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Buyer's Guide: Product Information Management (PIM)
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the intuitive and user-friendly design of Plytix, making product management efficient and streamlined.
Users praise the exceptional customer support provided by Plytix, especially the dedication of account managers to client needs.
Users value the intuitive interface of Plytix Cloud PIM & DAM, enhancing accessibility and team collaboration effectively.
Users find limited flexibility in Plytix Cloud PIM & DAM, especially regarding mass processing and reporting capabilities.
Users note several feature limitations, particularly with user controls, integrations, and analytics capabilities feeling basic.
Users desire more missing features in Plytix, such as bulk category assignment and file renaming during uploads.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users love the ease of use of Pimberly, enjoying seamless data management and efficient updates across platforms.
Users value the excellent customer support from Pimberly, praising their quick and effective problem resolution.
Users appreciate the intuitive design of Pimberly, making data management straightforward and efficient for daily tasks.
Users find the learning curve challenging, as initial complexity can hinder effective platform utilization despite training resources.
Users experience slow performance with Pimberly, hindering tasks like uploading and releasing imagery efficiently.
Users find the steep learning curve challenging, especially during initial setup and when navigating advanced features.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users commend the ease of use of Sales Layer PIM, simplifying product information management across platforms.
Users appreciate the stability and scalability of Sales Layer PIM, enabling efficient management of growing product information.
Users praise the efficient asset management capabilities of Sales Layer PIM, streamlining product information across platforms.
Users note a steep learning curve due to complex navigation and the need for training in Sales Layer PIM.
Users find the missing dynamic attribute fields and focal point cropping features limit the functionality of Sales Layer PIM.
Users find the difficult learning curve of Sales Layer PIM frustrating and require comprehensive training to navigate effectively.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the exceptional customer support from 1WorldSync, appreciating the helpfulness and accessibility of their team.
Users value the ease of use of 1WorldSync, appreciating its intuitive design and helpful training resources.
Users commend the extremely helpful hotline of 1WorldSync, providing essential support throughout the integration process.
Users find the learning curve steep for 1WorldSync, making initial setup and navigation difficult for newcomers.
Users find data management issues in 1WorldSync frustrating due to manual entry and potential progress loss.
Users find 1WorldSync's interface difficult to learn, particularly newcomers struggling with error management and retailer-specific attributes.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the intuitive interface and robust features of Akeneo PIM, enhancing seamless product information management.
Users appreciate the intuitive interface of Akeneo PIM, making product information management seamless and efficient.
Users appreciate the seamless integrations of Akeneo PIM, facilitating efficient product management across multiple platforms.
Users experience data management issues with limited functionality, inconvenient asset handling, and insufficient reporting capabilities in Akeneo PIM.
Users find missing features in Akeneo PIM, particularly in workflow, reporting, and deployment capabilities.
Users find the initial setup complex and the handling of assets cumbersome, complicating efficient product management.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users find Syndigo to have an intuitive interface, simplifying imagery and content syndication greatly compared to previous platforms.
Users praise Syndigo's exceptional customer support, highlighting helpful staff and intuitive tech that enhances their experience.
Users find the helpful support team of Syndigo invaluable, enhancing their overall experience and problem-solving.
Users find data management issues in Syndigo, leading to confusion and inefficiencies in handling product information.
Users find the learning curve steep, with confusion stemming from complex standards and a cluttered user interface.
Users find the poor usability of Syndigo frustrating, particularly due to a confusing interface and navigation challenges.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Quable PIM, enabling efficient collaboration and data management for all team members.
Users value the intuitive interface of Quable PIM, facilitating easy collaboration and effective data management across departments.
Users appreciate the collaboration feature of Quable PIM, enhancing teamwork across departments for efficient project delivery.
Users find Quable PIM's limited flexibility frustrating, particularly due to export restrictions and API constraints.
Users find the poor usability of Quable PIM frustrating, especially on smaller screens and with unclear interface elements.
Users experience slow performance with Quable PIM, facing latencies and challenges with data export and integration.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Inriver, highlighted by its user-friendly interface and effective content management.
Users value the extreme flexibility of Inriver, enabling tailored data models to fit large organizational needs.
Users value the centralized product data management in Inriver, enabling extensive customization and reliable reporting.
Users find poor usability in Inriver, citing issues like narrow buttons and cumbersome save prompts as frustrating obstacles.
Users note a steep learning curve with Inriver, requiring technical expertise and leading to initial confusion.
Users find Inriver to be very expensive, especially considering additional fees and high licensing costs compared to competitors.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users commend the intuitive interface of Ergonode PIM, facilitating seamless product data management and quick onboarding.
Users value the seamless digital asset management in Ergonode PIM, ensuring proper association of images with SKUs.
Users commend the responsive and knowledgeable customer support of Ergonode PIM, assisting effectively during integrations and troubleshooting.
Users face a steep learning curve with Ergonode PIM, requiring significant effort for effective implementation and configuration.
Users note the missing features in Ergonode PIM, particularly in customization and advanced reporting capabilities.
Users find the complex setup of Ergonode PIM challenging, requiring significant technical expertise and time investment.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the ease of use in Canto, as it centralizes assets and simplifies collaboration and access.
Users appreciate the centralized asset management of Canto, simplifying access and enhancing efficiency across teams.
Users love the facial recognition feature of Canto, significantly enhancing photo search and collaboration efficiency.
Users face difficulties with search functionality, often struggling to locate specific files and needing to redo searches.
Users find missing features in Canto, such as limited intuitiveness and lack of file management options.
Users struggle with folder management complexities, finding the interface clunky and lacking visual cues for efficient navigation.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the ease of use of SCAYLE Commerce Engine, simplifying their workflows and enhancing productivity.
Users highlight the efficiency of SCAYLE Commerce Engine, enabling seamless operations and reduced maintenance efforts for growth.
Users appreciate the seamless omnichannel experience provided by SCAYLE, which enhances customer loyalty and growth opportunities.
Users feel SCAYLE lacks essential features for complex B2B needs, hindering flexibility for diverse setups.
Users find SCAYLE's limited flexibility a drawback, especially for businesses needing extensive B2B features and customization.
Users find SCAYLE has limited options for customization, lacking flexibility compared to other platforms.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users value the centralized storage for product data and imagery, enhancing integration with various retailers and marketplaces.
Users appreciate the centralized storage of product data in Salsify PXM, enhancing integration with retailers and marketplaces.
Users value the centralized product content management of Salsify PXM, enhancing consistency and speeding time-to-market across channels.
Users find it difficult to locate old images in the DAM, possibly due to lack of awareness of tagging features.
Users experience integration issues with certain retailers, leading to inconsistency and the need for manual follow-ups.
Users find it difficult to locate old images in the DAM, possibly due to unfamiliarity with tagging capabilities.
Written by G2’s researcher using verified user reviews and product data, with no personal bias.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users praise the excellent customer support from Catsy, highlighting their responsiveness and willingness to help.
Users value the ease of use of Catsy DAM & PIM, appreciating its intuitive navigation and efficient functionality.
Users benefit from Catsy’s centralized asset management, streamlining workflows and ensuring consistent product information across platforms.
Users notice a steep learning curve for advanced features, although the support team helps ease the transition.
Users find integration issues challenging, especially with complex systems, despite responsive support from the Catsy team.
Users note feature limitations in Catsy DAM & PIM, particularly in channel sync with Amazon and configuration options.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users commend the ease of use of Pattern PXM, highlighting its intuitive interface and quick learning curve.
Users value the user-friendly organization structure of Pattern PXM, which enhances project management and collaboration.
Users appreciate the well-designed visual display of Pattern PXM, which enhances organization and simplifies project management.
Users find the price of Pattern PXM high compared to competitors with similar features, impacting overall value.
Users wish for adjustable templates in Pattern PXM, enhancing customization for specific internal needs.
This description is provided by the seller.
Pros and Cons are compiled from review feedback and grouped into themes to provide an easy-to-understand summary of user reviews.
Users appreciate the ease of use of Propel, enhancing product lifecycle management and team alignment effortlessly.
Users appreciate the flexibility of Propel, enabling seamless management and adaptation throughout the product lifecycle.
Users appreciate the effective collaboration facilitated by Propel, enhancing team alignment and transparency throughout projects.
Users find the complex setup process cumbersome, requiring multiple steps and detailed configurations for simple updates.
Users find the steep learning curve challenging, requiring time and effort to fully understand Propel's advanced features.
Users find that mastering Propel's features involves a steep learning curve, requiring significant time and effort to fully understand.
The importance of PIM software may not be so evident since other solutions can be used to manage products (such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), product lifecycle management (PLM), or inventory management solutions). Therefore, buyers must understand when they need PIM systems and why.
The main reasons why a company should use PIM systems are:
Buyers also need to understand where PIM fits into their software ecosystem and how it may overlap with other solutions. In a nutshell, product data is initially created using PLM or other design solutions. The data is then transferred to ERP to create bills of materials for production and determine each product's cost and price. When product information is imported into PIM solutions, most product details are already defined and will only change when the company decides to adapt its offering to changes in demand.
From a business perspective, it is essential to understand the role PIM plays in the lifecycle of a product and its stages: design, production, sales, after sales, and end of life. While this type of software can provide companies with valuable information at any stage of a product lifecycle, it is most beneficial after the product launch and during the sales and after-sales stages.
Finally, PIM systems should not be confused with:
Companies that sell a large number of products benefit most from using PIM software. PIM can also be handy for companies that sell many variations of the same products, such as multiple colors and sizes for the apparel industry
When companies need to manage hundreds or thousands of products, it is vital for them to have a central repository that contains all product details such as name, description, price, and physical characteristics such as volume, weight, or color.
Product managers use PIM to define and track products and categories of products. PIM also helps with managing the relationships between products. For instance, some products may be sold together as kits, while similar items may replace other products.
A company’s marketing department can use PIM systems to create printed or online catalogs. Marketing departments also need product information and images to create promotional campaigns or brochures.
E-commerce managers need PIM to ensure they make the right products, with the correct characteristics, available online. PIM also helps companies update their e-commerce stores with any changes they make to their products.
Manufacturing companies use PIM to sell their products on multiple channels, such as websites, e-commerce, or online marketplaces like Amazon and eBay. Manufacturers may also use PIM to transfer product information to other systems such as ERP or PLM.
Depending on your or the company's specific needs, G2 offers a variety of options for Product Information Management (PIM) platforms for small retail businesses. Here are a few top options:
These mobile marketing tools have one of the best capabilities for retail businesses.
Based on G2 user reviews, these are some of the best customer-reviewed PIM software:
While most PIM providers offer proprietary software, some vendors choose to build their solutions on an open-source model. Open-source vendors usually provide a community edition that is free to use and can be a good starting point for companies that may not want to invest significantly in this type of software. The drawbacks of community editions of PIM are that buyers need to manage the implementation and maintenance on their own and the solution is sometimes delivered on-premises, which means that it needs to be downloaded and installed on a server managed by the customer.
From a functional perspective, some vendors focus on PIM only, while others offer related modules or solutions such as digital asset management. There are also business intelligence (BI) and data management vendors who adapt their solutions to compete with PIM providers.
The following features are must-haves for an effective PIM:
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For buyers with more complex needs, the following features may be hugely beneficial when used in conjunction with the features described above:
PIM software can be complicated and challenging to maintain, especially when the system is installed on-premises, and the buyer is responsible for the IT infrastructure needed to run the solution. Even cloud-hosted PIM software may be challenging when it is delivered as a mix of separate solutions that are not tightly integrated.
Integration with other solutions, such as ERP or e-commerce software, is critical for companies using PIM systems. How product information is transferred between PIM systems and other software can significantly impact sales and revenue. The ideal data migration should be completely automated; this is not always the case, which can cause errors. For instance, if pricing information is inaccurate, companies may lose money.