As demands for omnichannel marketing grow, marketing and content operations teams are re-evaluating their software stack. Too many retailers and CPG brands are held back by legacy systems that are no longer fit for purpose.
Top performing retailers and manufacturers know that Digital Asset Management and Product Information Management platforms are essential for an efficient content supply chain. They’re integrating PIM and DAM to create more efficient workflows and regain their competitive edge.
Here’s an overview of what you need to know – so you can decide whether PIM-DAM integration is right for your retail or CPG business.
What is DAM?
A Digital Asset Management system is a marketing platform that streamlines how you store, search, retrieve and publish digital assets. It is a single source of truth that houses all your content assets – like packaging and POS artwork, product imagery and video, logos and more – so creative teams can easily find what they need.
Keyword tagging, taxonomy and advanced search functionality surfaces digital assets in seconds – reducing the time typically wasted hunting down assets.
A Digital Asset Management platform is essential for an efficient content supply chain because it accelerates creative workflows. Through software integrations, it supplies digital assets seamlessly to design programs like Adobe Creative Suite, web content management systems, CRM and more. Whilst automatic renditioning means users can easily convert master assets into the exact format, color profile and crop they need for any channel.
A DAM-PIM integration is popular in retail and manufacturing because it ensures digital assets are always synced with the most up-to-the-minute product information too.
What is PIM?
PIM stands for product information management. If DAM is the home of your digital assets, PIM is the home of your product information. Product descriptions, prices, specifications, ingredients, packaging copy… it all lives here. Where DAM holds (mostly) visual content, a PIM hold (mostly) text content.
Like DAM, PIM is a centralised platform that ensures consistency across channels by providing a single source-of-truth – but this time for product data. Integrations can mean that your PIM receives this information automatically from suppliers.
PIM and DAM – better together
Today’s omnichannel retail environment requires massive amounts of digital content – to feed demanding shoppers and hungry publishing platforms. And that takes a lot of manual work keeping product information up-to-date and in-sync across physical and digital platforms.
Integrating a Product Information Management system with a Digital Asset Management platform speeds up this process. It creates an always in-sync source of information and automation for creative professionals – reducing inefficiencies, manual data entry, and duplicated effort across siloed teams.
A study by Cornell University found more than four-in-ten employees (43%) are spending too much time switching between different tools to get their jobs done. Software integration reduces that friction.
With the time saved from manual processes and wrangling spreadsheets, creatives can spend more time on creative storytelling, brand building and owning the omnichannel environment.
Discover four reasons why NOW is the right time for retail to prioritize PIM-DAM integration.
PIM and DAM for retail
Consumers expect a seamless shopping experience across devices and platforms. Retail has already witnessed the rise of ecommerce and shopping via app. Now, shoppable social media is a growing trend that increases the importance of channels like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest.
To stay competitive, retailers need to be available on more channels than ever before. But to remain profitable, they need to achieve this within budget.
Ambitious retailers look to PIM-DAM integration to deliver operational efficiencies that allow them to grow their content creation capacity without overstretching their resources. And create an efficient content workflow that delivers cost savings and protects profit margins.
Building a strong brand is a cornerstone of successful retailers because it keeps customers coming back for more. This lowers customer acquisition costs and increases lifetime customer value. A PIM DAM integration can help build a strong brand by supporting storytelling excellence, brand consistency, and extending reach.
A PIM and DAM combination even help support customer service. How? By providing your customer service team with searchable support videos and assets to share immediately online with customers – either via email or through a branded online portal. This can improve customer satisfaction and reduce returns.
Read more financial and operational benefits of integrating PIM with DAM.
PIM and DAM for CPG/manufacturing
The consumer packaged goods and manufacturing sectors can have a highly complex content supply chain too – meaning they’re also prime candidates to benefit from PIM-DAM integration.
CPG organisations typically have multiple products and different stages of the product lifecycle – all needing marketing materials for multiple platforms, as well as packaging. Plus there are multiple routes to market – from wholesale and retailers to their own direct-to-consumer (DTC) channels.
And then there’s the importance of accuracy, consistency and clarity on their packaging and product information – for example, allergens in ingredients lists, or information about certifications/industry standards.
This content supply chain might comprise multiple brand managers and content teams – so there’s a high risk of siloed departments and duplicated work. This can lead to wasted resources at one end of the risk spectrum – but errors and inconsistencies with serious consequences at the other.
A PIM-DAM integration ensures that marketing materials, POS and packaging are always up-to-date – using the right product information and digital assets approved at any given time. It reduces the risk of manual data entry and duplication.
It also streamlines the content supply chain in CPG and lets creatives focus on creating compelling campaigns for every product, on every platform, at every stage of the lifecycle – instead of checking data accuracy and cross-referencing between multiple platforms.
If you’d like to find out more about the benefits of integrating PIM and DAM, you can find everything you need to know in our Ultimate Guide to PIM-DAM integration.
If you’d like professional support to plan and execute a PIM-DAM integration in retail or manufacturing, get in touch with Qonqords team of friendly experts.
