How to Integrate PIM/DAM for Seamless E-Commerce Operations
Eleanor Hecks • July 12, 2024
Staying relevant in a highly competitive e-commerce environment requires thoughtful planning and using new technology tools to stay ahead of competitors. Product information management (PIM) and digital asset management (DAM) automate many digital shopping processes and free you up to offer relevant content and develop new products for your audience.
What Are PIM and DAM?
You’ve likely visited a site and seen updated sale prices and a list of how many items are left in inventory, experiencing PIM at work. DAM organizes and makes digital assets more accessible. If you want to pull up an instructional video and share it on social media with a shopping link, you’d likely access it through your digital management software.
While you can use each function separately, they work best in conjunction. Consider them part of your overall customer relationship management (CRM) and inventory control processes.
How to Integrate PIM/DAM Into E-Commerce
Knowing the advantages of using PIM/DAM in e-commerce doesn’t automatically translate into using them seamlessly. With growing e-commerce sales of over $6.3 trillion, any small change you can make increases your effectiveness in a crowded digital marketplace. Here are some steps to add the power of PIM/DAM to what you already do.
1. Assess Current Practices
Spend time assessing your current product information and digital assets. What tools are you using, and which works best for your needs? How are new products introduced? How are existing product details updated? If some software seems outdated, look for alternative solutions or see if there are add-ons that can expand your specificity.
Do you provide enough information on product pages for users to make an informed decision? Your loyal customers are one of your best resources for determining how well your e-commerce site currently works.
2. Improve Personalization
Today’s consumers demand personalization and content targeted to solve their pain points. Around 72% of consumers will only engage with companies who have personalized their messages. DAM is your best help in delivering a personalized customer experience. Programs tag various components and can retrieve them for segmented audiences or tracking purposes.
With Google removing third-party cookies in 2025, first-party tracking becomes more crucial. DAM options give you the data you need to customize your content and what elements get delivered to which users.
3. Choose the Right Syndication Tools
Tap into the power of PIM/DAM alongside syndication tools, such as Shoppingfeed. Getting your product in front of users helps grow your audience and revenue.
You’ll want to choose the most suitable PIM and DAM systems to integrate easily. Talk with users and company leaders about sales, marketing and e-commerce needs. Include concerns over future product development and legal regulations for your industry.
Once you have an idea of your needs, evaluate platforms to see which ones offer solutions to your pain points. Finally, make sure your choice fits within your budget. You must consider you company’s future plans and growth as well as current needs.
4. Prepare Data for Integration
Consider how people are most likely to access the data. Smartphone users account for about 70% of retail website traffic. Make sure you backup and transfer data in a format that won’t cause problems later. Databases should have the same categories.
For example, if you plan to integrate your new PIM with old data, you may find that some fields you once used are no longer available. Fix those in a copied database before incorporating information into the new system to avoid corrupt fields or skewed results.
5. Test Processes with New PIM/DAM
Once you’ve installed your PIM/DAM, test it thoroughly. Train your workers on using the new systems and what problem areas to look for. Test the system on the front and back end to ensure everything works.
Once you go live, you’ll need to conduct additional tests to ensure product descriptions look as they should, content gets delivered to syndication tools, and the user has an excellent experience on your website.
PIM/DAM Solves Future Growth Pain Points
Adopting a PIM/DAM system fixes growing pains by creating a standard template and ensuring detailed and relevant data. Users will notice more consistency across product descriptions, and the system can easily pinpoint old data so you can delete it.
Eleanor Hecks
Eleanor is the editor-in-chief at Designerly Magazine where she shares marketing and design tips to help e-commerce businesses thrive. You can find her work on numerous business publications including Due and eLearning Industry.
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