This article provides considerations for developing your website product information management (PIM) strategy.
Last Published: 10/20/2016

FACT: 73percent of global traffic to B2B company sites originates from Google, and most searchers do not go past the first page of the search engine results page (SERP).

Your product information management (PIM) is the management of the content that you display on your website that the customer sees. Information and data about the products featured on your website are managed through your PIM strategy and practices, and your strategy is not only essential to managing the content that the customer sees on your site, but also to your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.  This goes double for any marketing efforts that you base off of any web analytics you perform on your site.

 

A PIM Strategy means developing a content life cycle on your site to produce compelling and sustainable content: 

  • Audit and analysis of your website will help determine the usefulness and design of your current website.
  • Establishing a PIM process within your business, assigning information area ownership, establishing a product taxonomy, and creating a process or workflow for current and new content.
  • A staffing plan is needed for assigning individual roles and for content management. 
  • Product data creation is a competitive advantage, so writing special or high-quality descriptions for your products including pictures and videos can be a tremendous asset to your ecommerce efforts. Roles for this effort will fit into your website governance model that is established in the planning phase and that will handle content production and SEO functions as well. 
  • Monitor the performance of products across all of your webpages and sales channels, make constant improvements, and determine targets for success measures in your Web Analytics strategy. 

DISCLAIMER: Links to websites outside the U.S. Federal Government, or the use of trade, firm, or corporation names within the International Trade Administration websites (export.gov and trade.gov) are for the convenience of the user. Such use does not constitute an official endorsement or approval by the U.S. Commerce Department of any private sector website, product, or service. When selecting links, be aware that you are subject to the privacy and security policies of the owners/sponsors of the outside website. Prepared by the International Trade Administration. With its network of 108 offices across the United States and in more than 75 countries, the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce utilizes its global presence and international marketing expertise to help U.S. companies sell their products and services worldwide. Locate the trade specialist in the U.S. nearest you by visiting http://export.gov/usoffices.