Growth of PIM Market and Associated Trends

What is a PIM, actually? PIM stands for Product Information Management. In short, a PIM like our Icecat PIM refers to the processes and systems for handling all the structured and unstructured product content needed for running an e-business. Before choosing a PIM tool, in-depth business analysis is critical. That is why I want to explore here the PIM market and the accompanying trends.

The e-commerce industry is growing at an accelerated pace worldwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, internet access and the use of smartphones are increasing. Online sales are increasing worldwide by almost 18% per year, facilitated by the rise of big marketplaces like Amazon.com, Alibaba, eBay, and local marketplaces like BOL.com. To keep up with the rapid growth, we see that PIM becomes an increasingly popular business solution. This helps companies to save time and apply automation to update product information on the e-commerce platform quickly. A need-to-have given the exploding size of the average online catalog.

Growing PIM

According to MarketsandMarkets research report, the PIM market is expected to grow from USD 9 billion in 2020 to USD 16 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 12%. The major players in the PIM market are:

• Oracle
• SAP Hybris
• IBM
• Pimcore
• Akeneo
• Salsify

For most such popular PIM platforms, Icecat add-ons are available.

Especially ASIA & Pacific have a high regional growth rate, compared to Europe, North- and South America.

Salsify has extended the PIM functionality with syndication functionalities, somewhat overlapping with the number 1 Icecat in the PIMS (PIM + Syndication) space, Syndy, and Icecat PIM.

Trends towards PIMS

More specifically, the trends that I see in the PIM market are the rising demand for PIM solutions from the e-commerce industry, boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, data security and privacy risk becoming more important for organizations. Also, connectivity or syndication is becoming the centerpiece: a PIM involves data collection and syndication from one channel or system to another. This enables the full automation of product information management workflows. This of course requires a single product data standard or taxonomy, which is essential for the seamless exchange of data between all market players in a value chain. Things that only a true PIMS resolve. Finally, to grow and stay ahead of competition, companies are searching for an AI-powered PIM. But, in many cases, this is still a research subject more than a business subject.