How to simplify product management?

A representative of Akeneo from France visited Lumav to introduce Akeneo PIM and the possibilities it offers to merchants.

Akeneo PIM

Founded in 2013 in France, Akeneo provides merchants with software that helps simplify the management and enrichment of product information. The software is simple to use and easy to understand for the end user. In addition, their aim is to make PIM easy to interface with third parties, for example the structure of products and attributes is very similar to Magento.

What is PIM?

PIM is short for Product Information Management. PIM focuses entirely on improving product information and has been developed with marketers in mind. Products are the most important part of a merchant’s e-business and therefore the information about them must be accurate.

The main problem is that the product information is spread over several locations: one part of the product information is stored and enhanced in the business software, while the other part is on the computers of different parties. This can lead to a mismatch between the real information and what is displayed in the online shop: products are poorly translated or there is too little information on product characteristics. Incomplete and mismatched data affects the success of the e-shop and increases the number of returns.

PIM brings all product information together in one place and allows all parties to work with a common database. PIM is not only designed to manage the products of e-shops: the software can manage different channels and deliver information according to their needs (online shop, paper catalogue, web catalogue, mobile app).

When should you consider adopting PIM?

PIM should be considered by merchants who have:

10 000 or more products
Multiple marketing channels for products
Multilingual product information
Fast-changing assortment

Enriching product information without a central system does not give an overview of the completeness of the information, and it is more time-consuming to manage product information in Excel and in business software. Business applications and Magento are not designed for product information management. They do allow it, but PIM has been developed entirely for product management. PIM software needs to be hosted separately on a server or cloud server like Magento. This means that the load is distributed between the parties accordingly. The enhancement of product information in PIM does not affect the speed of the business software or the web, because it is separated from them.

What happens if you don’t use PIM software?

Accurate and attractive product information for the customer is one of the key elements for the success of an online shop. Accurate product information ensures that customers can find the product they want. This is often done by using a search engine to direct them to the right category, where they can then filter the results themselves. With the right product information, they can then make a purchase that meets their expectations.

Inadequate product information includes, for example:

Product information is not in the language of the customer’s choice or is partially translated (bad image for the company, the customer does not get the information they need to make a purchase).
Product information is not valued (e.g. measurements are missing, the customer does not understand from the picture whether the piece of furniture is suitable for his/her home or not, the purchase is not made).
The product does not have a picture or is of poor quality.
Product names are not structured and informative for the customer.

PIM allows an overview of the enrichment of each language and enables the trader to monitor that the basic assortment is always properly replenished. In addition, PIM allows you to define the conditions for when a product can go online in the first place. On a product group basis, it can be configured so that a product cannot go on sale if something is missing: for example, if there is no product image, no product name/description in all languages or no product dimensions. It is in the interest of merchants to highlight their core assortment, make it as attractive as possible for the customer and make it easy to find. By using PIM, it is possible to ensure the quality of the data and to control their assortment.