Are you looking to procure product information management (PIM) software this year?

With shrinking budgets, larger buying committees, and more competing digital priorities than ever, many e-commerce teams are finding it difficult to obtain budget approval for critical components of their e-commerce tech stack. According to Gartner, the typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves 6 to 10 decision-makers.

To get the green light to buy and implement a product information management (PIM) solution, you must ensure your review committee has all of the information they need to make a fast and confident purchase decision. 

Build a Business Case for Product Information Management 

To ensure timely approval, your PIM project proposal should include:

Your Challenge - Introduce the problem you are trying to solve. Remember that purchasing committees tend to be made up of money-minded individuals. If you want to catch their attention, focus on numbers. How much are returns due to inaccurate or incomplete product information costing you each month? How much productivity are you losing to error-prone spreadsheets? What was the cost of your last product launch cycle delay?

The Ideal Solution - Once you have their attention you can pitch the ideal solution - in this case, product information management software. Outline the benefits of deploying a PIM solution in the context of your current challenge(s). How will a PIM solution help solve current problems? What is the opportunity cost if you don’t select and implement a PIM within a reasonable timeframe?

Your Preferred Provider - Do your due diligence ahead of submitting your project proposal. To increase the likelihood of approval include a preferred vendor or, at minimum, a shortlist of vendors that you’ve already determined can successfully meet your requirements. Again, think numbers. Focus less on the features and functionality of the solution and more on the value the specified vendor(s) can bring to the business. 

Identify the Right Product Information Management Partner 

If you’re looking for a standout product information management provider, we strongly recommend inRiver. Here’s why:

inRiver Powers Omnichannel Commerce 

When modern consumers interact with your brand or company, they’re often engaging across different channels. This can mean switching from their desktop to mobile or jumping from your brand website to your product listing on Amazon. Unfortunately, many companies struggle to efficiently deliver consistent and up-to-date product information to both internal and external channels. 

Replacing your complex spreadsheets or other outdated product information management system with inRiver allows you to easily update product information in one place and dynamically push the changes to all of your channels in real-time. This ensures your customers always see accurate product information regardless of where they engage and increases the likelihood that they’ll have the information they need to make a fast and confident purchase decision. 

inRiver easily integrates with the other e-commerce solutions in your tech stack. This streamlines workflows and optimizes data models so your team can quickly update product information across your website and syndicate content to third parties like Amazon within one intuitive interface. 

Learn more about how inRiver helps brands including Ethan Allen drive omnichannel commerce here.

inRiver Drives Order Volume 

Large or complex product catalogs can be difficult to maintain without a product information management system in place. But when you add special orders to the mix, it is near impossible. Giving customers the power to swap in different colors or fabrics when placing an order can pose huge inventory management challenges for companies leveraging manual processes. inRiver helps retailers streamline product information management and ensure their customers are always selecting in-stock components for their custom orders.

Again, inRiver PIM integrates with your existing e-commerce tech stack including Microsoft Dynamix ERP and Episerver/Optimizely Digital Experience Cloud, creating a much more consumer-friendly special-order process with an uncomplicated back-end. Read the full story of how inRiver helped Living Spaces optimize its custom order process to increase order volume by 20% here.

inRiver Speeds Time to Market 

If you have a lot of product SKUs, managing spreadsheets and image file repositories can quickly become a headache. inRiver PIM allows you to completely automate your product information workflow, from the set-up in your ERP system to producing content live on your website. 

Because product information only needs to be created once and updates are pushed throughout omnichannel operations in real-time, you can reduce resource requirements and free up staff to focus on adding value for your customers and partners. Learn how inRiver set its customer Office Depot up for success here.

Do you need help building your business case for Product Information Management? Download The E-commerce Leader’s All-Inclusive Guide to Product Information Management.