A PIM Centralizes Vital Product Information for a Complete Picture of What's for Sale

There’s so much more to selling a widget than the widget itself.

There are 9,998 taxing jurisdictions just in the United States, product safety regulations for every state and country, contract-specific pricing for many customers, shipping logistics and costing for every ecommerce sale, inventory availabilities that might be changing by the minute, supplier information like SKUs and allowable configurations.

And that’s all on top of the product information staples like product details, descriptions and pricing. It’s more information than one person could ever remember -- even before it’s replicated for potentially tens of thousands of products.

A PIM centralizes vital product information in one electronic location to provide a complete, real-time picture of what’s for sale and everything that goes with it.

That’s where a Product Information Management System comes in. Also called Product Data Management Systems, Product Resource Management Systems, and Product Lifecycle Management Systems, a PIM centralizes vital product information in one electronic location to provide a complete, real-time picture of what’s for sale and everything that goes along with it.

Product Information Management systems are the repository for product details like category, subcategory, and a product identification number such as a SKU, plus product description and pricing. PIMs can also include information on inventory, shipping and handling, suppliers, and taxation. Advanced PIMs can also account for product configurations, related items, and kits and bundling for cross-sales and up-sales.

The most advanced PIM can be configured to store almost any information a business wants to keep. That way businesses can manage product information that becomes newly or additionally important or relevant – the PIM can evolve as business evolves.

There’s so much more than the widget itself, and a Product Information Management System keeps all of it together.

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