According to its annual report 2017, Icecat accelerated its revenues growth rate to 17% year-on-year. Net profit and EBITDA were more or less stable as the strategic focus had been on investing in faster growth. There were no significant changes in number of staff and (ICT) investments during 2017, compared to one year earlier.
During 2017, Icecat was able to expand its international and local business in The Netherlands. Icecat expanded its activities in the Toys, Health & Beauty, Do It Yourself and Fast Moving Consumer Goods verticals, as intended. Further, Icecat won a number of high-profile Product Information Management (PIM) deals, in which it successfully deployed its PIM cloud solution. In the DIY market, Icecat closed a global deal with Akzo Nobel for its decorative paints brands like Flexa. In the toys vertical, LEGO signed up. The co-operation with Google Shopping, integrating manufacturer product data through Icecat, is deepened by joint presentations.
Regarding its non-financial KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), the number of product data-sheet downloads expanded by 55% to 13.1 billion downloads, the number of supported manufacturer brands increased by 42% to 21 thousand, the number of supported product categories grew by 21%, and the estimated number of connected channel partners (ecommerce users) expanded by 16%. The number of technical platforms is stable, due to the concentration of users on popular ecommerce systems, like Magento Commerce, PrestaShop, VirtueMart, Ebay and Amazon (see https://iceclog.com/category/statistics/).
| 2017 | 2016 | Y-o-Y | |
| Product Data-sheet Downloads | 13 billion | 8.5 billion | 55% |
| Manufacturer Brands | 21,418 | 15,097 | 42% |
| Product Categories | 4,636 | 3,819 | 21% |
| Channel partners | 74,908 | 64,736 | 16% |
In it’s core-sector of product data for tech products, Icecat experiences that it’s free Open Icecat model continues to be very successful, and continues to discourage direct competitors in the field of providing product data. In July 2017, Icecat has started negotiations to buy Syndy, active in the FMCG data market, which resulted in a take-over of Syndy in March 2018 as already made public. The results of Syndy are expected to be consolidated in the 2018 annual report of Icecat and contribute at least 6% to the revenues growth in the current year.
Icecat’s fleet of lease cars consist of hybrid electrical vehicles. The lease policy has been updated in 2017 to only lease Full Electrical Vehicles.
The rooftop of the Nieuwegein office of Icecat has been covered with solar panels, which lowers the monthly energy bill with 65%, and generates sufficient power to charge the car batteries of our electrical vehicles (i.e., 512 kwh/M).
More impact on Icecat’s core-business is that the product data-sheets of Icecat include the mandatory EU Energy Labels, and other sustainability indications such as Energy Star when relevant for the product category. Further, Icecat’s product data is upgraded to be used in European projects to make sustainability footprint calculations and generate buying advices for consumers in EU countries.
The ICT innovation of Icecat has been focused during 2017 on improving its PIM Cloud (Product Information Management) services for manufacturer and merchant clients like L’Oréal, Media Markt Saturn and HP, and deploying Artificial Intelligence in relation to increase the editorial production. In some months, the editorial capacity is doubled thanks to AI techniques.
Icecat has been investigating and preparing the application of blockchain and crypto tokens, ICURY, in its ecosystem. Currently, the Icecat team is piloting the integration of the ICURY in its front-office user accounts.
The inclusion of multiple PIM solutions in the portfolio of Icecat pays off, as it led to better integrations of product content into the ecosystems of major clients.
Annual Report 2017 Icecat NV including Letter of the Auditor (pdf)
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