Should you deploy PIM before or after your e-commerce project?

Needless to say, the PIM (Product Information Manager) is the essential product repository management tool for all brands and chains wishing to develop their e-commerce business seamlessly. In France, in 2017, they represented over 200,000 companies of all sizes.

For these companies that are launching into multi-channel commerce, PIM remains for some an unknown tool, and for others, a non-priority investment given the strong involvement of their resources in their e-commerce project. They try to convince themselves that as far as their product information is concerned, they will do very well with their current enrichment processes, often based on Excel files when they are not in-house tools, and they are convinced that their organization will be able to adapt perfectly to the changes in their ecosystem.

But in a logic of ever-increasing development, companies want to market more and more products, product models, in more and more channels and markets internationally.

Will their organisation still be adequate to support their acceleration?

The answer is obviously no.

Let's take the example of one of our customers, a well-known fashion company. The starting point was that the brand had an ERP and wanted to launch e-commerce with Demandware (now Salesforce Commerce Cloud), and then to activate new channels and feed the company's other applications: Neteven (distribution to La Redoute and Google shopping), Splio, SoCloz, and Olapic. Very quickly and in order to support these ambitions, the workflow in place at the time between creation, content enrichment, photo shooting and translations did not allow for an efficient Time-to-Market. In addition, having to manage this product information within the back office of the e-commerce platform proved to be restrictive. The decision to implement a PIM was taken quite naturally in order to relieve the entire marketing team and to ensure better quality and better distribution of their product offer.

In particular, the PIM has made exchanges between teams more fluid and improved collaboration between the various contributors. The process of enriching and putting products online has also been reduced from 7 days to less than 24 hours.

You will have understood: from the outset, control of the product repository is essential. And the PIM not only allows you to benefit from a single space to manage your product information, but also to lay the foundations for the company's future acceleration.

For Quable, the PIM must be an evolving tool that adapts to each type of company, from the SME to the multinational, and their business needs in order to better serve their business ambitions.

Convinced? Don't wait any longer, ask for your demo!