Catalog management system refers to maintenance of product information in a structured and organized manner to help customers as well as channel partners understand product benefits. Generally catalogs provide detailed information of product functionalities, price and generally seen in websites.
A catalog management system helps to both design and edit online catalogs. It also helps to price the products available.
Some of the desired properties of CMS are as follows:
Manageable: It should be able to load catalogs, and edit the contents once it loads. Even if the catalog becomes bigger, the CMS system should be able to maintain it.
Search: The CMS system must enable the creation of queries to search the catalog on multiple categories. The CMS system should facilitate easy browsing of the catalog, by creation of easily navigable pages. CMS also generally help in carrying out analysis of the data obtained from the catalog. CMS should make the catalog structure in such a way that the catalog is easily scalable, and does not create disruption to the main site.
Catalogue management “is the process of suppliers enabling electronic product content to be made available to buying organisations in order for them to procure goods electronically” and where the product content can be hosted by either the supplier or the buyer. Hence, this concludes the definition of Catalog Management System along with its overview.
Overview
Plytix is a cloud-based product data management solution that is built and priced for small teams. The platform empowers ecommerce companies to take control of their product content by giving them a centralized hub where they can consolidate, optimize, and distribute their product data and assets. With unlimited users, whole teams from sales to marketing and management can have access to the information they need on the go.
The platform is designed to help small and medium companies keep their product information optimized, accessible, and up to date. Companies that use Plytix are able to enrich content 3 times faster and cut down on 76% of manual tasks, allowing them to open up new sales channels, and improve customer experience with their products.
The 4 main features are the product importer, product management platform, smart catalogs, and channel builder.
The product importer facilitates the transfer of information from ERP systems, spreadsheets, and other data sources by providing automatic attribute mapping and profiles for regular imports.
The product management feature gives companies the ability edit and update product information, link assets, filter data, track progress, and create smart & static product lists for channels, catalogs, teams, and to-do lists. The system offers over 10 different attribute types, so the user can make their product information searchable so that they can compare and update effectively.
Smart catalogs allow users to share product content and data for press kits and B2B partners efficiently without requiring coding or a custom solution. Smart catalogs let the end-user download exactly what they want in the format they want it in without ever having to email the brand. Companies can update their data in real-time to ensure their partners and the press have the most up to date and accurate information on hand.
The channel builder is where users can create custom product feeds for their sales channels and marketplaces. Schedule feed updates and send information to third party platforms like Shopify and Google Shopping without having to update multiple spreadsheets and repetitive data. Supported formats include XML, CSV, and XLS which are compatible with the most popular ecommerce platforms and marketplaces.
Features list:
- Search and filter by product attributes, SKU, and other properties
- Create unlimited product attributes
- Invite unlimited users for better access
- Create unlimited digital content portals with smart catalogs
- Build product feeds for all your sales channels in XML, CSV, and XLSX (no coding required)
- Embed smart catalogs onto your own website
- Track product progress with customizable completeness attributes
- Enable catalog download notifications
- Store unlimited product assets
- Attentive customer support
- Create categories for products and files
Detailed Features:
Product Information Management
Plytix is the disruptive alternative to conventional PIM solutions. We’ve made it our mission to build a powerful platform that can compete with the existing solutions on the market, but at the same time be easy to operate and available to companies of all sizes.
- A single source of truth: Gather all of your product data, files, and content, and manage it all from one place. No more spreadsheets mayhem. No more wasting time finding images to match the products. All teams can collaborate real-time from one, centralized database.
- Optimal team collaboration: Unlimited users can work on your product data at the same time.
- Edit on the fly: Direct editing in a table view.
- More efficient content management: Apply intelligent filtering using all your product attributes, to find and optimize products faster than ever. Use filter to segment and group your product, in a smart, simple way – that makes sense for your business. Imagine an advanced and user-friendly version of pivot tables from spreadsheets.
- Verify your data: Completion metrics that will show you how complete your products are for a given purpose.
- Grow in international markets: Easy language handling capabilities.
Multi-channel Distribution
More sales channels means more optimized content to remain competitive online. At Plytix, the multi-channel features allow you to connect your content with any 3rd party system. Drive ecommerce growth with PIM. For optimal ecommerce growth, a multi-channel marketing strategy is a must. Plytix makes it easy to get your products to multiple markets and grow your sales online.
- Syndication: Plytix allows you to syndicate your product data with any third-party channel, and get your products to market 6x faster. Get your data marketplace ready with optimized content in the right format. Watch your sales grow on channels like Amazon, Google Shopping, Facebook and many more
- Fully-automated: Eliminate data errors and ensure you comply with industry standard when using automation features like smart lists and completion attributes. Save time when selling products in new markets, and be sure you’re always sending the right information to the right channel.
Catalogs
Plytix offers an easy to use and fully customizable catalog software, where you can build beautiful catalogs – no graphic design skills needed! Discover all growth opportunities for your brand with Catalogs.
PDF Catalogs: Create beautiful print PDF Catalogs that make your brand look good. Share information with your Resellers and Distributors on the fly and enable your sales team to do their job better by showing your customers how great your products are, in an aesthetically pleasing way.
E-Catalogs: Never manually send out product copy and media again, and eliminate data and branding errors. E-catalogs allow you to sit back and let your collaborators view your products for themselves. E-catalog users can download product information in multiple formats, and even order directly from them.
Benefits
- Distributing product content to retailers and other B2B partners. A brand has just launched a new product line. The marketing manager needs to get all their product information and media assets to their retailers and the press across different markets quickly. Using email and custom requests for product content takes a long time and is not an efficient use of time. Smart Catalogs enable brands to publish the content onto an online portal where their partners can choose exactly the information they want, download it in the sizes they need, and get them sent to their email in the right format. These Catalogs come with notifications that lets the marketing manager know who downloaded what content and when. What’s more, they have total control of what content is made available for each partner and market without relying on an IT team or complicated CMS.
- Updating multiple sales channels at once. Instead of updating multiple spreadsheets one by one for retailers and marketplaces, marketing managers can streamline their work by updating the information in the PIM. They can use the Channels feature to build custom product feeds using the data from their PIM. Product feeds can be scheduled to auto-export or can be pushed instantly. This type of control keeps their information optimized, accurate, and consistent across multiple sales platforms. The Channels feature is built to be flexible and accommodate the most popular marketplaces and small mom and pop shops.
- One centralized database for product content. Your products are your business, so everyone from sales and marketing to logistics needs to have the most up to date information at their fingertips. Plytix enables whole teams to take control and have access to the data that they need by allowing unlimited users to access the system. Not only are all product attributes and images linked to the products, teams can manage variations, languages, videos, documents, and all other files within the system. This means everyone has the same data whenever they need it.
Pricing
Subscriptions start at $9 per month. Plytix PIM’s enterprise pricing information is available only upon request. In addition, there is a free 30-day trial. Contact the company for more details, and ask for your quote.
Starting Price: $49.00/month
Pricing Details:
Optimize – $9/month
Automate – $49/month
Integration – price upon request
Free Trial: Free Trial available. A robust, free PIM system which is the ideal solution, specially for new to the world of product information management, or are simply looking for a place to centralize and optimize your product data.
Competitors
Salsify : Product Experience Management Platform. Salsify combines the power of product content management, a broad commerce ecosystem, and actionable insights — empowering brands to deliver compelling shopping experiences for consumers across every digital touchpoint.
Propel: Propel helps the world’s most innovative brands like Desktop Metal, Samsara and Peak Design get their products to market ridiculously fast. Propel uniquely combines product lifecycle management (PLM), Product Information Management (PIM), and Quality Management Solutions (QMS) into one system, natively built on the Salesforce platform. With Propel, your engineers, marketing, partners, customers, and everyone else collaborate on all the product information needed to get your products from concept to customer.
Akeneo PIM: Akeneo PIM is an open source Product Information Management (PIM) system designed for retailers looking for answers to their multichannel needs.
Catsy: Catsy allows brands to centralize all product content (Digital Assets, descriptions, specs, and more) in one location. This creates an easy to use HUB for your entire organization to manage, update, and share product content. Catsy will streamline your process of sharing content with online retailers, sales reps, E-commerce sites, and print documents.
Pimcore: Pimcore is a multi-channel experience and engagement management platform that allows you to manage engagement with customers and users while delivering digital experiences, pushing content on any channel and more.
Conclusion
We realize that when you make a decision to buy Product Lifecycle Management Software – PLM it’s important not only to see how experts evaluate it in their reviews, but also to find out if the real people and companies that buy it are actually satisfied with the product. Plytix has made life at least 100 times easier than it would be otherwise. Even as a simple organizational tool for product data, it has essentially paid for itself. In managing thousands of SKUs across multiple sales/inventory platforms, data quality is top priority. It is a simple tool to help maintain that, and one that allows for small and large changes to the product book to be accurately reflected everywhere they need to be.
The service has already greatly evolved beyond its initial capabilities. New features are always being added, and those features are almost always immediately useful to users. Development decisions are being made by people that are very much aware of what Ecommerce professionals need to do their jobs effectively.
As far as support goes, one has never seen a company so responsive to any issues that arise. This website is so easy to use. Even for someone who is not the most technically savvy individual, Plytix makes creating / sharing files, catalogs, and general PIM so simple and efficient.