Icecat Service Roadmap 2023

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Icecat Service Roadmap 2023
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Icecat continues to improve its services by adding new functionalities in 2023. In this post, you can see a summary of the planned developments in the Icecat Service Roadmap 2023.

Icecat Portal

The Icecat portal attracts tens of billions of visits annually. Improving usability, functionality, SEO and the stats dashboard are, therefore, critical points.

– Monitor and improve searchQ1-Q4
– Download generic data of distributor feedsQ2
– Allow users to upload SLA product listsQ3-Q4
– Possibility for users to leave a comment on the product pageQ3-Q4
– Allow for self-management of standard Icecat subscriptionsQ4

Icecat Vendor Central (PIM)

Hundreds of brand editors use Icecat Vendor Central, our global multilingual PIM cloud, to enrich the product data sheets for their channel partners. Therefore, improving usability, efficiency, quality management, and workflow is the main focus also for 2023.

– Brand-authorized reseller logic updateQ1-Q3
– New search UI for brand managers in the PIMQ2-Q3
– Fully multilingual PIMQ2-Q3
– Inheritance of the brand logic to sub-brandsQ3
– “Invite your reseller” button for brand managersQ1-Q2
– Upgrades of the Editor Assignment Tracking Tool to increase workflow efficiencyQ1-Q4
– ETL speed upgrade and include it in brand editor viewQ2
– Possibility to assign more than one country to a userQ2
– Supporting new generation of variantsQ2-Q4
– Supporting taxonomy-specific assetsQ2-Q3
– Sub-user supportQ2-Q3
– Support of creating new image types without developer helpQ3
– Access for third-party users to PIM: New “user” quality product datasheetsQ3-Q4
– Asset hub: Possibility to assign different assets to a group of products based on family, features, and other elementsQ3-Q4
– Editor journal V2 refactoring to improve tracking of changes made by editorsQ4

Icecat Open Catalog Interface (APIs)

Up to fifteen billion product datasheet requests were supported during 2022 by our pull APIs. Furthermore, the data is used in more and more industries or Verticals. Therefore, adaptations are needed to improve our APIs’ efficiency, timeliness, and stability.

– Personalized index filesQ1-Q4
– New generation JSONQ1-Q4
– Soft limitations on Datasheet downloadsQ2
– Open Icecat distribution limitation on subscribed verticalsQ2-Q3
– Explanatory text should be available via categoryfeaturelistQ3
– nRT diary of product updates + taxonomy changes per period.Q3

Open-source Icecat addons

– Pimcore Addon V4 – Upgrade to 10.5 and unlock full Icecat usersQ1
– Magento2 Extension V2- Unlock full Icecat users and enrich products for specific BrandsQ2
– Pimcore Addon POC – Analysis and feasibility check to enrich product content in the brand/retailer-specific taxonomyQ3
– WooCommerce Addon V1 – Open source, open Icecat product content addonQ3-Q4
– Open-source software licensing of open-source Icecat addons/extensionsQ1-Q4

Icecat Product Reviews

Icecat offers Expert Reviews, User Reviews, and Shoppable Reviews. We list below the summary of the most important developments.

– Icecat product import logic update (DONE)Q1
– Align APIs with Icecat APIs (LIVE)Q1-Q2
– Switch to internal crawling toolsQ1-Q3
– Transfer client-facing services (XML API, Live API) to a cloud-based IaaS providerQ3-Q4

Icecat Brand dashboard and reporting

In 2023 it is a critical project to publish more analytics on our front office on the Brand Dashboard and to include more of our reporting in this graphical interface behind a brand login.

– Documenting the Reporting APIQ1
– Statistics API-outQ1
– Expand the Brand Dashboard further with insightsQ1-Q4
– Track more interactions with product assetsQ1-Q4
– To include all LIVE events in the standardized report. This includes, for example, video and 3D usage, content interactions, and scrollingQ2
– Rework logical/tech user filteringQ2
– Possibly exclude users with an empty value for “Business type”Q2

Icecat Syndy

The Syndy PIM cloud is used in FMCG and beyond as a corporate PIM and syndication platform. Following improvements are planned for 2023:

– Digital Asset Management (DAM) improvementsQ1
– Template restrictionsQ1
– Development of dashboard and reporting upgradesQ1-Q2
– Retailer environment redesignQ1-Q2
– GS1 integrationQ2-Q3
– Merge Hexagon and Syndy platformsQ2-Q3
– Admin improvementQ3-Q4
– Global Assortment FeatureQ1-Q4
– Icecat integration improvementsQ1-Q4
– Infrastructure optimizationQ1-Q4
– Set up DEV/PO communication platformQ1-Q4

Icecat Hexagon

Executing our One PIM strategy by providing local B2C marketplace integrations and merging internal infrastructures into one seamless environment.

– Phasing out old video games platformQ1
– Purchasing Process ImprovementQ1
– Automatic sourcing improvementQ1
– Infrastructure ImprovementQ1-Q3
– Bridge improvementQ2
– Icecat and Hexagon platforms IntegrationQ2
– Hexagon API V3Q2
– General platform improvementsQ3-Q4
– Channel management improvementsQ3
– Image-specific improvementsQ4
– Import and export specific improvementsQ4
– Merge Hexagon and Syndy platformsQ1-Q4

Iceshop

Focus on providing B2B e-commerce clients best-in-class solutions, including platform integrations, high-volume product information management and supply-chain management.

Release Amazon Connector service for Seller accounts (DONE) Q1
Implement Product stories in Icepim (DONE) Q1
Icepim Icecat import and UI improvements (speed and GTIN control)Q1
Change and improve Logs display and management in IcepimQ1-Q2
Icepim menu improvementsQ1-Q3
Create Image server and improved image resizing functionalityQ1-Q3
Improve Icepim performance, stability, usabilityQ1-Q4
Release Amazon Connector service for Vendor accountsQ4
Migrate Shopify connector’s customers from REST to GraphQL (when applicable)Q1-Q4
Shopify connector performance, stability, usability updatesQ1-Q4
Change Category Export and add bullet points for Magento connector (DONE) Q1-Q2
Magento connector performance, stability, usability updatesQ1-Q4
Salesforce connector performance, stability, usability updatesQ1-Q4
Iceimport performance, stability, usability updatesQ1-Q4
Iceorder performance, stability, usability updatesQ1-Q4
Customer portal: Elastic search implementation for productsQ1-Q2
Customer portal: Order create/edit functionalityQ1-Q2
Re-design portal interface with new order system interfaceQ2-Q4

Icecat Product enrichment (PET) and Mapping and transformation tools

In 2023 we will continue further development of the Product enrichment tool and we want to introduce the Mapping and transformation tool.

Refactoring existing projects to product story v2.0 (DONE)Q1 (DONE)
Upgrades of WYSIWYG editor (DONE)Q1-Q2
AMAZON A+ syndication via PET (DONE)Q1-Q2
Google Manufacturing Center syndication via PETQ1-Q2
Product story Analytics releaseQ1-Q2
PET performance, stability, and usability updates (DONE)Q1-Q4
Data mapping and transformation tool development and releaseQ1-Q4

Icecat main tech stack

For security, performance, and functionality reasons, tech stack innovations are continuously applied during 2023

Redis-cluster cache migrationQ1-Q2
Downloads Stats upgrade –  ClickHouseQ1-Q2
Cassandra version upgrade – v2 to v4Q1-Q3
Editorial Journal upgradeQ2-Q4
MySQL 8Q2
New API to access Icecat dataQ3-Q4
Removing legacy from perl to PHPQ1-Q4

Icecat Security

In 2023 we will focus on the following security points:

Oauth2 implementationQ2-Q4
Introducing encryption at rest for customer-sensitive dataQ2-Q4
Improving back-office session handlingQ2-Q4
Secrets managementQ2-Q4
2FA for users (Google Auth + email)Q2-Q4

Icecat Websites

In 2023 we will focus on the following developments:

Iceclog – Blog:

Update existing Iceclog with outdated content (DONE)Q1
Re-launch Iceclog designQ2
Implement AI ChatbotQ2
Add multilingual optionQ3
Add CDN networkQ3

Icecat.com:

Enrich pages with contentQ1-Q2
Add multilingual optionQ3-Q4

Icury

The Icury is still a research project. The main goal in this direction for 2023 is to investigate zero transaction cost distributed ledger technologies (DLT).

Read further: News,

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