PLM & PIM Solutions Drive Sales in 2023

Surefront is a Unified Product Collaboration Platform with PIM, CRM, and PLM solutions. It's a centralized data home where stakeholders can freely share product information and assign access permissions. Most integrations are supported in Surefront, but none are needed. Our articles often focus on one aspect of our unified PIM, PLM, and CRM platform. With Surefront, each solution seamlessly works together to achieve a guaranteed 10x ROI for every customer.

Bad data is not a victimless “crime.” It leads to faulty inventory predictions and internal errors. These errors lead to over assortment and, when too much inventory sits on retail shelves, discounting becomes a necessity –– leading to reduced margins. Trend responsiveness on new styles slows. And, in the face of way too many choices, overwhelmed customers wind up buying less altogether. 

Fortunately, bad data is also highly preventable. Unified PLM & PIM solution providers can help retail businesses transform data errors from a pressing problem into a distant memory. The retail industry is realizing the necessity of PLM software solutions that pack the heavy data punch of PIM. Covid-19 accelerated the rate of PLM adoption in 2020, and the PLM solutions industry has been on an upward trajectory ever since. The product lifecycle management market size is predicted to grow to an unprecedented $32.1 billion in 2023. However, without the heavyweight data punch of Product Information Management (PIM), PLM solutions cannot access the level of data that's necessary for most retail industries.

Let’s talk about how unified PLM & PIM platforms can help reduce or eradicate the data errors plaguing the retail industry in news ways in 2023.

Catch bad data before it eats critical resources

Bad data costs the average U.S. business $12.9 million a year. When retailers lack a single source of truth, errors occur. These errors cost more to resolve the closer they get to the frontline. Say, for instance, a home furnishings brand has the wrong color iteration for a couch stored in their PLM solution. Without the means to see who entered the wrong color, and at which stage of development the wrong color was entered, the brand won’t have the means to address the error in a timely fashion. 

This can result in retailers placing orders for a color that doesn’t exist, causing lost sales revenue, wasted employee hours, and potentially even a lost relationship with that particular retailer. We’re living in the midst of a global supply chain shortage. So it’s more important than ever for suppliers, brands, and retailers to have accurate product data at their fingertips. 

It’s equally important for retail businesses to have a historical change log within their PLM and PIM solution to track every single change throughout the product lifecycle and sales process. With an easily accessible historical change log, bad data can be identified, targeted, and remedied in a shorter period of time, before it negatively impacts the business.

Granular data leads to smarter decision making

Yet, all too often, retailers lack access to the granular historical data that’s necessary to improve decision making. While aggregate data can be helpful to identify over-arching industry trends, it doesn’t help determine targeted actions. Product lifecycle management solutions can give retail businesses access to the data they need to make informed manufacturing and purchasing decisions, centralizing data such as: product components, colors, history, who ordered what, and what they said about it. NielsenIQ reports:

“Granular data enables unique results for specific market clusters and measures them as they change—in real time. With this information, retailers can determine the unique implications for each cluster, rather than simply looking at data on an aggregate level. ”

However, for retail teams to be able to review and standardize product data before it goes downstream, they first need fast access to massive amounts of granular product data. From product colors and components to how products performed at various store locations and tracking retailer preferences so sales teams can create customized product offerings, a unified solution is the only path forward. With a unified PLM & PIM, teams can easily edit product fields and values. They can track every edit that transpires, so it takes minutes –– not weeks –– to determine who made what modifications and at what stage of the game those modifications were made. 

Unified PLM & PIM solutions make it easy to achieve data integrity

Accurate data helps retailers customize their offerings for the front line. Historically, product lifecycle management solutions were relegated to managing product data –– which is a critical part of the puzzle. It’s certainly essential for retailers to bring products to market quickly in an organized fashion. But the product ideation, manufacturing, and shipping phases are just a part of the retail process. 

The best PLM solution providers are taking data integrity a step further, going beyond the product lifecycle to offer fully integrated features like Product Information Management (PIM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Unified solutions can help streamline teams that have nothing to do with bringing products to market. The difference between merely processing transactions and driving the retail experience lies in more than just products. To become a frictionless vendor, brands need to offer certainty, data specificity and ease. Surefront carries the retail relationship far beyond production, with features to address data management, eCommerce listings, B2B sales, and more.

You don’t want your data to be siloed. Your company’s CRM, PIM and PLM solutions shouldn’t operate in a vacuum, either. Surefront is a Unified Product Collaboration Platform to power growth and ROI. Our patented PIM, CRM, and PLM solutions streamline the omni channel sales, merchandising and product development processes. By combining these essential functionalities, Surefront creates a single source of truth throughout your product lifecycle, sales and listing processes. 

The results? Up to 150% more revenue per employee and a 40% shorter product development cycle is just the beginning. Try our 10x ROI calculator to see your company’s potential profits. Or, skip the noise and book a custom demo with one of our unified product collaboration management experts today. The retail industry evolves quickly and has a lot of moving parts. We do all of the research, so you don’t have to. Stay ahead of market fluctuations, trends and new features by subscribing to our Unified Product Collaboration Management Blog.