E-channel expanded by 70% in Q2-2018, Nike and Adidas outrunning other brands online

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Tech brands still dominate the e-channel in Q2-2018. The strongest e-channel brand, HP (+64%), developed in Q2 2018 close to the average trend of 70% increase in product data-sheet (PDS) downloads on an annual basis through the e-channel. The top 10 brands that develop at a faster pace are Lenovo (+165%), Acer (+108%), Asus (+105%) and Apple (+117%).

Brands outside the top 10, that perform remarkably well are cloud software provider Forcepoint (#20, +3602%), TV and electronics brand Salora (#23, +1129%), mobile computer brand CipherLab (#79, + 7197%), apparel brands Nike (#100, +688%) and Adidas (#110, +681%).

Books in Top 10, Fashion and DIY perform well

The most notable change in the top 10 categories during Q2-2018 is that the category books has entered the top 10. On itself it’s not remarkable that books popup, but it’s interesting that they popup in the wider e-channel: it’s not just Amazon that is selling books online, but more and more classic retailers or marketplaces share the cake as well. Still, the number of platforms downloading PDSs in this category, is quite limited: 107, just 2% of the total of connected platforms.

Other categories outside the top 10, that perform very well are Athletic shoes (#91, +908%) – not surprising given the good brand performance of Nike and Adidas, Action sports camera accessories (#156, +786%), Football boots (#232, +809%), House paints (#235, +2237%), Hiking footwear (#294, +2314%), Men’s sweaters and hoodies (#357, +1076%), Varnishes (#424, +3169%), and a few more fashion and DIY sub-categories.

E-channel expanded by 70%

The metrics are based on 2.27 billion PDS downloads in Q2-2018 for products from 23,497 brands, belonging to 4,835 different categories. The number of PDS downloads increased by 70% on an annual basis, while the number of monitored brands increased by 47%. The PDS downloads were generated by 77,673 e-channel partners from basically any country in the world. The number of monitored described products expanded annually by 33% to 5 million PDSs.

The shake-out in e-commerce platforms, the technology platforms used by etailers, resulted in a moderate increase by 8% annually.

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Martijn Hoogeveen

Founder and CEO of Icecat NV. Investor. Ph.D.