As many industries and retailers turn to web-based commerce, they're having to utilize new ways of interacting with their customers, tracking sales, and even communicating internally. Additionally, many employees are working from home and need access to information without being in the office. Implementing a digital asset management (DAM) program is a great way to ensure that everyone in an organization has the ability to view, share, and download approved assets. However, a DAM may not fulfill every need. Many organizations also require another system to track what merchandise they have in stock, how many of each size, color, etc. A system where their inventory can be organized by which retailer’s site it's listed on, along with a short description, and pricing. Ideally, all the information in this system would be in several languages, currencies, or units of measurement. Wouldn’t it be nice if these two systems worked together? If just one cloud-based system was the single source of truth for all employees?
It can be! With increasing demand from their clients, and the rapid growth of web-based retail, many DAM platforms now include product information management (PIM) systems. Implementing these combined systems can save your organization money and time and streamline processes so you can get your products to your customers quickly and capture more sales.
The Difference Between DAM and PIM
DAM systems manage digital assets such as ads, logos, guides, graphics, internal documents, etc. PIM systems manage product information such as images, sizes, colors, pricing, descriptions, and more. Both systems give users the ability to enrich, manage, and distribute pertinent information quickly and easily.
Want to learn more about how Digital Asset Management empowers your e-commerce initiatives? Download Bynder’s guide to “Digital Asset Management for E-retail” below!
Features of a PIM
Depending upon the DAM platform you've chosen, the PIM system you choose to pair with it will vary in the features and functionalities offered. However, all information in the PIM system is searchable and can connect seamlessly with the DAM. See our blog on Headless DAM systems to learn how to seamlessly connect your DAM system to others in your tech stack. Below are some of the features and functions that may be available to you in the PIM:
- Including a product description and marketing materials for each product (and all its variations) and specifying materials, colors, sizes, inventory counts, etc. This allows you to use these specifications as filters when searching through your inventory on the PIM.
- Configuring it to automatically push information to your various distribution channels. Want to change the product description on a pair of jeans? Change it in the PIM and it will automatically update on your web store, 3party retailer website, etc.
- Organizing seasonal campaigns and promotional materials, and generating price and order lists and a wide variety of reports to keep close tabs on your inventory, sales, and workflows.
- Use comments, approvals, version history, and workflows to ensure that all images, copy, and relevant details are brand approved and consistent across the organization and that your team is on track with its projects and deadlines. Notifications can be sent directly from the DAM or PIM to team members to let them know of any changes, updates, and/or actions needed on assets.
- Getting an overview of product information, making bulk changes to it, and auditing it regularly to ensure the most up-to-date information is being communicated to your customers.
- Storing stock-keeping unit (SKU) and European article number (EAN) information in an easy and orderly way.
- Integrating with other programs like Adobe CS, CMS, Microsoft Office, WordPress, and more.
- Cropping images, setting download presets, renaming files, and adding watermarks directly in the PIM. This ability can save your creative team precious time as they won’t be inundated with simple design requests, leaving them to focus on bigger projects to boost your sales.
- Providing remote teams with current information which can be easily viewed in multiple languages. The ability to auto-translate allows global teams to use approved assets for their region without having to create their own or take the extra step of translating copy, sizing, or pricing into their language or system.
- Protecting your assets and reducing unnecessary noise for your team by setting up permissions that allow you to control assets they can access. These permissions, set up in the DAM, can automatically sync to the PIM. This allows your team to confidently use and share assets because they don't have to second guess whether they’re approved to use them or not.
- Sharing information about your product with distributors or 3parties quickly and easily.
PIM and DAM: Better Together
While it may seem redundant to have a PIM system and a DAM program, you'll find that a DAM system sometimes lacks the flexibility to accurately store and sort all the information about each of your products. With a DAM that is seamlessly integrated with a PIM system, your team will have one source of truth to go to for digital information, product information, and project management. This reduces the time spent searching through emails, Slack, cloud drives, or hard drives for product images or important distribution information your team needs.
By implementing an effective DAM-PIM solution, you are able to create an effective digital experience to stand out in an increasingly crowded, complex, and fragmented marketplace.
There’s a growing awareness among marketers and industry experts that companies need to put more energy into driving digital transformation across both their DAM and PIM strategies. That’s especially important right now, as brands seek to capitalize on an explosion in e-commerce sales, and the digital influence on offline sales also becomes increasingly apparent.
The ROI of Combining PIM and DAM
The question isn’t whether your organization needs a PIM or DAM. In fact, for virtually every brand, the answer is that when you bring them together, PIM and DAM become something that’s far greater than the sum of its parts. As Forrester reported: “Product information management (PIM) users can turn to digital asset management (DAM) to win the digital shelf, and DAM users can accelerate the shift to omnichannel with PIM.”
By integrating these two powerful technologies, brands can navigate the digital transformation more effectively and prepare themselves for success in today’s omnichannel world.
Meet the expectations of modern-day online shoppers and provide consumers with engaging online shopping experiences by tapping into quality rich media and data to attract and retain a loyal customer base.
The combination of DAM and PIM also gives you an overview of your assets and products and enables you to make well-informed strategic decisions about where to focus your team’s time and energy. This can save you money on redundant projects, time spent on menial tasks, and enable your team to take more ownership of their part of the workflow.
Conclusion
A DAM program combined with a PIM platform speeds up your ability to find information for your distribution channels, streamlines your workflows, and saves you and your team both money and time. It gives you an all-in-one platform and allows you to maximize the longevity of your assets and products.
If you have goods being sold in a virtual space and would like to learn more about how DAM + PIM can work for you, reach out to us here at Stacks. Our team of experts is happy to help! You can also take advantage of resources from leading DAM platform providers like Bynder’s guide to DAM fro e-commerce found below.
