What is a PIM and when do you need one?

The ability to deliver accurate, consistent and compelling ecommerce product information can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart. As businesses grow, managing this product information across multiple sales channels can become complex and time-consuming. This is where a Product Information Management (PIM) system comes into play.

What is a PIM?

A Product Information Management (PIM) system is software designed to centralise, manage and distribute product data across multiple platforms. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, ERP exports, supplier feeds and manual updates, a PIM acts as the single source of truth for all product-related information.

PIMs store more than just stock codes and pricing. They manage rich content like product descriptions, specifications, dimensions, images, attributes and marketing copy. Once the information is in the PIM, it can be syndicated to different ecommerce platforms, online marketplaces and B2B portals.

In short, a PIM ensures that no matter where a customer encounters your product, the information is accurate, up to date and consistent.

What are the benefits of a PIM?

The decision to implement a PIM usually comes down to efficiency, scalability, and customer experience. Some of the key benefits include:

1. Centralised product data

Instead of managing product information in multiple disconnected systems or spreadsheets, a PIM consolidates everything into one platform. This reduces duplication, lowers the risk of errors and ensures teams work from the same data.

2. Consistency across channels

Customers expect consistency. Whether they find your product on Amazon, your Shopify store or a B2B portal, they should see the same product details. A PIM enforces data governance, making sure product information is accurate and consistent everywhere.

3. Improved time-to-market

Launching new products often requires collating information from suppliers, internal teams and marketing. A PIM streamlines this process so businesses can publish products faster, giving them a competitive edge.

4. Better customer experience

Rich, complete product information improves conversions. Detailed specs, quality images and accurate stock data build trust, reduce return rates and make it easier for customers to make purchasing decisions.

5. Scalability

As businesses expand into new sales channels or geographic regions, the amount of product information required multiplies. A PIM makes scaling much easier by supporting bulk updates and channel-specific formatting.

6. Operational efficiency

By reducing manual work and duplication, PIMs free up teams to focus on strategy and growth instead of chasing down data. This efficiency translates into cost savings and fewer errors downstream.

What kind of online businesses need a PIM?

Not every ecommerce business needs a PIM from day one. For small online stores with a limited number of products and a single sales channel, an ERP, ecommerce backend or even spreadsheets may suffice. But as complexity increases, so does the need for a dedicated product information management system.

Here are the situations where a PIM becomes essential:

1. Businesses with large product catalogues

If you sell a high number of SKUs, manually managing product data quickly becomes difficult. A PIM allows you to handle large volumes of data efficiently.

2. Multi-channel or omnichannel retailers

The more sales channels you operate on — such as your own ecommerce site, Amazon and B2B portals — the greater the need for centralised product management. A PIM ensures all channels are aligned and up to date.

3. Companies with complex product data

Products with detailed specifications or multiple variants (size, colour, material) are difficult to manage manually. A PIM can handle these complexities with structured attributes and relationships.

4. Businesses working with multiple suppliers

If your product data comes from various suppliers in different formats, a PIM can normalise and enrich this information, ensuring consistency before publishing it to your sales channels.

5. B2B and wholesale businesses

B2B buyers expect accurate, detailed information just as much as retail shoppers do. PIM systems help wholesalers provide structured data that meets client requirements and integrates with procurement systems.

Is Stock2Shop a PIM?

Strictly speaking, no. But Stock2Shop does have most of the functionality that makes a PIM valuable to online sellers. These include:

• Centralised product data – Stock2Shop pulls product information (SKUs, pricing, stock levels, etc.) from the ERP and stores it as a single source of truth before pushing to sales channels.
• Product enrichment – In the admin portal, users can enrich products with additional data (e.g. descriptions, categories, images, SEO text), similar to how a PIM lets you add marketing content on top of ERP data.
• Channel-specific data mapping – Stock2Shop can format and map product information differently for each connected sales channel (e.g. WooCommerce, Shopify, B2B trade store, marketplaces), which mirrors how a PIM syndicates content.
• Consistency across channels – Like a PIM, Stock2Shop ensures that once product data is updated at the source (ERP or admin portal), all connected channels reflect the change in near real-time.
• Media management – Images and other digital assets can be associated with products and synced out, covering one of the key functions of a PIM.
• Multi-supplier / multi-source capability – Although it typically treats the ERP as the master, Stock2Shop can merge data from multiple sources (ERP, supplier feeds, spreadsheets) and standardise it before publishing.
• B2B data syndication – Beyond retail ecommerce, Stock2Shop also pushes enriched product information into B2B portals, much like a PIM’s ability to distribute to wholesale and trade channels.

Get the best of both worlds - sync your vital inventory and pricing data from your ERP, then add marketing information with Stock2Shop’s PIM functionality. Get in touch to find out how you can make a success of omnichannel selling with Stock2Shop.