IRCE Session: Conquer the Pain Points and Capture the ROI of Product Information Management Systems
This IRCE session is Conquer the Pain Points and Capture the ROI of Product Information Management Systems, presented by Cynthia Rodgers Maignan, Director, E-Commerce Content Strategy, Management - Office Depot and Ryan Lee, Manager, Technology - Gorjana Griffin. Companies that aren't using a product information management system will waste a combined $2.1 billion. Much of this comes from products that are sitting in warehouses but aren't listed for sale.
Some of the pain points with product data and product information management:
- Data from multiple sources
- Excel spreadsheets
- Inconsistent and poor data quality
- Erroneous and out-dated information
- No data validation
- Manual processes and lack of workflows
- Legacy systems
- Unclear roles/multiple users - everyone has access to the system and can edit, etc.
- Merchants and vendors are using different systems
30% of item data in catalogs used by retailers for reordering stock is in error - each of these errors cost $60-$80 to address.
Product information management leads to a better customer experience - bad product data leads to a bad user experience.
Some of the benefits of PIM:
- Centralizes and streamlines all product data and syncs with multiple systems
- Manages data validation to improve data quality
- Ensures data accuracy
- Enhanced product descriptions
- Improved use of data to drive web functionality
- Improves search and comparison shopping experience on your site
How to identify your right PIM system:
- Know your specific product information management pain points - there is no one size fits all PIM system
- Do your homework to narrow down resources
- Obtain an RFI/RFP from top 3 to 5 resources
- Acknowledge a PIM implementation is organizational change - get everyone on board and gather the resources you need
Product data is an asset. Data + PIM = revenue. Organizing product data can increase sales, margins & customer loyalty.
Improved product data through product information management provides a competitive advantage by enabling rich content on your site.
Small-and-medium businesses can use product information management systems - there are PIMs targeting Magento Community Edition such as ClaraStream and Akeneo.
The templates built into a PIM help ensure even small retailers can make sure their data is loaded accurately, correctly and quickly.