Top 10 benefits of DAM and PIM for omnichannel retailing in e-commerce

Standing out in the crowded e-commerce landscape is no small feat. From creating impactful visual content to managing large product catalogs and multiple retail channels, brands juggle countless moving parts. Getting it right is critical for long-term success, yet many strategies to manage products and assets fall short — unable to scale with future growth or even meet current demands.

So, what tools are savvy e-commerce brands using to stay ahead of the competition? Two purpose-built solutions: product information management (PIM) and digital asset management (DAM) platforms. PIM and DAM platforms play unique roles in e-commerce such as reducing errors, speeding up product updates, and scaling product content management to meet growth opportunities.

If your teams are spending more time managing assets and product info than working on growth-driving initiatives, it’s a clear sign your brand will benefit from DAM and PIM systems.

Keep reading to discover the business benefits of DAM and PIM solutions — and the powerful results they deliver when used together.

1. Centralize product info and digital assets

When PIM and DAM for retail work together, they create a system that’s highly effective at organizing, managing, and distributing everything from digital marketing assets to detailed product specs. Together, they create a reliable duo from which e-commerce, marketing, product, and creative teams can pull approved brand assets or product information whenever they need them. Complementary platforms make it easy to ensure accuracy and streamline workflows across teams.

Though DAM and PIM solutions each offer significant benefits, using them separately can create silos within teams and workflows. When integrated, DAM and PIM solutions are far more powerful than when used alone — the gold standard being a unified DAM + PIM platform that smoothly combines all functionalities in one place.

2. Accelerate product launches

DAM platforms ensure visual content is always accessible, up-to-date, and easy to distribute, streamlining workflows across teams and accelerating asset production.

Meanwhile, PIM platforms enable better product management by keeping important information easy to access, always organized, and efficient to deliver. Using DAM and PIM platforms unifies brand content and product information, enabling all teams to launch products faster and more accurately, keep pace with market demands, and achieve campaign goals.

3. Improve omnichannel distribution

DAM and PIM solutions working together greatly enhance omnichannel distribution and drive the benefits of omnichannel retailing. DAM platforms keep visual assets organized, accessible, and ready for use across channels, while DAM and CDN (content delivery network) effectively streamline asset delivery. Having a unified look and feel across channels elevates your brand perception among consumers.

PIM solutions take this further by centralizing and standardizing product information to meet retailer requirements. Instead of a clunky spreadsheet that many brands rely on for their product information, PIM solutions are designed to make managing and delivering product info easy and organized. With integrations to e-commerce platforms, some PIM systems can even automatically deliver up-to-date product descriptions, specs, and pricing, improving efficiency and accuracy in product information distribution.

Tools like Canto’s Media Delivery Cloud automatically format assets to the correct dimensions for various websites, stores, and platforms in real time, ensuring a consistent and engaging brand presence everywhere.

4. Quick retrieval and searchability

DAM platforms prioritize effective searching by offering advanced tools to refine, contextualize, and organize images, significantly improving asset findability. Even if you already have a DAM platform, best-in-class software like Canto goes beyond traditional search capabilities, incorporating AI-powered search features such as AI Visual Search. This AI tool helps you find the most relevant images faster.

Similarly, PIM platforms enhance search functionality by allowing users to search using keywords and refine results based on a wide range of product specifications, such as size, color, price, and SKU. Enhanced searchability ensures teams can quickly access the most relevant and up-to-date product data, improving accuracy and efficiency across all channels.

Implementing a unified DAM and PIM solution is the most effective way to save time locating product information and assets. A single platform further enhances content findability by consolidating product information and assets into one centralized location.

5. Brand consistency and compliance

For e-commerce brands, maintaining brand consistency across all channels is essential. A DAM platform centralizes approved assets, ensuring teams always use current, brand-compliant visuals across websites, commerce channels, and social media.

DAM platforms include brand compliance features such as:

• Digital rights management (DRM) tools to ensure licensed or copyrighted assets are used correctly
• Version control to ensure content remains up-to-date and consistent
• Approval statuses and expiration dates help regulate content, while style guides reinforce brand identity

However, visuals alone aren’t enough. Brand consistency also depends on aligning these assets with accurate product information.

This is where PIM for e-commerce comes in. By centralizing and standardizing product data — such as descriptions, specifications, and pricing — a PIM platform ensures that visual content and product information work together effectively, providing customers with reliable and trustworthy content across every touchpoint.

To achieve the level of brand consistency that e-commerce brands strive for, implementing a unified DAM and PIM solution, such as Canto PIM, streamlines content delivery and management that is crucial for a cohesive omnichannel brand experience.

6. Enhance collaboration

Together, DAM and PIM platforms empower internal and external marketing, sales, product, and creative teams to work more efficiently. A centralized DAM ensures teams can reliably organize, find, and collaborate on up-to-date visual assets, while a PIM for retail ensures accurate product information is always at their fingertips. This single source of truth reduces project delays and keeps workflows smooth and synchronized.

Beyond centralization, robust DAM platforms foster deeper collaboration by:

• Simplifying approval and production workflows to streamline content creation and ensure brand consistency
• Providing digital spaces for teams to work together, enhancing communication and efficiency
• Enabling role-specific access to ensure the right stakeholders have the appropriate permissions
• Integrating with popular productivity, creative, collaboration, and work management tools, making it easier to manage assets within existing workflows

7. Increase ROI

Producing and managing product attributes and images demands significant investments of both time and money. DAM and PIM platforms ensure you maximize product content investments by driving efficiency, reducing redundancies, and enabling faster time to market.

How do they achieve these benefits? DAM platforms make digital assets easy to find, repurpose, and distribute across teams and channels, saving time and reducing costs. Meanwhile, PIM platforms ensure product information stays accurate, accessible, and consistent, minimizing errors and costly delays.

Together, DAM and PIM solutions free your teams to focus on high-impact projects that directly contribute to brand growth, delivering measurable returns on your content and team resources.

8. Accessible platform for all users

Time spent fulfilling asset or product information requests can drain valuable time and resources. PIM platforms allow teams like sales, marketing, and retailers to directly access the specific up-to-date product details — when they need it — without waiting on others. Meanwhile, DAM platforms ensure that finding the right visual assets is fast and intuitive, even for new users.

Together, these platforms enable teams to securely self-serve both product content and information anytime, from anywhere. A unified solution further reduces bottlenecks, improves efficiency, and ensures everyone has what they need to stay productive.

9. Streamlined scaling

Using a DAM and PIM platform together simplifies your tech ecosystem and streamlines operations. Centralizing digital content and product details and integrating them with your existing marketing stack helps your team to scale more efficiently, streamline content creation, and even simplify expansion into new markets.

While DAM and PIM solutions offer powerful benefits, the most effective approach is a unified, all-in-one DAM + PIM system — eliminating extra costs and integration challenges. Many teams may see a PIM platform as a complex addition, but with an integrated solution, adopting it becomes a simple, yet powerful, next step.

10. Improve brand security

PIM and DAM platforms recognize the need for many users to access product data and digital assets while maintaining strict security standards. Both DAM and PIM platforms provide robust security, privacy, and compliance features. A unified platform simplifies product content management and security, reducing risks of content misuse, inaccurate content usage, or compliance issues.

Canto is the leading DAM + PIM solution

Canto PIM is a unique DAM + PIM solution built to align product content and information. Built to break down information silos, reduce errors, and speed up product updates, it empowers e-commerce brands to operate efficiently and scale smoothly. Canto PIM equips your teams with the most accurate data and assets whenever they need it.

Canto PIM is loaded with the features e-commerce teams need:

• All-in-one DAM and PIM solution to manage your product imagery, brand assets, SKU and product IDs, descriptions, and more
• Custom attributes and metadata fields capture and organize all your product information and asset metadata easily and efficiently
• Powerful search tools, like AI Visual Search, find assets and products anywhere in the platform
• Workflows, Workspaces Style Guides, DRM tools, and content controls to manage and collaborate effectively
• Manage and distribute large product or brand asset collections across sales teams and retailers faster than ever with Portals and Product Catalogs
• Easily deliver specially tailored assets and products to channels using Media Delivery Cloud and Channel Mapping
• 40+ integrations with work management, productivity, collaboration, creative tools, CMS, social media platforms, and more

Ready to learn more about what Canto PIM could do for you? Download our eBook –– From Chaos to Clarity: Transforming Your Product Experience with DAM and PIM.