PIM vs Excel

A PIM collects, improves, and publishes product data from one place. You need that once the same article has to stay consistent in a webshop and in other systems at the same time.

Descriptions, colors, images, videos, measurements, and manuals are easier to keep in a PIM than in each channel on its own, or in a stack of Excel files. The shop and the other systems read from the PIM and show the current item data.

Why not stay in Excel?

Excel is free and you can bend it into almost any layout. That freedom is the problem. Several people filling one fixed structure is awkward. Version control, quality checks, and links to other systems run out quickly.

When a PIM pays off

The gap shows up with a large assortment that changes often and feeds more than one channel.

• A product is imported once, and that record is the leading copy in one system.
• Imports follow the same rules, so quality is checked instead of hoped for.
• Every channel gets the same complete information, in the right tone of voice.
• Less copying between files, and less staff time spent only on imports.
• People hunt less, because the product data has a structure.
• Print stays in scope: InDesign can use the same source as the digital channels.
• Updates move faster when the connected systems sit on a strict workflow.
• Returns drop when the information matches what the customer expected.