources consumers must touch.
- Build trust with your customers by offering all the information they require about a product in one place.
- Make it easier to weigh options by offering side-by-side comparisons or buying guides.
Of course, the root of a simple website experience is a well-curated PIM. Providing the information buyers require in a simple interface boils down to having complete product data in your PIM.
Your Ecommerce Success Starts Today
Now that you understand how a successful PIM setup can impact your ecommerce presence, it’s time to dive in. Contact us today to help improve your ecommerce website. We can help you develop your PIM system to ensure your products stand out from your competitors and keep your customers coming back for more.
