Mastering product data management: a complete guide from product repository to PIM
What does data produce?
What is the product data life cycle?
The product data life cycle depends on two flows: either a retail flow or a manufacturing flow.
The life cycle of product data in retail
The data lifecycle in manufacturing
In the manufacturing sector, the process generally begins with Research & Development, which launches a new product based on market research or innovative concepts, ensuring its viability, positioning and competitive price. Once ready, relevant Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) data is fed into the product repository for marketing.
Sales channels, including e-commerce platforms, are powered, mainly in B2B, for resellers. In B2B2C, where products are intended to be sold by third parties such as retailers, providing adequate data is essential to promote sales to end-customers.
The case of the marketplace
In the manufacturing sector, where distribution extends to multiple marketplaces, wholesalers and retailers, adapting to the data formats of these platforms is essential for efficient distribution. Large marketplaces use standardized formats to reduce product listing costs, requiring adaptation of the data supplied.
Syndication engines are commonly used to simplify this process by transforming product repository data into the format required by each platform, making it easy to feed multiple sales channels. This approach is also beneficial in B2B, simplifying the listing process for retailers by avoiding the need to transcode information provided by different suppliers.
What are product standards, and why are they important?
The central point of a Product Data Management approach, a product repository is the single point of collection, enrichment and distribution of all product information. It's the place where all data is collected, normalized, standardized, upgraded and enriched. The product repository is the cornerstone of the information system, as it will speed up data exchanges.
The central point of a Product Data Management approach, a product repository is the single point of collection, enrichment and distribution of all product information. It's the place where all data is collected, normalized, standardized, upgraded and enriched. The product repository is the cornerstone of the information system, as it will speed up data exchanges.
A product repository is made up of different tools such as PIM (Product Information Management), MDM (Master Data Management) or DAM (Digital Asset Management), handled by many players at different points in the product data editorial chain.
- Marketing teams feed the product repository with various marketing pitches and descriptions.
- The Finance teams define the product's selling price.
- The Technical teams are responsible for providing the product repository with the technical description of the product.
- The Media teams feed the repository with photos and videos and rework these assets.
Why have a product repository?
Standardized data normalization and enrichment are essential to guarantee data quality. Often segmented, a product repository is managed by specialized data managers, each responsible for their own product families. Although these managers generally focus on specific subsets, the product repository enables standardization of governance and operating rules to avoid any inconsistencies or contradictions between the different categories. For example, within a PIM, product categories can be defined to reflect a logical organization of the catalog.
The product repository reduces operational inconsistencies and standardizes processes for all category managers. At the same time, task automation - crucial for accelerating time-to-market and lightening workloads - simplifies maintenance by teams and reduces associated costs.
What are the advantages of product standards?
Implementing a product repository not only automates mass updating, but also makes it possible to use Artificial Intelligence in data processing. The product repository also brings the following benefits:
- Single point of collection, enrichment and distribution of standardized product information.
- Coordinated actions between different data players, e.g. Marketing, Product, Finance, Design.
- Reduced time-to-market between product listing and distribution.
- Consistency of data between the different systems (order, sales, product) as they are fed by the same product repository.
What tools make up a product repository?
Depending on the needs and activities of the various professions, several tools may make up a product repository. PIM, MDM, DAM... Sometimes the tools can be brought together in a single solution, or found in several solutions that communicate with each other.
PIM (Product Information Management) solutions come into play when there's a need to improve data for sales. The role of PIM is to enrich information by contextualizing it according to various markets, languages and marketing needs specific to each product category. This includes adding images, adapting sales pitches according to context, and focusing on marketing aspects rather than basic data.
Visit MDM (Master Data Management) is an essential foundation for master data management, particularly in manufacturing, focusing on item and manufacturing repositories. With few product family-specific attributes, the focus is on supervising production lines and structuring BOMs. Its key internal role lies in ensuring data quality.
DAM (Digital Asset Management) is a centralized solution for storing, organizing and sharing a company's digital resources. Originally designed to store multimedia content, DAMs have evolved into collaborative digital content management platforms. They manage media for different channels, optimizing storage and enabling various image treatments.
The supplier portal puts the data mapping process back in the hands of suppliers, thus lightening the internal workload and speeding up the referencing of new products. This approach positions the supplier portal as a real gas pedal, enabling companies to concentrate on other aspects of their business while guaranteeing the quality and relevance of the data provided. The supplier portal represents an effective means of transferring responsibility for data quality to suppliers, resulting in a significant gain in internal efficiency.
Although PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) is specifically designed to manage products, it is preferable not to include manufacturing BOMs in its repository. PLM is positioned upstream of the product repository, and can feed it with relevant information.
The challenges of product standards
Marketing and e-commerce teams: speed is of the essence
The pressure is on to deliver fast while ensuring product quality and differentiation. Sales pitch and image play a crucial role in promoting products online, but the challenge lies in reducing the time it takes to bring a product to market while maintaining rich, differentiating marketing information.
Time to market, while essential to remain competitive, is at odds with the need to pay close attention to the quality and completeness of information provided to consumers. Marketing and e-commerce must therefore juggle these contradictory imperatives to meet consumer expectations while remaining competitive in a constantly evolving market.
Compliance and CSR issues: increasingly pressing regulations
Compliance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues are emerging as crucial concerns in data governance, constantly enriching processes. With the advent of the AGEC (Anti-Gaspillage pour une Économie Circulaire) and INCOM (Loi relative à la lutte contre le gaspillage et à l'économie circulaire) laws, these new challenges introduce additional constraints, particularly in terms of legal compliance and commitment to sustainability.
Information such as carbon footprint and traceability requires the ability to efficiently trace back data architectures in order to prove compliance. Compliance and CSR are also becoming strategic areas of data governance, requiring close collaboration with external data sources to ensure accuracy and relevance.
Supply & Logistics teams: the importance of technical information
For Supply & Logistics teams, the challenges lie mainly in managing information such as weight, palletization plans and package specifications, which are crucial to logistics operations, transport and packaging, but may not be of interest outside their domain. This data is often stored in ERP rather than product management software.
However, when it comes to purchasing rather than manufacturing, it's essential to have access to this information early on in the process to ensure efficient supply planning and optimal logistics management.
Purchasing teams: priority given to purchase price and multi-referencing
For purchasing teams, the challenges are often concentrated at the beginning of the process, where product data management is characterized by a limited vision and a restricted number of attributes. The information available is generally technical and codified, with priority given to purchase prices.
These teams need an easy-to-use repository, often in the form of an Excel spreadsheet, to store data, and are less concerned about data quality. Often, the same referenced product is supplied by several suppliers, requiring uniqueness and mapping work to guarantee data consistency.
Our partners in Product Data Management
The role of AI in product data management
The integration of AI (Artificial Intelligence) into product data management plays a crucial role in automating many manual and recurring tasks, increasing productivity, strengthening quality control and improving image consistency. In addition, generative AI uses a knowledge base to produce relevant texts, although verification remains necessary. In addition, AI can help contextualize existing images, facilitating their visual presentation and opening up new opportunities for process optimization and user experience enhancement.
AI thus represents a significant advance in product data management, transforming the way companies process, analyze and exploit their data. By automating tedious tasks and providing valuable insights, it paves the way for more efficient processes and more enriching user interactions, marking an important milestone in the evolution of data management and customer experience.
PXM: optimizing the Customer Experience through product data management
When buying a product, the consumer is looking for much more than a simple commercial transaction. It's an approach that takes into account their needs in terms of information and description. Expectations vary according to consumer profile: connoisseurs prefer detailed, technical information, while the general public prefers simpler information. A successful buying experience is based on trust, understanding and recognition of the consumer's level of knowledge, as well as on the relevance of the messages addressed, closely linked to the targeted market segment.
Managing this buying experience is complex, given the different information contexts according to segmentation. It's crucial to have an information-rich product repository, but also to know how to adapt this information to different contexts. Visit Product Experience Management (PXM) requires in-depth knowledge of the target populations in order to disseminate the right information and build trust.
Information quality is essential for effective PXM, as is contextualization and consistency with Customer Experience Management (CXM). In B2B, PXM is less present, but solutions such as Product Information Management (PIM) are becoming crucial to effectively contextualize data and build lasting customer relationships based on brand loyalty.
They trust us
"A robust product repository is much more than just a database. It is the central pillar on which all product-related activities rest, from design to marketing. Effective product data management requires not only a methodical approach, but also a strategic vision focused on quality, consistency and adaptability. It's by embracing these principles that we can truly unleash the potential of our data to drive innovation and growth."
Micropole
In a nutshell
Effective product data management is essential in today's business environment. Product data, made up of marketing and technical descriptions, offer a detailed view of products, facilitating their understanding and positioning on the market. Product lifecycles vary by sector, from retail to manufacturing, influencing listing and distribution processes.
A product repository centralizes this information, accelerating exchanges and guaranteeing their quality and consistency. The benefits are many: automated updates, coordination between players, reduced time-to-market and data consistency.
Tools such as MDM, PIM and DAM facilitate data management, while AI integration optimizes processes and the customer experience. PXM is becoming crucial to meeting consumers' varied expectations and building strong customer relationships.
Investing in a robust, integrated product repository is essential to remain competitive and offer a differentiated, satisfying customer experience.
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