30.04.2024 | BJÖRN BAYARD
PIM solutions are in demand like never before. What used to be primarily an IT topic is now increasingly being driven by different areas of the company. Product development and management as well as marketing, sales, and customer service are among the most important stakeholders when it comes to product data. This not only proves the central importance of PIM for organisations of all kinds, but also shows that the business value of PIM solutions is widely recognised.
It is therefore not surprising that analysts are observing strong growth in the PIM market worldwide. Experts from The Group of Analysts (TGOA) estimate that the global PIM market will grow to a total volume of USD 63.8 billion by 2030, which corresponds to an average annual growth rate of 21.09 per cent. You can download the study free of charge from our website.
The analyst firm sees five factors in particular as being decisive for this growth:
1. Digital commerce fuels demand for product content
Digital sales channels are more important than ever and the number of communication channels is constantly increasing. For both manufacturers and retailers, this means that they need to provide appropriate product content for more and more channels. And as the attractiveness of the product messages and the completeness of the information displayed have a directly measurable impact on sales figures, particular attention must be paid to the quality of the content provided.
Only a PIM system can handle this complexity of product communication and provide the required information in a media-neutral and centralised manner. All output channels can be supplied with customised content in a targeted manner and thus ensure the best possible customer experience – at every touchpoint. This makes it clear that successful digital commerce is not possible without PIM, which means that the rise of digital commerce also has a direct impact on the PIM market. You can find out more about this topic in our paper »Why digital commerce relies on PIM«.
2. Sustainable supply chains require transparency
Sustainability is the topic of our time and it is now driving companies in all industries. Their own sense of responsibility, the expectations of customers and partners, and increasing pressure from legislators have led to a global search for solutions. Concepts such as the digital product passport are intended to ensure one thing above all: transparency. Companies must be able to provide information about the entire supply chain of their products – and today this also includes information such as water and CO2 consumption, labour conditions, and diversity.
A particular challenge here is communication between industry and retail. Brands and manufacturers have to provide more and more information in order to sell their products. As the number of retail partners increases, this task becomes correspondingly complex and can no longer be managed manually on a bilateral basis.
Here too, modern PIM solutions support the inclusion of the required information in the data model and the management of ever-increasing volumes of data. Sharing product data with trading partners – for example via supplier portals or the GS1 GDSN – is also greatly simplified by specialised PIM solutions. In addition to increasing transparency, both industry and retail benefit from increased data quality and greatly reduced process costs.
3. Increasing efficiency in response to rising cost pressure
Economic uncertainty, a shortage of skilled workers, and higher costs for resources: companies are facing major challenges that are increasingly focusing on increasing efficiency in their organisations, processes, and workflows. As a central data management system, PIM offers great optimisation potential for numerous workflows and increases the productivity of organisations with automation, AI, and machine learning.
4. Analytics and BI need reliable data
Data provides an important basis for decision-making, regardless of whether it is about developing new business models, negotiating with retail partners, tapping into new target markets, or expanding the product range. The quality of the underlying data is more important than ever. Modern PIM systems therefore have sophisticated validation mechanisms that check the imported data using predefined sets of rules, and they only publish it to the output channels or share it with retail partners if it fulfils the quality requirements.
This makes PIM a particularly reliable data basis, which is ideal as a source for BI and analytics tools and provides companies with important insights.
5. Lower barriers to entry thanks to cloud technologies
Thanks to modern and scalable cloud technology, PIM has now become an economical data management solution for companies of all sizes. Attractive pricing and licence models lead to manageable costs, and implementation costs are also much lower today than they were a few years ago.
In addition to the software-as-a-service model, ready-made data models in particular also contribute to shorter implementation times. Specialised PIM solutions such as BYRD offer preconfigured solutions for specific industries such as FMCG and medical technology, which have already integrated the industry-specific requirements and regulations into the data model, thereby significantly shortening the design phase.
PIM: basic software for industry and retail
Retail partners, online shops and other digital sales channels, BI, and analytics tools or sustainability initiatives: The number of data recipients and the amount of information required is constantly increasing. Companies must respond accordingly and provide high-quality product data. To do this, the information must not only be complete, up-to-date, and correct, but it must meet the information requirements of a wide variety of channels, too. This also means that the complexity of the data continues to increase.
Without a PIM system that can easily manage these data volumes and provide them centrally to all recipients along the digital supply chain, this challenge can no longer be met. As a result, PIM has long since established itself as a basic technology in industry and commerce and the solutions are constantly evolving in line with the increasing demands of the digital economy.
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Best regards
Björn Bayard
