The Power of PIM in the Fashion Industry

Prasenjit Dey

Brands & Communications

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As per Statista Report, the online fashion industry is estimated to grow 11.5% from 2023 to 2027 and reach $1501.3 billion by the end of 2027 globally. This growth represents an opportunity for every sector of the industry, from high-street fashion, reputed brands to independent retailers.

In fashion industry, where trends shift rapidly and consumer demands reach new heights, maintaining a competitive edge demands more than merely keeping up with the latest styles. It necessitates precise, reliable, and engaging product information that connects with your target audience. Within this extensive exploration of PIM for fashion retail, we delve into the essence of contemporary fashion merchandising – the mastery of product information management. Let’s explore how PIM tool can revolutionize your handling of product information and enhance your fashion label within a competitive retail market.

What is a PIM?

Product Information Management or PIM is a software that helps eCommerce retailers to centralize and manage their product information across various channels and platforms. It enables brand to:

Consolidate Product data from multiple sources,
Maintain Data Accuracy
Data Hygiene
Consistency across all touchpoints
Improve Product Data Quality
Enhance Operational Activities

Thus, PIM software proves to be a great tool for eCommerce retailers. Utilizing PIM enables fashion retailers to attain greater consistency, accuracy, in product information, ultimately resulting in heightened sales and enhanced customer satisfaction.

Looking for a PIM tool? Here is ancexclusive PIM Buyer’s Guide to help you choose right!

Why Does Fashion Industry Need a PIM?

Fashion industry is dynamic as it deals with large amount of product data, information, and seasonal sales that offers demands launching of new products. Products are subject to availability in different sizes, colors, textures, materials, and styles, which means there are tons of product attributes to manage efficiently. Thus, PIM becomes the necessity tool for fashion industry.

How Implementing PIM Can Benefit Fashion Industry?

Product data plays a crucial role in the fashion industry, requiring businesses to meticulously oversee a wide range of information. This includes keeping track of sizes, variants, colors, images, videos, user-generated content, and beyond. However, managing these extensive data can be overwhelming for many online fashion businesses lacking adequate resources and expertise.

Here’s how a PIM solution, offers a remedy for the complexities of product information management in the online fashion retail:

Enriched Product Catalogs

For an online fashion business, having a well-structured product catalog is essential to showcase all items in a single location, facilitating easy discovery by customers. A streamlined catalog not only minimizes customer confusion but also guides them seamlessly through the purchasing journey. PIM streamlines the creation and upkeep of product catalogs by automating these tasks.

It empowers you to aggregate content and digital assets from top-performing channels, compare them, and enrich your customer interactions. Furthermore, PIM guarantees accurate presentation of your products across various channels, adhering to marketplace standards for content compliance.

Enhanced Product Descriptions

PIM tool offers fashion retailers to enhance their product descriptions. This helps them to create rich, informative, detailed, and accurate product descriptions. With the help of enhanced product descriptions, customers get a detailed understanding of the product they are interested in. This results in improved customer experience and drive better sales.

Improved Searchability

In online fashion business, efficient access to necessary product information is paramount. Leveraging PIM sophisticated search capabilities, retrieving any desired product information becomes a matter of a few clicks. Enhanced searchability enables you to locate products using tailored keywords or criteria, including brand name, SKU, category, and beyond. This ensures seamless access to vital information, empowering informed decision-making regarding your product portfolio.

Centralized Product Information
Online fashion businesses frequently face challenges in managing product information sourced from various channels and formats. PIM offers fashion retailers to centralize their product data in one single platform. It offers a streamlined approach to this complexity by facilitating the consolidation and gathering of product data from diverse sources, including online retailers, affiliate partners, and direct sales representatives.

Furthermore, PIM for fashion facilitates the centralization of all relevant data and digital assets, ensuring effortless retrieval and analysis. This capability empowers businesses to make well-informed decisions regarding their product strategies.

Automated Workflow

Within the fashion industry, automated workflow plays a pivotal role in enhancing precision and productivity. It fosters smooth communication among different departments, thereby enhancing overall customer service. Moreover, automated workflow ensures the currency and accuracy of product information, facilitating well-informed decisions regarding new products or marketing initiatives.

A proficient PIM incorporates an integrated collaborative workflow system that automates repetitive manual tasks and encourages seamless interdepartmental communication. This functionality operates swiftly and unobtrusively, amplifying productivity across all facets of business operations.

Better Product Images

PIM offers a functionality aimed at elevating the caliber and uniformity of product images, a vital component for fashion retailers. Top-notch product visuals are indispensable for crafting an immersive customer journey, particularly in the world of fashion retail where visual plays a crucial role in purchasing any product.

In-Built DAM

Many PIM providers have in-built DAM feature that empowers businesses to efficiently oversee, arrange, and store their digital assets, encompassing images, video links within a unified repository. This guarantees seamless accessibility and dissemination of product images and videos across various channels, all while maintaining steadfast consistency in quality and branding. BetterCommerce’s PIM do come with in-built DAM features that help retailers to store and manage their digital assets seamlessly.

Omnichannel Strategy

PIM contribute an omnichannel strategy, thus retailers can seamlessly integrate various sales and communication channels to provide customers with a unified and cohesive shopping experience. This approach acknowledges the multi-faceted ways modern consumers interact with brands, encompassing online platforms, physical stores, mobile apps, social media, and more.

Reduced Errors

Fashion industry has to deal with tons of product data like product material, variants, sizes, pricing, etc and these need to be accurate and error free. Manual data entry poses a risk of errors that can result in significant expenses. PIM mitigates this risk by automating the processes of data entry, validation, and distribution, thereby reducing human error.

Globalization

Fashion knows no boundaries. PIM in fashion retail empowers brands to tailor product information globally, guaranteeing precise translations, pricing, and compliance details for each region. In an era marked by intense competition and elevated consumer demands, leveraging PIM has transitioned from being a choice to an imperative for fashion enterprises.

From enriching customer journeys to optimizing workflows, from minimizing inaccuracies to fueling expansion, PIM's significance in the fashion sector cannot be overstated. It serves as the connective fiber intertwining creativity, and efficiency.

Different Currency and Language Support

Different currency and language support in Product Information Management systems is essential for catering to diverse markets and global audiences. PIM platforms equipped with this feature enable businesses to manage product data in multiple currencies and languages, ensuring that product information is accurately localized for each target market. This capability not only enhances the customer experience by providing information in a language and currency familiar to them but also streamlines internal processes by centralizing multilingual and multicurrency data management. Ultimately, it empowers businesses to expand their reach, increase market penetration, and drive international growth with ease.

Product Taxonomy

PIM employs Product taxonomies to organize product data in a structured manner. It is a practice of organizing or categorizing products by type to improve user navigation within your product catalog. It acts as a framework for structuring all items on your retail platform. A well-designed product taxonomy facilitates efficient navigation for users, allowing them to find their desired product with minimal effort, thus optimizing the search process.

Forrester Reports states that, ecommerce sites sell 50% less having poor taxonomy structure.

End Note

Product Information Management in the fashion industry serves as the ultimate catalyst for success in today's fast-paced market. With its ability to streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and facilitate global expansion, PIM emerges as the cornerstone of modern fashion retailing. By harnessing the power of PIM, fashion brands can unlock new levels of efficiency, creativity, and competitiveness, ensuring that they stay ahead in the competitive fashion industry.