Key takeaways from the IDC MarketScape 2024-2025

As we move into 2025, the need for Product Information Management software has never been greater. The rapid and continual advancements in digital commerce mean that businesses across all industries and markets can no longer compromise on the accuracy of their product-related data. They need crisp, market-ready product information to fuel their growth ambitions on every channel—and they need it now. 

The evolution of digital commerce has led to best-in-class organizations adopting modern PIM systems as a critical part of their digital strategy. This uptick in PIM adoption makes the recent publication of the “IDC Marketscape: Worldwide Product Information Management Applications for Commerce 2024-2025 Vendor Assessment” such crucial reading for businesses exploring their PIM options.  

The IDC report, which names inriver as a ”leader” in the PIM space, lays out the key drivers fuelling the growth of the PIM market. It also lays out the innovations that mean PIM software will continue to be a real revenue driver for businesses of all sizes across all markets. As we look forward to 2025 and beyond, I want to share my takeaways from this latest IDC report. 

1. PIM is evolving to meet commerce demands

In recent years, I’ve seen firsthand how rapidly modern commerce has evolved. Today, every product in your catalog is subject to greater demands than ever. Consumers expect a standout, omnichannel product experience wherever they find your product. Marketplaces and resellers must adhere to a growing list of selling conditions, and legislators have evolving regulatory requirements to ensure your products can legally be sold.  

While first-generation PIM systems were designed purely as a system of record, as IDC states, “modern PIM systems go beyond traditional data organization, streamlining the flow of rich, precise, and relevant product information across channels to enhance customer experiences at every touch point, where clear, immersive product content is crucial to stand out in a crowded field.” This is critical in ensuring products meet all the demands placed on them.  

“Customers and partners are happy with the speed and quality of the data now flowing through PIM onto our website.”

Francesca Alvino

Product Marketing Manager at Wolf Oil

As commerce evolves, PIM software is the only solution robust enough to meet the growing challenges businesses face when handling their vast amounts of product-related data, both for internal and market-facing use cases. Modern PIM systems offer: 

• Complete connectivity across all adjacent commerce systems, offering a composable solution that allows businesses to adapt and pivot with ease. 
• A platform for successful direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategies built on crisp, market-ready product information. 
• Automated workflows and processes that enable seamless sharing and management of product information across all internal teams and channels. 

2. AI is pushing the boundaries of PIM technology

Accelerations in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are rapidly transforming the PIM landscape, enabling PIM systems to become more intelligent and interconnected than ever before. Thanks to AI, PIM systems are now smarter and more efficient. AI automates tasks such as data categorization, content enrichment, and quality checks, reducing the manual effort of these tasks while improving accuracy.   

As IDC states, “Advanced AI drives content generation, metadata creation, and predictive tools for search and recommendations, positioning PIM as an increasingly dynamic asset in digital commerce.” In a world where businesses strive to get the most out of AI, knowing that advanced PIM systems are built on AI innovations and efficiencies is key to maximizing the value of any tech stack.  

“Inriver was quick to capitalize on emerging technology to help us overcome a significant challenge. Inriver Inspire now automates many repetitive tasks, letting us allocate our in-house resources more effectively.”

Samantha Schwartz

Vice President of E-commerce, Jensen Precast

The IDC report highlights AI as one of the inriver PIM platform’s core strengths. “inriver leverages AI through its Inspire feature, which integrates ChatGPT capabilities for AI-driven content creation and onboarding.” The inriver platform also offers integrations to all customer AI systems to help streamless content management with batch editing and custom prompt editing.

3. Flexibility is key to maximizing PIM investment

As commerce evolves, it’s clear that businesses need flexibility in their PIM systems that allows them to react, respond, and pivot as necessary to meet changing needs. At inriver, we pride ourselves on the flexibility of our PIM solution, built on a fully elastic data model that provides businesses with the ability to shift, evolve, and pivot their data strategy according to ever-changing needs. What does this mean in practice? It means our customers can create standout, omnichannel experiences for every product that meets expectations from consumers, marketplaces, and regulators. It also means the inriver PIM is built to scale, offering a single solution for businesses of all sizes.  

“Whether we’re growing our business into new products, new brands, new categories, new regions of the world, or new languages, Werner is constantly evolving. And so is inriver. Together, we’re able to secure a better product management solution.”

Stacy Gardella

Head of Global Marketing Technology & Operations, ProDriven Global Brands (formerly WernerCo)

As Heather Hershey states in the IDC report, “earning a leader position in the IDC MarketScape underscores inriver’s ability to support the unique needs of B2B organizations while also enabling direct-to-consumer growth,” adding that “inriver’s holistic approach potentially empowers these organizations to succeed in a competitive marketplace.”  

I believe there are three key areas in which the inriver PIM platform excels: 

1. Connectivity: The inriver platform is fully extensible, customizable, and composable, while our API-based syndication capabilities provide single-click distribution of market-ready product information. 
2. Adaptability: The fully elastic inriver data model gives our customers complete control over the data underpinning their commerce strategy, letting them react, pivot, and move forward with greater ease and confidence.  
3. Optimizations: The inriver platform provides a continuous data optimization loop, from AI-powered content enrichment to API-based distribution and real-time product listing monitoring, allowing for constant optimization. 

IDC MarketScape: Get the analyst view on PIM technology

If you’re a business looking to get started with PIM software or a company needing a new PIM system to meet evolving needs, it can be difficult to get a clear picture of the PIM market. That’s why an analyst report like the recent “IDC Marketscape: Worldwide Product Information Management Applications for Commerce 2024-2025 Vendor Assessment” is such a valuable resource for businesses across all B2B and B2C industries looking to understand the market before they choose a preferred PIM vendor. 

As CEO of inriver, I am proud of our market position and the validation from this IDC report that we are providing the right solution for our customers to meet the everyday challenges they face. It’s great to get this validation from such an influential and respected analyst. This write-up will fuel further innovations throughout 2025 and beyond as we continue to develop the most flexible PIM software on the market for our customers. Want to know more? Then download the IDC MarketScape today.