Product Information Management System: What Is It and Why Is It Important?

What is PIM?

Today various ecommerce sites, other online channels and mobile search are where consumers head to when searching for information on products. According to Retail dive, more than 65% of consumers conduct online product research before stepping foot in a store. More than 55% of consumers visit stores before buying online, emphasizing the idea that high-touch physical and seamless omnichannel experiences are critical for modern retailing. As a result of changing consumer behaviors and increasing demand for seamless shopping experiences, businesses have started using digital marketing strategies widely.

With the growing use of digital, it has become important for every business to communicate consistent branding and accurate product information across the Omni-channel landscape. Product Information Management system is therefore required to overcome such complexity and scale that has been created by various channels offline and online.

PIM is widely used by ecommerce managers, online merchandisers, marketers and product managers who are always looking for friendlier tools that enable them to manage all their product information in one place without having to constantly calling out for information from colleagues and partners via emails and calls.

Why is PIM important?

Product information management system is necessary for managing the customer-facing product strategy. This is because consumers today spend a lot of time researching a product online before making a purchase. Consequently, the need for high quality product content has become more important for manufacturers, retailers, distributors and CPG firms. The product description today has a big role to play to make a sale happen online.

As a matter of fact, retailers are now giving priority to online content enhancement over a range of other merchandizing enterprises like product recommendation, A/B testing and personalization. Here are the two main reasons why this is the case:

  • Having detailed product descriptions is the main differentiator in customer experience. Studies have shown that 30% of the US online adults would prefer shopping from online retailers they have never made any purchase from if the product information on the website is detailed.
  • There is a new breed of buyers due to the increase in the demand of high-quality and consistent product information. As a result, 33% of channel strategy professionals and eBusinesses cited that investing in product information management system is their top priority.

Why do businesses invest in PIM?

The decision to buy a PIM solution is not the same for everyone. The needs of retailers differ depending on the industry and type of business. There are many scenarios that cause customer-obsessed businesses to make an investment in PIM. Below are the main scenarios.

  • The need to have a single view of the product data that is customer -facing. Businesses that create their own products have used product information management systems since time immemorial to get buy-side supply-chain-related data like product weight and dimensions. These businesses also need the PIM for one repository for the consumer-ready, approved and trusted product content that is accessible across their enterprise to the internal users and are also accessible to the external channel partners like resellers and retail distributors.
  • To reduce time that is needed to market new products that have been launched. Manual processes hinder the goal of streamlining such as designing, creating, publishing and approving. The PIM helps automate most of the processes needed in product creation.
  • To be able to support bigger product catalogs. PIM offer scalable solutions that allow firms to increase their SKUs and products without worrying of system scalability.
  • To support the increasingly demanding channels of the distribution partners. PIM gives the ability to manage the unique product content for each channel partner and tools needed to syndicate out the product content in required predefined specifications.
  • To ensure consistent cross-channel customer experience.

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Content Creation – Discover the Top 7 Benefits of Consistent Content Creation (Easily Done)

Article Marketing provides with so many benefits I couldn’t list them all here. I can give you 7 of the top ones here:

1) The more you do it, the easier it gets - Some folks will tell you that creating content (writing articles) is time consuming and hard. And it is, when you do the wrong way. When you use templates and create content on a regular basis, it gets so easy that you can crank out a prospect and profit pulling article in less than 30 minutes.

2) You, a recognized expert - Get your first article published on EzineArticles and you are called an Expert Author. Keep it up and publish fresh new content weekly, and you begin to be seen as a recognized expert in your niche.

3) Easy Online Visibility - Not only do you get the visibility of appearing in the top article directories and other people’s blogs, you can use parts of your article content on all the top Social Marketing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even YouTube.

4) Consistent Traffic Generation - Article Marketing is the very best free source of consistent, passive traffic. Each article you create and publish becomes it’s own stream of evergreen traffic. Then as you add each new article on top of the previous ones, your traffic begins to compound, compound and compound some more. Pretty soon you have so much traffic coming in you could not stop it if you wanted to, and believe me, you won’t want to.

5) Highly Qualified List Building – When you build your list with Article Marketing, you can make big profits with a small list. So how does that work, Jeff? Well, in these Social Marketing times, when someone takes 3 – 5 minutes to read your article, they have raised their hand as a highly qualified person for your list. And when you take good care of your list, they will take good care of you.

6) Rapid Product Creation – So many people get stuck when they get to product creation. I don’t want that to happen to you. The great news is that when you are creating your content for your articles, you are creating your content for your information products.

7) The New Expert Author – Having your article content spread all over the internet qualifies you as the New Author, with all the rights, privileges, expert status and respect of a traditional author, without all the hassles of becoming a traditional author.

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Customer First Product Creation and Development for Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups

Building a business from scratch requires two things:
something to sell;
someone to sell it to.
Now, that might sound obvious, but it’s amazing how many people leave out the first step, assuming that they already know what it is that the market needs. In a recent interview for Mixergy, Sam Ovens revealed many techniques for creating a business from scratch, but one stood out in particular – Talk to the Customer First.The process works for physical and information products, as well as services, and even software as a service (SaaS).There are a number of ways to put yourself in touch with your potential customers, such as emailing them, offering to call at a time that suits them to talk about their main pain points, and developing the relationship from there, and which you choose will depend on the industry.Extracting the Product from the CustomersOnce contact is made, it’s important to allow them to relate their issues in their own words, without preconceptions, or offering any one solution. To enable them to actually think about what is important to them, it is also useful to ask them to rank their issues in order of importance to their business.Having extracted a list of issues, and selected one that can be solved with the skills at your disposal, the next stage is to deliver a solution, on paper, to the potential customers.Their feedback, at this point, will help shape the product offering, but also will need to be filtered. Not every suggestion that they make can be carried through, and not every tweak that they offer will make sense.A bit of back and forth will be required until most of the customers are happy with most of the features.It’s vital at this stage (product development) to remember that you shouldn’t be offering features, but helping the customers to identify shortcomings or needs, and tailoring features to meet them.Fixing the Price PointWith a rounded out product to offer, it’s time to fix a price point that will be enough to keep you interested beyond the initial roll-out. In the same way that an investor needs a large enough share in a company to provide them with the potential return to keep them involved, the entrepreneur needs to generate enough revenue to remain keen.Remembering that in a B2B context, the price is just another business expense, but in a B2C context, it represents a personal investment, a sensible price can be fixed that everyone is happy with, if not necessarily ecstatic.Finally, with a product designed, and price fixed, it can be offered to the market.The package can first be offered to the initial customers (at a discount) and then to a larger collection of the potential customer base by way of a validation of the usefulness and price of the offering.By paying up front, the development can even be partially, or completely pre-funded, removing one of the major obstacles for getting a product to market.Using this process to extract the product and price from the customers themselves, the business is much more likely to succeed than if the product was developed in isolation and presented to the market as a fait-accompli.

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High Ticket Product Creation – Latest 4 Secrets to Multiply Your High Ticket Product Creation

Every marketer dreams of achieving financial freedom, retire early in life, and have ample time to travel the world. This will not be possible if you are earning $1,000 – $2,500 per month. If you want to get closer to your financial freedom, you need to start thinking of ways on how you can augment your monthly income. One of the best ways to do this is by creating and selling high ticket information products that have $4,000 – $12,000 tag prices.Here’s how you can multiply your high ticket product creation:1. Obtain several topic ideas and convert them to coaching programs. If you want to boost the number of your products, you must obtain as much topic ideas as possible that you can convert to e-learning products. Doing a keyword search to figure out the most popular search terms within your chose niche can help you with this. You may also opt to conduct a survey among your target market to easily identify the information that they are looking for.2. Record your coaching programs and convert them to other e-learning products like teleseminars, comprehensive ebooks, etc. You can maximize your earnings from your coaching programs if you can have them recorded and converted to other e-learning products. By doing so, you will not need to spend more time creating different content for your different offers. You can then sell these products to people who have missed your coaching programs.3. Outsource. Creating and multiplying the number of your high ticket products can be overwhelming and time-consuming. To make these tasks a lot easier and manageable for you, I suggest that you get as much help as possible. Visit various freelancing sites and depending on your needs, hire transcriptionist, ghostwriters, proofreaders, web designers, etc. The key here is hiring the best people over the internet so you can ensure that all of your products will be of high quality.4. Work harder. Needless to say, you need to work harder if you want to achieve greater things in life. Spend more time doing your research and formulating your content. Don’t stop learning by attending relevant seminars from time to time and continuously build personal relationships with other marketers who have succeeded in this endeavor. The more time and more effort you put in, the better your chances of increasing your knowledge in this field — the easier it will get for you to create compelling high ticket products in no time.

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High Ticket Product Creation – Uncover 4 Responsive Steps to Grow Your High Ticket Product Creation

If you are looking for ways on how you can quickly augment your revenue, you better consider creating high ticket products that will sell for thousands of dollars. By going in this route, you can expect great profits even if you are only able to sell 5-10 units of your products.Here are the 4 responsive steps to grow your high ticket product creation:1. Do a market research. This is the first step to a profitable product creation as this will allow you to identify the needs and demands of your target market. Through this, you will be able to discover great product ideas that will offer solutions to the pressing issues being faced by your potential clients.2. Analyze the competition. This would help you determine the price tags of your products. For instance, if your chosen niche has more supply than demand, there is a great chance that you have to lower your prices just to make a sale. That is why, I highly recommend that you chose a niche that is less competitive.3. Give your clients their money’s worth. By this, I mean ensure satisfaction. You can do so by offering your customers with high quality products that are proven to improve the quality of their lives. You must also offer world class customer service and offer after-sales support to promote customer loyalty and repeat business.4. Promote your products. As you are selling rather expensive products, you need to be aggressive in promoting them so you can better connect to your target market. In this regard, I highly suggest PPC advertising, search engine marketing, blogging, article marketing, and SEO. You can also advertise using traditional promotional media like TV, newspaper, and radio.

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High Ticket Product Creation – Latest 4 Secrets to Increase Your High Ticket Product Creation

Contrary to popular beliefs, creating compelling and best-selling high ticket information products is relatively easy. As long as you are an expert on your chosen niche and as long as you can share the knowledge you have in a very easy to understand manner, you’ll be able to create these types of products in no time.Here’s how you can increase your high ticket product creation:1. Decide on what product to create. Depending on your preference and the resources you have, you can launch bootcamps, seminars, teleseminars, and advanced coaching programs. If you don’t want to spend on your travel cost and if you are not really comfortable doing presentations in front of an audience, you can offer email or phone coaching. However, if you love being with people physically and if you have great presentation skills, you can launch group coaching programs or one-on-one coaching.2. Commit to offer your clients with nothing but the best. To give your clients their money’s worth, make sure that you offer them with nothing but the best. Prepare a content that will give them an in-depth, detailed, and complete information about your chosen topic so they will be well-informed or empowered after your session/s.3. Offer more. Today, there are so many gurus and experts who are offering high ticket products; making the online competition stiffer than ever. If you want to stay on top of your game and if you want people to choose your creations over your competitors’, make sure that you offer them something that they will surely appreciate. You can offer them with free coaching sessions, access to exclusive sites, or send them freebies like ebooks and audio products that contain information about the things that they are passionate about.4. Make it interactive. Whether you are offering coaching programs or seminars, it is important that you are able to make your presentations interactive. Encourage your attendees to participate by asking their questions or sharing their thoughts and ideas. Make sure that you listen to them intently and that you give them 100% of your attention when they speak. By doing so, you’ll make these people feel that you also value their opinions and ideas. This simple gesture can help you promote customer trust and loyalty that can lead to a stronger business relationship.

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Your Link Building Campaign and Building Link Popularity

Like a form of business internet currency. Your link building campaign determine your relative internet property value by influencing your website traffic, your search engine rankings, positions for your important keywords, your building link popularity, and links influence online sales and profits.Web DirectoriesOne of my first things I did for a link building campaign was submit to web directories. One of the easiest way to start building link popularity is to submit your site to leading general web directories and directories in your niche.Directories are not just places that accept websites. Some of the best directories represent business partnerships and exist on sites like manufacturers you sell for, local government sites, or your local chamber of commerce, building link popularity.Link Anchor TextOther important link building strategies are link anchor text. Search engines and people love anchor text. In some sites you can’t use it for SEO. “Like this one.” But if you can, it improves link quality, viewers believe it looks advanced and interactive.My domain name was made with anchor text in mind. If I was aggressive with marketing my site, then people who have heard of my site are going to link to the site with that word in text.Linking ToolsWe’ve talked about link building strategies and now linking tools. Hub Finder lets you find sites that link to top ranking competing sites. Local rank, for you to find how the best sites ranked in Google cross link. It’s good for estimating how competitive your target keywords are.

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How To Get Your Internet Marketing Business Started

Do you have an idea for an internet marketing business but aren’t sure how to set it up or make it successful? Or, do you want to make money on the internet but aren’t sure how? Have you ever wished that you could be one of the people that make their living from internet marketing?Starting a new online business or taking an existing business online can seem intimidating or overwhelming, but learning how to start an internet business doesn’t have to be complicated.Like everything else, if you make a plan and take it step by step, you’ll be up and running in no time.There are just some basic things that you need to consider and actions that you need to take, in order to create a successful online business:Find out if there is a market for your idea or product.Find your potential customers.
Build relationships.
Create your product.
Create your website.
Market your product.
Take the payments.These are the fundamental steps to successful online marketing and you’ll find lots of free information and how to’s on the internet in articles and forums, to help you put each step in place.Alternatively, you may be someone who likes to have all the information in one place and, again, you’ll find lots of offers for courses and guides on how to start your internet marketing business, on the web.One of these products, that I’ve recently reviewed. is the Internet Business Start Up Kit, which I’ll use as a basis for what you need to be looking for in a guide to internet marketing.The Internet Business Start Up Kit, produced by Neil Stafford and Neil Travers of KTS Publishing, is designed to be a one-stop source of information, resources and back-up needed to create your own internet marketing business from scratch and get sales coming in as quickly as posssible.The manual, reports, DVDs, CDs and online training facilities provided as part of the Kit and its Bonus sections take you through all the steps of creating an online business in a logical and easy to understand manner.Subjects covered include, market research, listbuilding, product creation, forming a website, copywriting, and marketing techniques. All set out with full details of what to do and how and when to do it.The information in the manual will enable anyone to:Find a viable market using the keyword search techniques provided.Learn the benefits of blogging and set up a blog quickly and easily to create a list of hungry customers.Discover where to find all the information needed to create a well researched and saleable product.Save time and set up a product website simply and without specialist knowledge, using the website templates provided.Easily write sales letters and email copy, without any copywriting experience, using the sales letter templates provided.Implement a marketing campaign using suitable techniques for your product.Set up the payment facilities for your online marketing business, and see the cash come flowing in.All this basic information required to get an internet business up and running is set out in the main printed manual, reinforced by the additional reports and presentations included, with further backup tutorials and advice available online.Particularly useful is the step by step manual, which is clear and comprehensive and set out in an easy to understand and logical manner, guiding the user through the various stages of creating their business and securing sales.Neil and Neil have given a wealth of information here, including links to sites and resources that they use themselves, in order to make the process even easier for the user.This is an important aspect because, although much of the basic information could probably be found by some extensive online searching, just the benefit of having it presented clearly and logically in one place, is well worth the modest outlay, even without all the additional training and backup facilities included.A part of the manual which deserves a special mention, is the section on creating your website and email campaign sales copy. Maybe a daunting task for most people, this is reduced to a simple fill-in-the-blanks exercise, using the proven and effective sales letter templates provided. Well worth having.In addition, it’s not necessary to be an expert webmaster to construct your website, as the Resource CD, which accompanies the manual, contains a wide choice of easy to use web templates and many other useful resouces, enabling a website to be set up, without extensive previous experience.Included with the kit is a trial Gold Membership of the Internet Marketing Review. An invaluable resource to anyone setting up or running an internet business.On the Internet Marketing Review site, there is a huge amount of useful information in the form of training videos and articles, giving even more advice on all the aspects of getting a business started and profitable, plus the latest tips from the two Neils about new ideas and what’s currently working for them.The Internet Marketing Review also has a very active members forum, a good place to meet up with and ask advice from other successful marketers, who are very friendly and keen to share what they know.It’s well worth checking out the public area of the Internet Marketing Review to see what’s available there.I do have one criticism of this product and that is, there’s no guide to the contents. So you really need go through it all and make your own.On the plus side, having done that, you’ll have reviewed everything once and know where to go back to, when you really need it.And, there is a lot of solid information on getting started, provided in the Kit, that is worth reviewing several times to get the most benefit from it. Plus many useful ways to further improve your business once it is running.Overall, the Internet Business Start Up Kit provides sound, practical step by step guidance, well laid out and explained for anyone without previous internet business experience.It contains everything needed to get an Internet Business up and running, set out in a clear and comprehensive way and, at £79.95 is definitely worth considering.Now, if you’re thinking of buying an all-in-one guide to setting up an internet marketing business, use this information to help your comparison.And whichever one you’re considering, bear these four important points in mind.1. Check that it covers all the elements you need, including the how, why and when, of what to do at each stage of creating your online business.
2. Check out the people involved. Forums and blogs are a good way to find out what sort of reputation they have.
3. Don’t just believe the sales letter. It’s really good to get a personal recommendation.
4. Check out any guarantees offered. Products often have some form of money back guarantee period, like the Internet Business Start Up Kit.So, however you choose to find the information you need, I wish you every success with your online marketing business.And, remember, it all happens when you take that first step!

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Internet and Business Online – The Psychological Addiction

At one time computers were said to have the capacity of freeing up our time to such a degree that we might only need to work 20 hours a week.In our 21st century world we have entire families who have their own computer. Each family member has a cell phone and our cars are outfitted to help us stay connected.Laptops are taken to coffee shops and bistros and normal conversations are interrupted by incoming messages.Not only are we still working 40+ hours a week we often take our work home with us and stay connected with the office on a consistent basis.The online world has become so much a normal part of our lives that we stay online even when we don’t really need to. We are accustomed to interaction and the World Wide Web allows that to happen.The world is listening to music on the web, they are watching video on demand and they are instant messaging and emailing at a phenomenal rate.Children are asking for more time on the web than they are television time.The Internet has revolutionized our lives, but instead of freeing us up from work it has simply enticed us to do more.As we understand more computer concepts and use them in our business and personal life we have a desire to learn more and do more with what we know. The computer has become an unusual motivator.It’s interesting to watch teens that would rather text each other than speak face to face.Movies like “You’ve Got Mail” and “Cinderella Story” both feature online correspondence as the primary means of relationship building between the main characters of the story.The Internet has radically altered the way the world does business. Currency exchanges are not an issue with international orders, as credit card companies and PayPal tend to work that out without an issue for either the consumer of the business owner.Many online users wonder why they would want to shop in physical stores when they can visually see what they are shopping for and compare prices from multiple online stores – all from the comfort of wherever they might be.In spite of difficulties with viruses, adware, spyware and malware the Internet remains a powerful medium for online business and fulfilling personal interests.I think it’s possible there may be a psychologically addictive nature to the online world. I’ve even been known to say; “I’ll head to bed in a minute. Just let me check my emails first.”Checking emails can also mean checking a few forum boards or blogs I am a part of. Checking my online business ventures and perhaps taking care of a few web design elements.Sometimes I think it would be cataclysmic if there should come a day when the Internet went away. We rely on this cyber universe in a way that it remarkable and somewhat surprising.The good news for web users is that the very nature of the web means that it is dependent on multiple sources to work. It would be virtually impossible to knock out the Internet.They can’t knock it out, right? I’ve got email to read.

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What Is Affiliate Marketing? Does It Take Special Skills Or Can Anyone Do It?

Marketing other people’s products online as an affiliate can be one of the most rewarding and lucrative businesses a person can be involved in. This article will explain affiliate marketing to you in detail. By the time you’ve finished reading, I suspect you’re going to be so fired up that you’ll stop asking “what is affiliate marketing” and start asking “how the heck can I get started now?”What Is Affiliate Marketing? The BasicsProduct vendors including Walmart, Starbucks, Sears, Barnes & Noble, and countless others rely on many things to get their products in the hands of as many consumers as possible. One of these companies’ most effective means of doing this is a competent sales force. In the online world, this sales force is known as affiliate marketers. These are folks like you and me who are willing to spread the word about various products and services in exchange for financial compensation.But it doesn’t stop with giant international companies. You can be an affiliate for a fellow internet marketer. In fact, there are tens of thousands of men and women who create digital products such as eBooks, video courses, membership sites, and software programs who are willing to pay out big bucks to affiliates who send business their way. This presents us with one of the biggest, simplest, and most profitable business opportunities the world has ever known!Creators of these digital products are generally fully prepared to pay an affiliate over half of the purchase price as a commission. In other words, if their product is currently being sold for $47, you will make a minimum of $23.50 every single time you send them a paying customer! Many products actually sell for well over $100 and many vendors pay up to 75% commission!But why would a vendor pay you such a high percentage? Well, this is actually the beauty of promoting digital goods. When someone creates an eBook or software package, they don’t have to actually “create” copies of it. In other words, there is no actual manufacturing process involved.They can send out unlimited copies, and therefore, they have absolutely no overhead. It’s pure profit. They are willing to pay so much because they want you to work hard for them. It’s all free money to them anyway, and the more affiliates they have working for them, the more money they make. It’s pretty straightforward when you think about it.Does Affiliate Marketing Take Any Special Skills?The short answer is yes. Of course, these skills can be learned and you can start earning affiliate revenues right away. The main skills you will need to cultivate are product selection skills, keyword research skills, article writing skills, and some basic HTML skills, among others.Now don’t let this scare you away. These things are well worth learning. Be aware that affiliate marketing is just like any other skill set in the world in that you’ve got to learn how to do it. Even if you went out and got a job as a dishwasher in a restaurant, there are certain skills you’re going to need to develop. This is really no different.

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