DAM vs. PIM - What's the Difference?

As the technology landscape is evolving rapidly, e-commerce, retail, and manufacturing companies may struggle to choose the right system(s) for their business.

Especially in the golden age of content, a myriad of big and small solutions are available to help you safeguard your digital content and increase efficiency.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) and Product Information Management (PIM) systems are common tools used to store and handle large volumes of digital assets in an organization.

The discussion of whether one can replace the other rages on.

While it's true that DAM and PIM systems have certain similarities, they're designed with different purposes in mind and have distinctive capabilities for their intended use.

What to choose - PIM or DAM?

When adopting a solution in your organization, you should first clearly identify your goals and what you need to achieve them.

Here’s a quick checklist to help your decision-making if you are still wondering which solution can best help you.

LEARN MORE: How retailers succeed online with Digital Asset Management

A DAM solution is beneficial if you:

• Have a large number of visual assets
• Need an "official" place to store and manage all visuals 
• Need to access and retrieve digital assets regularly 
• Frequently share or distribute visuals across the organization, to externals or third-party platforms
• Have many different people within your organization that need to access or use the visuals
• Use official branding on multiple sites and/or platforms
• Often use visual assets in other applications, such as PowerPoint, InDesign, Photoshop, WordPress, etc. 
  
  

A PIM solution is beneficial if you:

• Have several SKUs with a dynamic product range
• Have a product portfolio that is complex and frequently updated 
• Have a great deal of data generated from various sources 
• Use multiple sales channels and marketing channels for your products 
• Need your products to reach the market at high speed
• Need to provide customers with a lot of information when shopping online
• Have multiple departments in need of up-to-date and detailed product information

LEARN MORE: The perfect PIM and DAM integration for manufacturer KERMI.

As described above, DAM and PIM are different types of systems, playing different roles in your organization.

Therefore, it’s not necessarily a question of one or the other. They work as a great team, with capabilities that complement each other. 

At Fotoware, we have vast experience in helping companies within e-commerce, retail, and manufacturing with their Digital Asset Management needs. Our solutions integrate with several PIMs and other critical programs, such as CMSs, design software, and more.