The differences between product information management (PIM) and product lifecycle management (PLM) systems are easily misunderstood — even among business owners in an e-commerce environment. Although both of these tools are designed to streamline how products are brought to market, they have distinct roles and value. Fortunately, they are able to work together to create efficiencies across your business operations. 

Learn more about the unique features of both PIM and PLM systems so you can determine if you need one or both!

In today’s digital landscape, staying ahead of the curve is more important than ever as brands vie for profitability in a crowded, competitive online marketplace. Finding an effective approach to managing product information is critical...it allows you to be confident that your product data is complete, consistent, and up-to-date at every stage of the process.

A product information management (PIM) system can help you manage data associated with your product lines. PIM e-commerce solutions offer significant benefits that can promote higher profitability in today's fiercely cutthroat consumer and B2B markets.

If you think back ten, twenty, or even thirty years ago, it’s hard to fathom how marketers got anything done without the help of the technologies we have today. But it happened. And for some of us, it felt like a simpler time. There were fewer channels to worry about. There wasn’t such an always-on mentality. And, there certainly weren’t a trillion technology acronyms to decipher. I mean, come on. From CMS to CRM, DMP, DAM, MRM, PIM, and…you get the picture — it’s all a bit overwhelming.

But, with technology comes benefits like efficiency, brand safety, and scale. It seems there’s a solution to help you with every marketing challenge out there. Maybe it is worth stomaching a few acronyms if they (or rather what they stand for) make our jobs as marketers easier. So if you can look past the acronym overload for a moment, we’ll peel back the layers of three important, often misunderstood technologies — DAM, PIM and MRM.

Should your business be using product information management (PIM) or master data management (MDM)? Or both? The two information management systems make it easy to create, manage, and distribute product data. However, the scope of each system is vastly different.

My dog Rosie may only weigh 18 pounds but she is a power chewer. So when I search for dog toys online, you bet I rely on product information to find ones that can withstand the crushing strength of her little puppy jaws.

Understanding what information your shoppers need to shop and purchase online is critical.

Read on, as we discuss the basics of developing and communicating the attributes of your products in the marketing field, including a definition of these attributes, their importance, and best practices for attribute management.

Shopping online has its advantages. You can browse 24/7. You can quickly compare prices. You can avoid crowds during a pandemic. But all of these conveniences come with a big sacrifice – direct experience with the product before purchasing it.

To make up for this lack of product interaction, brands must use content to convey its value. Detailed photographs, short-form videos, descriptions, and specifications shape the shopper’s perception of the product. And when all of this content is combined, the product becomes information.

Managing all of this content for an entire product inventory is no small task. Let’s take a closer look at some of the common e-commerce content challenges that businesses face.

Products are becoming whatever shoppers can read, see, and hear. They use everything from product descriptions and technical specifications to inspirational videos and detailed photographs to inform their purchases.

We believe all of that content should be organized and reusable.

We bring you Entries, the new Widen Collective^Ⓡ app to manage your product content.

A lot of hard work goes into launching profitable products. Many teams and stakeholders are involved — including product management and product marketing. These two roles kind of sound like different ways of saying the same thing, like Gershwin's tomato and tomahto. But they actually are more like apples and oranges...they are separate disciplines with distinct responsibilities.

So where exactly does one role stop and the other start? This can vary between companies, but there are some key areas of focus that make each role unique.