Pimcore Optimises Sales Service Costs Through Automation and Integration

How does using Pimcore really reduce my sales service costs?

From this article you will learn:

• How does Pimcore incorporate automation and integration to optimise sales service costs?
• What can you automate using Pimcore?
• What can you integrate with using Pimcore?
• How does Pimcore integrate with so many systems, platforms and sales channels at the same time?
   

1. Pimcore reduces costs because... it doesn't create new ones.

Efficient product data management has a real impact on your costs. If you minimise errors caused by inconsistent, out-of-date information being spread across different departments, your team won't waste time trying to resolve issues.

If you additionally automate the process of filling in product data, your employees will be able – instead of engaging in time-consuming updating of information, e.g. in Excel sheets – to devote their time to other activities, such as analysing the most effective sales channels.

And this is the strength of the Pimcore platform. It supports entrepreneurs in streamlining the flow of data within their business: between departments, stakeholders and channels. This is possible thanks to work automation and integration with various systems and data sources, including areas such as assigning products to categories based on their description, standardising data in product descriptions or attributes.

Pimcore's automation capabilities allow it to build a major competitive advantage, such as through personalised offers or dynamic pricing. Pimcore has observed that customers using the platform have increased productivity (40%) and reduced costs (15%).

2. Pimcore maximises profits by helping you stay ahead of your competition

Pimcore helps you accelerate the publication of product information across multiple sales channels. With PIM, you can more quickly fill in product information, including marketing description, cross-selling and upselling data, user-generated content, SKUs, and product dimensions. You will also reduce delays caused by data gaps and errors. This will let your business make profit by staying ahead of the competition.

It is worth mentioning that the creators of the Pimcore platform noticed that the more consistent the processed product data was among their customers, the easier it was for them to reach new markets, which increased sales and revenue by up to 20%.

3. Depending on your choice, it gives you capabilities such as enterprise-class solutions or open source solutions

The open-source Pimcore does not make a company dependent on a single vendor. An entrepreneur using the platform can develop it on their own or with a selected IT provider. The open source version (Community Edition) includes the PIM/MDM/CDP/DAM and DXP/CMS/Commerce modules. Importantly, in Pimcore – as opposed to Akeneo, for example – the free version is not limited by the number of records. There’s no limit to the number of languages, channels or users, which keeps the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the Pimcore platform low and increases the ROI.

Before making your choice, you should also consider the benefits that the Pimcore Enterprise version can bring to your organisation. The annual subscription includes marketplace integration and a translation interface, among other features.

Examples of integration in Pimcore

Pimcore allows you to seamlessly integrate your organisation's existing information ecosystem. It connects the necessary systems and product data sources to ensure that all people in the company have constant access to the latest version of the information. This connection is made possible by Pimcore's software architecture, which is based on an API. This, in turn, is an implementation of the ‘connect anything’ principle dear to the platform's creators.

It's all thanks to the API

An API is a way of communication that allows systems to exchange data between one another. Let's give an everyday example that you may be very familiar with. Thanks to an API, when paying for online shopping you can seamlessly switch from your online store to a transaction service such as PayU, przelewy24.pl or dotpay, and then to your bank's website or mobile app to complete the payment. Pimcore's API works on a similar principle.

Pimcore integration examples

Now that you know how integrations in Pimcore are possible, let's move on to the specifics.

Importing data from external sources

You can import data in XLS, XLSX, JSON and XML formats into Pimcore from remote SFTP (client-server communication protocol) or HTTP (hypertext document transfer protocol) locations. Working on them will be easier: Pimcore allows you to schedule regular data updates and cleaning to save even more time.

Integrations with external systems

The Pimcore platform can also integrate with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), CRM (Customer Relationship Management) and SAP (Systems Applications and Products in data processing) systems.

Pimcore PIM + ERP

PIM and ERP systems can work harmoniously together. ERP collects information about products, customers, prices and warehouse locations. However, it focuses on product range availability, not marketing or sales. This is where the PIM system comes in. It gathers the product information available in ERP, helping to match it to the marketing needs of the organisation and linking it to the output channels.

Pimcore PIM + SAP

One of the benefits of integrating Pimcore PIM and SAP is the centralised management of product data and elimination of redundancy. This in turn improves productivity by reducing the number of hours spent manually synchronising data and sending information to internal teams, wholesalers, suppliers and customers.

Integrations with e-commerce and marketplace platforms

Integration of product information with sales platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Alibaba or Walmart (as well as niche platforms) is seamless in Pimcore (in the Enterprise version). Data is optimised for each market, whether local or global.

In addition, the system enables multi-channel synchronisation of orders and organises information about the status of product availability across all marketplace channels (in the Enterprise version). It allows you to track orders in a centralised dashboard and gives you access to a complete overview of all orders. You can also compare the performance of each channel. This module helps you to control the number of orders and relate them to your stock levels, allowing you to provide your customers with up-to-date information on the number of products available, thus improving user experience. This has been confirmed by Pimcore customers: better availability of product data across channels has improved user engagement by 40%.

Importantly, the Pimcore Marketplace integration platform connects to these channels precisely thanks to the aforementioned API, which comes with built-in marketplace catalogue templates. Using these helps accelerate the presentation of products in new channels – and Pimcore supports over 2,500 of them.

To sum up

Pimcore helps you reduce sales enablement costs by:

• Automating your organisation's data workflow and eliminating errors,
• Speeding up the publication of product information across different sales channels through integration and automation,
• Enabling companies to develop the software on their own or with any IT supplier