Lorenzo Gabatel
Let’s start with a simple truth: choosing the right PIM for your company means first of all understanding what you really need. There is no absolute best solution, but rather the one most suitable for the products you manage, the people who will use it, and the channels where the information needs to arrive.
Before comparing software and various quotes, it is therefore advisable to understand how product data currently flows and where bottlenecks, errors, and manual work occur.
Before choosing a PIM, look inside your company
Where is product information generated? Who modifies it? Across how many systems is it distributed? And above all: how many times is it copied, corrected, or updated manually before reaching the customer?
Often part of the data is in the ERP, another part in the PDM, translations are in Excel, and other content remains spread across folders and departments.
Even when everything seems fairly organized, updating catalogs, the website, e-commerce, and other channels can still require a lot of manual effort.
It is from these concrete problems that the choice of a PIM should begin.
What to evaluate to choose the right PIM
1. Usability
The PIM will be used by different people and departments: technical office, marketing, sales, R&D.
For this reason, it must be simple. If updating a product sheet requires too many steps, the risk is finding yourself after a few months back to sharing Excel files via email.
During a demo, therefore, evaluate interface clarity, ease of use, role and permission management, and the speed of the most frequent operations.
2. Automation and information control
One of the main objectives of a PIM is to avoid entering the same information multiple times.
A good system allows you to update data at the source and reuse it for catalogs, price lists, data sheets, websites, and e-commerce.
It should also help you quickly understand whether the information is complete and ready for publication, highlighting for example missing fields, incomplete translations, or content awaiting approval.
3. Integration with existing systems
The PIM must coexist with software already present in the company: ERP, CRM, PLM, PDM, CMS, e-commerce.
That is why it is important to establish from the beginning which systems it will receive data from, where it should distribute it, and which software will be responsible for each piece of information.
A well-integrated PIM connects and optimizes your existing ecosystem.
4. Scalability and languages
Today you might manage 2,000 products in a single market. Tomorrow they could become 10,000 across multiple languages, countries, and channels.
The system must allow you to grow your catalog and information without increasing manual workload at the same pace.
If you work across multiple markets, also evaluate translation management and potential integration with CAT tools or machine translation systems.
5. Customization
Every industry handles different information: dimensions and tolerances in engineering, finishes and fabrics in furniture, sizes and collections in fashion.
Therefore, verify how well the PIM can adapt to your structure through customizable attributes, categories, workflows, roles, templates, and publishing processes.
The more complex the catalog, the more critical this aspect becomes.
6. Infrastructure and real costs
Do not stop at the license cost.
Also evaluate setup, data migration, integrations, customizations, training, maintenance, and support.
Ask yourself also how updates, access for remote branches/collaborators, and technical infrastructure are managed. These are less visible aspects during a demo, but they heavily impact long-term project sustainability.
Choosing the right PIM: how to compare different solutions
Once your requirements are clear, you can compare market alternatives and use portals like Capterra to get an initial overview.
Demos, however, become truly useful when you base them on a real process within your company.
For example:
“Today we receive some data from the ERP, complete it in Excel, and then update our catalog and website. How would this process change using your PIM?”
It is through practical cases like this that you can truly understand if a solution fits your way of working.
What results to expect from a PIM
A PIM should help you reduce manual work, errors, and update times, simplifying product information management even as your needs evolve.
This is also the criteria we use daily to evaluate On Page®: if data management doesn’t become simpler and more reliable, technology alone is of little use. Our clients use it to collect and organize product information and keep it updated across catalogs, price lists, websites, and e-commerce stores, avoiding many of the corrections and duplications that previously slowed down work.
If a solution does not bring tangible process improvements, it is likely not the right choice for your business.
FAQ
Often, yes. The ERP primarily manages operational and administrative data, while the PIM organizes, enriches, and distributes product information. The important thing is to clearly define the role of both systems and their integration.
This is an aspect to address before implementation: you need to understand which data to retrieve, clean up, consolidate, and migrate.
It depends on the number of products, the quality of existing data, the necessary integrations, and the people involved. Roles and responsibilities should be defined before starting.
Consider licensing, configuration, migration, integrations, customizations, training, maintenance, and support.
Not just IT. It is helpful to involve everyone who creates, modifies, and uses product information daily: technical team, marketing, sales, and e-commerce team.
The project continues after the launch. Support, updates, training, and the ability to address new requirements are an integral part of the choice.
Centralize, update, publish. Without starting from scratch every time.
Discover how On Page® centralizes and synchronizes product information.
