Trading across national borders ("cross-border") is nothing unusual these days. Suppliers who sell their products internationally are faced with the challenge of managing and adapting product information. On the one hand, this includes determining the right sales channels for the respective economic market, on the other hand, product information in the form of features and descriptions also need to be translated (plus currencies, taxes, shipping costs, etc.). These challenges can be mastered excellently with a PIM.
PIM stands for Product Information Management and has the task of managing product information. Especially in online retail, detailed and authentic product information in online retail is especially important.
Let's consider clothing as an example: Customers are not able to touch or try on products in an online store. They are dependent on the information provided by the store.
According to a survey in which 2,000 participants from Germany, Italy, Holland, and French-speaking areas in Canada and Japan were questioned, most customers prefer to buy goods and services online in their native language.
The more customers can find out about a product before buying it, the less likely it is that it will not fit or be liked and will be returned. Reducing the rate of returns saves costs in personnel, logistics and storage of products and is also quite positive from a sustainability and environmental perspective.
There are various ways for retailers to translate product information. For example, translators can be hired to translate all the required content, which takes time and incurs costs. Alternatively, a translation tool can be connected to the PIM, which can be used to edit and enrich product data across national borders. The data can then be deployed to the respective markets in the required languages.
Of course, the integration of such a translation tool also causes expenses, but these are usually onetime expenses and can easily be reduced. But even without such a system, a PIM offers the appropriate workflows for manual maintenance of the translations.