One of the most commonly asked questions we get from our prospects across geographies and industries is “how much does a PIM solution cost?” or “can you please provide me some information about the price of a PIM solution?”
Surely that isn't a difficult question to answer, right?
If so, why is it that most PIM vendors do not provide a public price list for their software?
As it turns out, there is a legitimate reason for that. Read on to learn more.
Why can't you tell me how much is a PIM?
Businesses use PIM platforms to drive online sales with the help of centralized and organized product information.
Even though PIM is a fairly mature concept and there are quite a few providers now, there is no unified definition of PIM that everyone agrees on. If you look at Wikipedia, the definition is so broad that it is not possible to use it for a real comparison of the various PIM solutions, enterprise-grade or not.
This lack of a good definition that all vendors can agree on makes it difficult to compare either vendors or software. Moreover, PIM pricing varies based on several factors, such as company size, number of SKUs, language requirements, etc. And those factors also affect the implementation and customization costs.
As a result, it is almost impossible for most vendors to state upfront the exact cost of their PIM tool.
8 types of data you can share to get a cost estimation
Thankfully, there is a way to get a ballpark figure on the cost of a PIM tool.
If you are trying to calculate how much is a PIM worth for your business, there are some commonalities you can use as an indicator in your quest for a good comparison. Just provide the vendor with the following details of your business needs:
Imagine you are running a Magento e-commerce site with only about 100 SKUs. You can manage the product data manually. Updating one hundred product descriptions with associated texts, images and prices take time away from the more valuable growth-hacking activities you should be doing, but the data storage involved is not a big issue.
But, if you have 500,000 SKUs in your ERP and you want to display them in all sales channels, that is a different matter. Not only do you need to consider data storage in PIM, but you should also remember to maintain sufficient data quality and the transfer costs between PIM and ERP.
Number of Attributes
At the same time as you consider how many SKUs you want the PIM solution to handle, you might also take a quick look at approximately how many attributes you are handling per SKU. This, too, has an effect on data storage and transfer costs, but more importantly, it indicates how complex the solution is.
Most PIM solutions will not have a problem handling product content that consists of many attributes, but there may be vast differences in how easy it is to actually create and manage attributes for products. The number of attributes is also one of the parameters in calculating the data storage and transfer costs discussed above.
Use of Media
A third driver for cost with regard to storage and transfer is media handling. Not only does the number of images impact the amount of storage required, but the quality of the images, videos, and other visual materials also play in.
If you intend to use the PIM for e-commerce only, you will not need print-quality images and graphics, but be aware that the requirements for HD videos and images are on the rise for digital channels.
Number of Users
Some vendors may also ask you to provide the number of users of the PIM solution. Even though this does not directly relate to the production cost of your supplier, it may indicate your willingness and ability to pay for an enterprise-grade solution. More importantly, the number of PIM users will indicate the need for training and support throughout the customer relationship.
When considering the price per user, be sure to also find out what kind of support the provider offers for the price given. Do they only allow chat and online support, or do you actually get to talk to a person? Do they require you to have a dedicated account manager or a separate support team?
As always, the devil lies in the details. Too little support may indicate an immature provider, while too much may mean their product will require detailed follow-up.
Number of Locations
Even though PIM is in many ways a back-office software, the performance of a PIM solution will affect the performance of your e-commerce site.
This means that if you run an on-premises PIM and a SaaS e-commerce solution (a fairly common set-up these days), you may experience reduced performance on real-time data lookup. Sure, some of this may be solved by caching data, but that has implications for how you work on product releases and updates.
Another reason vendors will ask about your locations is that the requirement for speed in GUI is so high these days that it matters if the server is hosted somewhere in Europe, for example, while the user resides in Asia.
Some suppliers are able to provide you with a solution that is mirrored across geographies, but this is also reflected in their prices.
Number of Languages
Adding languages means adding complexity to a solution. If you already know you will only need English and German in your output channels, you might as well state that in your initial request.
Adding several languages or languages with other types of letters or special characters (such as the Arabic or Chinese alphabets) will add to the price of the solution. Very few PIM solutions will come with these configurations in their standard software setup, and these requirements will typically have to be catered for in a side project.
This is not to say that you should not ask for it if you need it. Providing local languages is sometimes underestimated by the IT supplier side.
Number of Output Channels
Some people use PIM solutions only for data governance, i.e. to manage products before they export them to Excel and upload them to other systems. Those of us who have been working in the PIM space for a while know that the real benefits of a good PIM solution show up after you have integrated your PIM solution into one or more output channels.
The more output channels you add, the more automation you can do. This increases the value for you as a customer (and vendors are well aware of this). A second reason that output channels are important is that they, too, require more data transfer between systems – data that you, as a customer, are expected to pay for.
Functional Requirements
You should let the supplier know what features you are expecting before implementing PIM.
Some provide a lot out-of-the-box, while others may provide these features as custom add-ons. Some vendors lack a range of what most would regard as core PIM features. But in the end, that is up to you to decide.
Some vendors probably have other criteria for pricing, but if you are able to give at least some input on the topics above, it should be enough for a vendor to give you a ballpark number.
Be aware, though, that what we have given you here are just parameters for pricing a running PIM system. The project cost (also sometimes referred to as onboarding) is an additional one-time cost.
Pricing this expense is even more complex and largely depends on your organization’s technical competence and capabilities with regard to the time you have available to run the project. Most vendors will either help you with the entire project or will refer you to a partner.
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