Listed Icecat revenues expanded 20% in Q3 2018. Alibaba teams up with Icecat.

Amsterdam, October 15, 2018: The quarterly revenues of Icecat N.V., the listed publisher of product data for the global e-commerce market, expanded by 19.7% to 2.13 million euro during Q3-2018, compared to the same period one year earlier. The profit before taxes expanded by 64% to 516K euro thanks to an improved gross profit and relatively decreasing operating costs.

Syndy take-over: managing synergies

Syndy, acquired during Q1-2018, is on track to grow towards profitability during 2018. Financial, marketing and sales synergies have been realized. The focus is now on realizing operational synergies by shifting retailer templating and data feed administration jobs to Icecat’s near-shore teams, and continue to use the freed cashflow to invest in further expanding the development team, to accelerate the improvement of the Syndy PIM (product information manager) as used by brand and retailer clients.

Icecat catalog and use continue to expand rapidly

Regarding non-financial KPIs, the trends continue to be positive: the 3^rd quarter 2018 statistics are based on 1.1 billion product data-sheet downloads by e-commerce companies and consumers*. The number of product data-sheets in the catalog increased annually by 19% to 5.4 million. The number of supported brands has expanded by 8% to 21 thousand, and the number of supported product categories grew by 11% to 4,927. Many of the new categories are in fashion, do it yourself and toys. The number of registered e-commerce channel partners grew by 8% to 79 thousand, and the number of tech interfaces to retail platforms expanded by 15% to 3 thousand**. Of the technical users, 26% (767) are now making use of Icecat Live, real-time downloads through JSON or consumers directly, making Icecat Live a competitive content syndication network in its own right.

*no data for comparison because of a changed methodology filtering out robot downloads
**excluding manual visitors of the Icecat platform

Top market places in Europe and Latin America team-up

In Q3 2018, new strategic partnerships were closed with major marketplaces in key markets: Germany, Poland, Spain and Latin America.

• Ali Express: the Spanish branch of Alibaba, the major global competitor of Amazon and eBay, signed a contract with Icecat. With another Alibaba daughter, Lazada, Icecat is already co-operating in the Asian market.
• Alegro Poland, a number 3 marketplace with 100 million users, implemented Icecat and announced its partnership
• real.digital, a leading marketplace in Germany is a new client that announced its content requirements through Icecat
• Elektra, the Mexican top retail brand, entered into a partnership with Icecat for the Latin American market to fuel its marketplaces with great product content

100 users participate in ICURY crypto pilot

The ICURY pilot, the crypto coin of Icecat with symbol ICY, is now expanded to close to 100 users. New is that the token can now be uploaded to an Icecat account to charge a user balance. We’re now investigating what blockchain fabric to use to support internal micro payments.

Icecat PIM improvements: 3D and product variants in fashion

The Icecat PIM environment is continuously upgraded. 3D models and product variants are now supported through XML and JSON: https://iceclog.com/3d-images-and-product-variants-via-product-xml/.
3D because of clients like Philips, HP, Xerox and BOL, and Product variants because of the FashionBase project with GS1 Netherlands, known for setting the barcode standard.

About Icecat NV

Listed at Dutch NPEX, Icecat NV is a global publisher and syndicator of product information for the e-commerce market. Icecat NV, founded in 2009, works with some 79,000 webshops and hundreds of brands such as Intel, Philips, Sony, Samsung, HP, P&G, Lego, and L’Oréal.

Icecat includes the subsidiaries Icecat LLC (Icecat Ukraine) and Icecat Content Sourcing OÜ (Icecat Estonia), Syndy BV, Iceshop BV, and participation Hatch B.V. The cost centers Icecat Ukraine and Icecat Estonia are responsible for hiring editor and software developer capacity. Hatch BV delivers smart “Buy Now” buttons that help manufacturers to turn their websites into measurable lead generators for their online retailers. Syndy and Iceshop are specialist in e-commerce-integrations and Product Information Management (PIM) solutions in the FMCG and IT verticals respectively.

NL-version: pr-icecat-2018-Q3-results-NL

icecat

Icecat is a global leader in product content syndication, helping brands, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers deliver enriched and consistent product information across multiple platforms. Trusted by 40,000+ e-commerce brands, Icecat helps turn browsers into buyers.