2025 vs 2024: IT Services and Computing Hardware Lead Icecat Category Growth

Icecat’s catalog breadth continues to scale alongside e-commerce demand. By the end of 2025, Icecat supported 40,000+ brands and had 119,000+ registered e-commerce and channel partners in its ecosystem. That scale matters because once the catalog base becomes large enough, usage patterns reveal the real signal. They show which verticals grow, where demand accelerates, and how e-commerce teams rely on product information for discovery and comparison.

Below is a 2025 vs 2024 look at usage trends based on downloaded datasheets and active-user signals across Icecat’s reporting.

Looking Beyond Simple Rankings

When comparing category usage between 2024 and 2025, the most relevant signal is not ranking position alone, but how growth is distributed across the largest categories. In this dataset, the strongest increases are not coming from niche segments, but from high-volume categories such as warranty services, software licenses, and core computing products.

This indicates that growth is being driven within already established product segments, rather than emerging from smaller or specialized categories. In other words, demand is deepening within core technology ecosystems, particularly around device lifecycles and hardware–software combinations.

Growth Trends Across Key Computing and Service Categories

The chart focuses on the 10 largest product categories in the Icecat ecosystem by total datasheet downloads, then ranks them by year-on-year growth rate between 2024 and 2025. This approach highlights how demand is evolving within the most widely used categories, rather than across the full catalog.

The chart above shows year-on-year growth in datasheet downloads for the 10 largest categories in the Icecat ecosystem, ranked by growth rate between 2024 and 2025. This provides a focused view of how demand is shifting within the most active product segments.

The strongest increases appear in service and lifecycle categories, particularly Warranty & Support Extensions and Software Licenses/Upgrades, both of which show growth approaching 40 percent year over year. These categories are closely tied to the expanding installed base of computing devices. As organizations and consumers keep devices longer, demand for extended warranties, software renewals, and upgrade licenses naturally increases alongside hardware usage.

At the same time, several core categories of computing hardware also show strong growth. All-in-One PCs/Workstations and Laptops show increases of roughly 30 percent. PCs/Workstations follow, continuing to drive significant activity in product comparisons and catalog integrations. These products rely heavily on detailed specifications. Buyers often review attributes such as processor generation, RAM capacity, storage configuration, and connectivity options before making a purchase.

A third group of categories shows more moderate but steady growth, including Computer Monitors, Laptop Spare Parts, and Memory Modules. These products often support existing device ecosystems, whether through workstation setups, hardware upgrades, or replacement components.

Finally, TVs show relatively limited growth compared with computing-related categories. One possible explanation is a shift in usage patterns, where monitors and laptops increasingly serve as primary screens for both work and entertainment. As hybrid work setups and multi-screen environments become more common, demand appears to be shifting toward computing displays rather than traditional TV products in e-commerce workflows.

Taken together, these patterns show how Icecat usage is growing across both core hardware categories and the services and components that support device lifecycles. This trend reflects the increasingly interconnected nature of modern technology purchasing.

Service and Lifecycle Categories Are Gaining Importance

One of the clearest patterns in 2025 is the strong presence of service-related categories, including warranty extensions, support services, software licenses, upgrades, and security software.

These categories showed both significant usage levels and consistent year-on-year growth. This trend reflects several broader developments in European e-commerce.

Consumers are increasingly holding devices for longer periods, which increases demand for warranty extensions and support services. At the same time, retailers frequently bundle services or subscriptions with hardware products. Subscription-based software models also continue to expand.

Because these products depend heavily on compatibility details, licensing terms, and expiration conditions, accurate, structured product information is essential for e-commerce platforms.

Incomplete or inconsistent content in these categories can directly affect both conversion rates and post-purchase customer satisfaction.

High-Growth Niche Categories

Some smaller categories also showed very high year-on-year percentage increases. However, many of these categories grew from relatively small baselines in 2024.

While these spikes are noteworthy, they often represent scaling from a small starting point rather than a major shift in market demand.

For ecommerce strategy, examining both growth and overall usage volume provides a more reliable indicator of long-term category trends.

To explore how these category patterns connect to broader market shifts, read our previous analysis [link] of 2025 vertical trends based on Icecat’s product data ecosystem.