Glossary
PIM: our expertise
What is the PIM?
Published on March 15, 2023
In a world where product information and digital assets are real driving forces behind retail sales, it’s crucial for brands and retailers to have the right tools to optimize their management. Two of these tools, PIM (Product Information Management) and DAM (Digital Asset Management), play distinct but complementary roles. Understanding the difference between these two solutions is essential to optimize the management of digital data and resources. Because companies face major challenges: not only is the volume of data required to market a product increasing by +15% every year, but this data is often disparate, inaccurate and scattered across various systems within a company.
PIM : Product Information Management
Product Information Management (PIM) is a system designed to centralize and manage product information (marketing descriptions, images, prices, logistics). It enables companies, brands and distributors, whatever their sector of activity, to collect, enrich and distribute their data through various channels.
This market is growing rapidly and is expected to reach nearly $33 billion by 2030 (Grand View Search). The PIM provides a centralized solution for smoother, more efficient management.
A high-performing PIM offers several features:
- Data acquisition and centralization: All product information is collected and stored in one single place, making it easy to manage and update.
- Standardization and enrichment: Product data can be standardized to ensure consistency across all channels, and enriched with additional, essential information to improve its quality.
- Compliance and accuracy: Ensures that all product information is correct and compliant with current standards and legislation, which is crucial in highly regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and food.
- Distribution and channel management: PIM enables product data to be synchronized and distributed across different sales channels and internal tools, ensuring a consistent customer experience.
Advantages and benefits of PIM
Equipping a company with a PIM offers a number of advantages, especially when managing large volumes of data:
- Reducing costs linked to data errors
- Improving operational efficiency of teams
- Accelerating of time-to-market
- Securing internal processes
DAM : Digital Asset Management
Digital Asset Management (DAM) focuses on the management of digital assets such as images, videos, documents and other multimedia files. DAM enables companies to efficiently store, organize and distribute their digital resources.
By 2025, according to MarketsandMarkets, the global DAM market is expected to reach 6.0 billion USD, illustrating the growing significance of this type of solution. DAM facilitates access to digital assets, improves collaboration between teams and ensures the consistency of marketing campaigns by using approved, up-to-date assets. It is particularly useful for companies with a high volume of visual and digital content.
The main features of a DAM are:
- Centralization of digital assets: All digital files are stored in a centralized library, making them easier to access and manage, and lightening the load on internal tools.
- Organization and classification: files can be sorted and categorized according to each company’s needs.
- Traceability and collaboration: DAM makes it easier for teams to work together on projects, and track changes made to files.
- Sharing and distributing: Assets can be shared internally and externally, and distributed through a variety of marketing and sales channels.
- Rights management: A DAM helps to protect copyrights and ensure that companies comply with licensing agreements for the digital assets they use.
Advantages and benefits of DAM
A DAM offers a number of advantages for the management of digital resources. It helps to:
- Streamline collaboration between teams
- Optimize the organization of digital assets
- Facilitate internal and external distribution of assets
- Ensure brand consistency and control
PIM vs DAM: Differences and complementarity
Although they operate in similar ways, these tools meet different needs. The PIM focuses on structured product data (descriptions, technical specifications, logistics), while the DAM manages unstructured digital resources (images, videos, logos). For example, a product image can be stored in a DAM and used by a PIM to illustrate product sheets. The combined use of the two systems can offer holistic product and content management, essential for companies operating across multiple marketing and sales channels.
Why invest in a PIM or DAM?
Manual management of product data and digital assets raises a number of issues. Representing colossal volumes, data is often scattered, incomplete and of different natures. By implementing One Source of Truth, companies can eliminate human error and inconsistencies. This enables teams to save precious time and improve the customer experience. By moving from time-consuming and inefficient manual management to digitized and automated management, companies can speed up product launches and simplify information updates.
How do you choose the right PIM and DAM for your business?
Choosing between a PIM and a DAM depends on the company’s specific needs. For companies with a vast and complex product catalog, or those who exchange data digitally, a PIM is indispensable. A DAM, on the other hand, is ideal for companies requiring organized, detailed management of their large volume of digital resources. Setting up a PIM or DAM can be complex, and requires the expertise of a qualified service provider.
To choose the most suitable solution, make sure the tool addresses :
- Your data and digital asset management needs
- Your customers’ and partners’ requirements
- Regulatory requirements
- The specificities of your business sector
- La sécurité de la plateforme et la protection de vos données
Equadis PIM, THE all-in-one solution for product data management
Equadis offers a complete platform for acquiring and centralizing all product-related data. Our solution facilitates the management and enrichment of information, while optimizing its distribution to our customers’ entire ecosystem. Additionally, Equadis PIM offers an intuitive interface and customization options to meet the specific needs of each company.
What are the key differences of Equadis PIM?
- Collect all types of data manually or automatically, whatever the source, internal (ERP, PLM, DAM…) or external.
- Unique PIM Omnicanal qui permet de diffuser les donnés produits sur TOUS vos canaux (magasins physiques, marketplaces, sites e-commerce, logiciels internes, applications, réseaux sociaux…).
- Only Omnichannel PIM that enables the distribution of product data across ALL your channels (physical stores, marketplaces, e-commerce sites, in-house softwares, apps, social networks, etc.).
- Manage permanent and promotional prices, as well as price reductions and taxes (VAT, eco-packaging tax, etc.) directly on our platform.
- Correct, personalize and adapt your images to the specific needs of your customers, target markets and countries with our integrated image editor.
- Finally, all our customers are supported throughout the partnership by a CSM (Customer Success Manager) dedicated to each account.
Choosing Equadis means opting for a proven solution that maximizes the performance and profitability of your product information and digital asset management.
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