You may already be familiar with product information management systems (PIMs), but have you ever thought about how they came about? Where did PIMs come from, and how did they start?
Like many other systems for ecommerce companies, PIM was a tool that went from ‘want’ to ‘need’ very quickly. Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention, and PIM is now an integral part of managing product information effectively.
This article explores PIM history in full, including where it came from, how it developed, and why any of it matters to modern ecommerce businesses. We also explain how it’s evolved from its earliest days, including where it’s headed and what the future holds.
Looking for a specific era? Just jump to the timeframe you want to explore.
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The enterprise PIM era (2000-2010) The omnichannel revolution (2010-2015) The digital experience era (2015-2020) |
PIM has its roots in the late 1990s, but its core functions and origins go back a full decade prior. That’s why we’re looking back at the full history of PIM, from the 1980s to the 2020s and beyond.
A quick side note before we begin: while our timeline here presents distinct eras for PIM, the reality is that there was often overlap in between. Different organizations adopted technologies at different rates, and the evolution of PIM was more gradual than our visualization might suggest.
Now with that out of the way, let’s start back at the beginning:
Ahhh, the 80s: when the shoulder pads were big, and the hair was bigger. The internet wasn’t yet a household name, and the idea of ecommerce was still brand-new for most business owners.
Larger businesses, including name-brand giants like Sears, still published print catalogs that went out to customers through snail mail. As you might imagine, managing this product data was an incredible slog. Print catalogs required physical records of product information, which were slow to create and frustrating to edit (not to mention prone to error).
To put it in perspective:
Now, there were some early database management systems designed for local computer networks. Microsoft Excel was released on September 30, 1985, and some enterprising folks realized its potential for product management. This was certainly an improvement over pen-and-paper cataloging, but data inconsistencies, manual errors, and rapidly growing product complexities left a lot to be desired.
Getting a second-hand headache just reading about this? Just imagine how businesses of the 80s felt!
But it wouldn’t be long until the market invented a solution. The internet was about to make it much, much easier to manage product information on a screen.
TL;DR: In the 80s and early 90s, companies relied on basic spreadsheets or paper catalogs to store product data and send listings to customers.
How can you tell it’s the end of a marketing era? When a cultural icon goes the way of the dinosaur. This is what happened to the ‘Big Book’ Sears Catalog, which circulated for the last time in 1993—the very same year that the World Wide Web entered the public domain.
With the rise of the internet came the rise of online stores, the most obvious example of which was Amazon in 1995. It didn’t take long for other businesses to follow suit, and in a few short years, online payment providers like PayPal opened the doors to a genuine ecommerce economy.
How does this apply to PIM, you ask? For one thing, business owners could manage their product information on stronger computers with more advanced software. They could also list their products on the (now public) internet—which set the groundwork for PIM.
Of course, the very first PIMs weren’t really accessible to the public. They were mostly customized solutions built on-demand for larger brands. These dedicated product information systems, while rudimentary, offered a lot of good to growing brands.
Businesses could use PIM systems to:
Another point of interest: enterprise resource planning solutions (ERP). These were proprietary platforms designed to unify data streams—think HR, finance, operations, and inventory management—so the information would be easier to retrieve.
ERPs were followed by custom digital asset management software, which stored content assets in the digital world so companies could retrieve them at a moment’s notice. This represented a dramatic leap forward in the ecommerce digital frontier.
TL;DR: The first PIMs were built for enterprise brands. ERP and DAM databases were also developed on an ad-hoc basis for larger companies.
In the span of just five years, businesses could suddenly make sales anywhere, to anyone, at practically any time. Rather than selling to their local community only, stores now had access to 361 million Internet users (not to mention ecommerce platforms like Alibaba, Tradera, and Newegg).
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t still headaches with product information management. Data was often still siloed and typically required manual entry—which was frustrating for small businesses without the funds to build a proprietary PIM system.
Thankfully, a long-term solution was in the works. With the help of cloud computing (and the examples set by proprietary PIMs) in 2006, companies could purchase pre-made PIM systems that integrated fully with ERPs and DAMs.
Then entered the concept of Master Data Management (or MDM), which allowed companies to store essential data in a single digital file. This ensured product data would have a uniform appearance and format, which helped to eliminate data silos, manual errors, and the frustration of typing out information multiple times.
You can probably imagine how transformative this was, especially for smaller brands without the funds to build their own databases. Ecommerce businesses could improve operational efficiency, boost data governance practices, and launch products even faster.
TL;DR: PIMs became widely accessible. They could be fully integrated with ERP and DAM software, and with the rise of MDM, it was easier to keep clean data.
It didn’t take long before early PIM adopters reaped the benefits of this now-available technology. Studies show PIM adopters in the past have doubled their product data accuracy, reached 84% of their goals, and grown their online presence by 300%.
But what many early adopters didn’t realize was how much PIMs would prepare them for the future. Customers were no longer shopping on just one or two channels—and the rise of mobile phone commerce and social media influencers continued to flip the script.
During this period of change, PIM enabled:
These new PIM solutions (including Plytix!) changed the face of ecommerce as we knew it. Businesses weren’t just going national anymore—they were going global. And by the end of 2015, there were more than 38.5 billion global ecommerce transactions.
"E-commerce revolutionized retail, transforming it from local storefronts to global marketplaces. Since its humble beginnings decades ago, ecommerce has redefined convenience, security, and user experience, proving indispensable for consumers and businesses alike.” — Rick Nelson, CEO @ The Fulfillment Lab
TL;DR: PIMs helped ecommerce companies reach international customers on a variety of channels.
“If your product has any interaction with people whatsoever, user experience is important. A poor user experience can still make a well built product fail. The people who work inside your organization and use your product are still people. Pay attention to the whole experience of using your product. It’ll increase the chances that you’ll see those process improvements you’re looking for.” — Kent J. McDonald, Product Management Professional @ KBPMedia
PIM users pretty much had it made by the end of 2015. Online shops could build omnichannel experiences, connect with the tools they already used, and easily keep tabs on product data without unintentionally creating information silos.
But there were still a few blind spots PIM had yet to cover, especially as global ecommerce became the norm rather than the exception. Product managers were fighting never-before-seen battles, including complex international compliance standards, ever-changing requirements on marketing channels, and of course, the process of manually updating previous product content to meet these strict expectations (sometimes SKU by SKU).
Failing to address these recurring issues would leave ecommerce customers with solidly negative experiences.
Think about it:
Jayashree Dutta, Co-Founder of atronous.ai, sums this up nicely:
“For years, suppliers and retailers have struggled with disconnected systems, manual processes, and inconsistent data formats. These inefficiencies lead to delayed listings, non-compliance with marketplace requirements, and missed opportunities to attract customers. Moreover, marketplaces frequently update their standards, leaving businesses scrambling to keep up.”
For all these reasons (and many more), PIM creators began adding more pizzazz to their systems. The goal was to accommodate the new norms of ecommerce and make it easier to manage product data from anywhere.
Today, PIM systems offer a wide variety of features:
These are now expectations in the ecommerce space and must-have features on any PIM system.
They’re also far from the last developments we’ll see.
Keep reading for a rundown of modern PIM tools.
TL;DR: PIMs have developed into robust management tools that businesses of any size can access, customize, and implement.
After literal decades of change and development, PIM as we know it was finally born. Thousands of companies now use PIM to manage their products, from brand-new startups to Fortune 500s. It’s also projected to become a $60 billion industry by 2027, which is pretty impressive considering it’s barely 40 years old.
Here’s what separates modern PIMs from their older counterparts:
But at this point, you’re probably dying to know. . .
This is why our article is called an ‘almost’ complete history of PIM. 😉
Because PIM software is constantly changing, and as ecommerce evolves, so too must its management tools.
That’s not to say we don’t have hot takes, though. Based on the recent trends we’ve seen, here’s our best guess at what to expect:
This, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.
The history of PIM puts modern ecommerce into perspective, and it’s worth considering how much it’s changed and where it’s going (both today and in the future). They’ve certainly made a splash in the ecommerce world—and they won’t be going away anytime soon.
But of course, not all PIMs have kept up with the times. Some are far more robust than others. If you’re planning on growing your business, or if you’re ready to take your organization to the next level, you may need to upgrade your PIM in the near future.
Ready to jumpstart your business with a cutting-edge data management tool?
Learn more about Plytix PIM.