E-Commerce PIM Snapshot 2015

What is a PIM Platform and Why Should Retailers Care?

For mid-size and large retailers, Product Information Management (PIM) solutions are of immense importance to operating an efficient e-commerce enterprise.

PIM solutions are really part of the broader information (data) management software category and are best suited to those enterprises catering to both B2B and B2C audiences with multiple sales touchpoints.

Keeping track of product data with only a single website and limited sales channels can be difficult on its own, but add in consumers' real-time inventory expectations and an enterprise's ever-expanding marketing and sales initiatives (more websites and more marketplaces), and you can quickly imagine how much more complicated it can become.

Fortunately, there are numerous platforms to help Internet retailers accurately and efficiently manage their SKUs - wherever they happen to appear on the Web.

PIM platforms today are better viewed as a collection of best practices and technologies that are used to aggregate, store and distribute product information when it comes down to actually selling product (it's useful in marketing too, of course).

As an e-commerce enterprise grows, the demand for a consistently accurate warehouse of information about products grows more apparent - leveraged from call centers and in-store to third-party websites. While many of the leading e-commerce-focused companies (including Oracle, IBM, NetSuite and SAP's Hybris) offer the capabilities and functions associated with PIM platforms, below are a few innovative and interesting solutions on the market today that Internet retailer should be familiar with, and that can put any brand on the fast track to 'Net success.

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Salsify

Pimcore 

asim

inRiver 

Adam Software 

EnterWorks 

Informatica