The seeds of eCommerce site search problems were sown well before the internet era. Catalog print publishing needs drove how product data was stored and manged. Blocks of data containing artwork for catalogs and circulars, prices, size and weight, color, features, marketing copy were pasted into page layouts as huge strings of data. Minimizing granularity of data was the goal. This simplified the print publishing process.
Now, the web era is here. Recreating print materials for web and eCommerce sites is the task and it is not easy. How to get product information eCommerce ready and friendly from disparate islands of data across the enterprise takes time and costs sales.
I speak to manufacturing and distribution prospects each day about this specific problem. The problem is magnified too. Product information needs to be published to many sites. Sites include specialty sites or micro sites offering a subset of products, or perhaps a single category of products. Partner sites need accurate data too. Take ebay or google or any number of selling partners that rely on accurate, up to date product information.
I tell the story, sometimes, of a large, successful, eCommerce business that was brought to it’s knees upon Michael Jackson’s death. All Michael Jackson offers, music, posters, books, etc, needed to be aggregated, cleansed, enriched and published to the website. This took hours and large staff requirements to do.
PIM solutions or sometimes called MDM for products solve all the above headaches. That is good PIM solutions. A Product information management solution gets, cleanses, stores, enriches and publishes product information to all sources, NOW!. Not in a week, or month or several hours from now, but now.
If your business seeks a solid PIM or Product Information Management solution, please request this eBook Preparing for PIM. This eBook offers solid advice and strategies to fix product data management headaches.
