Effective Enterprise Ecommerce Solutions Depend on Product Management

Author: Kapil Sharma

There are various factors that lead to a successful ecommerce business. If you are a large retailer with an online shop, there are many ways by which you can make your website and your business big success. There are different technical ways to drive traffic to your website, to install many cool features to offer a consistent shopping experience and to maintain customer relationship management. But while focussing on these factors, one essential factor is neglected and that is the "product". According to ecommerce specialists, product is the key to effective enterprise ecommerce solutions. Retailers may have some great products but sometime fail to prove it or display it to the customers only due to lesser focus on the products.

Let us learn about the benefits and advantages of using product information management (PIM) which can make your enterprise ecommerce a big hit in the market.

Usually for many businesses, a product information management system or PIM tool is often neglected. This means that the retailers do not keep a track of their products that they are selling. They have no ability to control the data of products. The end result is that they cannot show these products to the customers. But then, no ecommerce site can run without products. Products form the main base of your business. The data that you collect, develop, display and use related to your products will encourage customers to purchase more from your site and thereby leading to improved conversions. A PIM tool not only increases conversions but also increases business efficiency in enterprise ecommerce implementation. This is due to reduced time spent on doing tasks manually. Many ecommerce platforms include sophisticated software for PIM. Some opt for hybris offshoring where ecommerce consultants work on hybris platform for efficient product management. While others go for a basic product management offerings using the catalogue editing tool.

A proper PIM helps to get products into your catalogue with the help of product administrators. This data on products includes information such as:

  • Description of the product
  • Technical specifications
  • Benefits and USPs
  • Images and videos
  • Reviews
  • Prices

In addition to the above, the data also includes user data and logistics. Thus, you get rich information through an effective PIM tool which definitely gives more than your ERP. By using a workflow driven process finding new products, the process of selling them and optimising the sales is simplified. Usually, the traditional mode of storing is followed. That is, storing in a series of excel spreadsheets. But with advanced technology, a software solution is preferred by many, which reduces effort and speeds up the data storing process.

It becomes necessary to manage your products from a central platform when you have to deliver price updates across the whole product catalogue time-to-time and at the same time run promotions on SKUs that are not performing well. You also need to do mass updates like as adding a new product category on a regular basis. Thus, when PIM is used for your ecommerce website, the data you gather can be leveraged across multiple channels. All up-dations and additions on the site related to your products can be automated to deliver control on all platforms and remove complexity.

Many big organisations are using PIM effectively. It is time for small organisations and the start-ups now to build a process and use a platform to control and manage your product data. After all, products do play a vital role in offering successful enterprise ecommerce solutions.