Product Information Management: A Glossary Of Terms
Know your PIM from your DXP? When it comes to product information management, it helps to speak the language.
Product information management provides a fast-moving, constantly evolving working environment. On one hand, keeping up with the latest developments, techniques and strategies keeps us engaged, inspired and always thinking on our feet. On the other, it can be a challenge to keep pace with the ever-expanding vernacular. Welcome to a short crash course in the language of PIM…
Product Information Management (PIM)
Product Information Management is the art (and science) of successfully controlling an array of product content across a range of distribution channels. With B2B and B2C businesses selling across an ever-expanding range of channels, careful control and management of the content required to market and sell products is essential.
Digital Asset Management (DAM)
A close cousin of product information management, digital asset management (DAM) is the process of systematically storing, sharing and controlling digital assets. Good digital asset management provides the owners of digital assets (such as image or video files) with easy access to and control of the files they need to perform associated tasks.
Product Content Syndication
Product content syndication is the process that enables a wide range of product information to be distributed across multiple distribution channels, adapting to meet the various requirements that each of these channels may have with regard to the intake and display of data.
Product Content Journey
Product content journey refers to the path that information relating to a particular product moves through the retail ecosystem. Originating with the brand, product content is then disseminated through a network of distributors and retailers. Depending on the effectiveness of the product content journey, product content quality can quickly erode, with gaps being created as information passes between organizations.
Product Information
Product information can refer to any data, detail or description that relates to a particular product. Within the world of retail, product information is used to help customers make informed purchasing decisions, and so accuracy is of the utmost importance.
Digital Assets
Digital assets, sometimes referred to as digital content, are any files that can be consumed on a digital device. With relation to retail, these might include image files, video files, downloadable instructions or various kinds of user generated content.
Enhanced Content
Enhanced content is product information that goes above and beyond the requirements of basic data. Enhanced content aims to provide the customer with a comprehensive and exhaustive view of the product they are purchasing, helping them to make an informed decision and answering any questions that they may have without needing to resort to customer support.
Brand Control
Brand control is the practice of ensuring that your brand shows up consistently and correctly across all channels. Keeping a good level of brand control helps to maintain a clear position that your audience can grow to recognize and relate to. Control of brand assets and information is a vital part of this process.
PIM Workflow Management
In the context of PIM, workflow management is the way that a product passes through the various processes it might undergo as it is positioned for sale on any number of channels – for example, product information being updated, a new product being onboarded, or an obsolete product being removed from a system.
Marketplace Commerce
Marketplace commerce refers to a digital property which offers a range of products from multiple sellers. An example of this might be Amazon, Etsy or eBay. Marketplace commerce facilitates the interaction of three parties: the buyer, the seller and the administrator.
Product Experience Management
Product experience management is the process by which brands ensure they’re controlling the impression their products make on customers, via the careful control and curation of product information and digital assets. With the rise of omnichannel retail, product experience management has become increasingly important.
Content Quality Intelligence
Content quality intelligence allows brands, distributors and retailers to assess the quality of the product content that they have distributed across channels. By attributing a content quality score to each product, on each channel, it’s possible to identify missed opportunities and avoid gaps in optimized product experience.
Digital Showroom
Also known as the digital shelf, the digital showroom refers to the collection of individual digital interactions that a customer may have with a product on their pathway to purchase. The digital showroom does not refer to any one digital representation of a product, but rather to the overall impression that a customer may form from a wide range of touchpoints over time.
Digital Content Experience Platform
A Digital Content Experience Platform provides software that enables the collection, curation and distribution of digital content (product information and digital assets) to a range of channels, with the goal of providing a better customer experience, and by extension, conversion outcomes. The Effectus Content Platform is an example of a leading digital content experience platform, providing brands, retailers and distributors with a valuable, intuitive and AI-backed resource to enhance their commerce strategies.
Sales Channels
Sales channels refer to any platform – online or offline – through which a product or service can be purchased. Sales channels might include owned digital properties such as an ecommerce website, or distribution via digital marketplaces or retailers. Sales channels are constantly evolving – social media platforms which enable commercial functionality are an increasingly popular form, and the Internet of Things opens up a lot of future possibilities.
Omnichannel
Omnichannel is a retail strategy in which the experience of the individual customer across multiple channels is taken into account and accommodated. While a multichannel approach focuses on providing a range of channels, omnichannel ensures that these channels work in harmony, taking a more integrated and interconnected approach.
Get Fluent: Harness The Power Of A Leading Digital Content Experience Platform
Managing multiple products across an ever-expanding range of sales channels, deploying an optimized omnichannel strategy, ensuring coherent brand control and leveraging gold standard product content intelligence? Work with a digital content experience platform that does all of the heavy lifting for you. ECP’s years of experience and intuitive digital experience management software combine to bring control, confidence and consistency to your product information management.
