Release 254 introduces a collection of enhancements designed to make integrating with and managing data in Icecat even easier. This release brings smarter related product recommendations in the Product JSON API, introduces Lena, Icecat’s AI Assistant on Icecat.biz, expands capabilities for distributor partners, and delivers numerous usability, performance, and platform improvements.
For additional details, please refer to the previous Icecat Release Notes.
Finding the right related products is only half the challenge; delivering them in a way that is relevant, well-structured, and easy to consume is equally important. With Release 254, Icecat enhances the Product JSON API by introducing a contextual related-product export, allowing integrations to receive organized, filtered, and ranked related products while keeping the existing JSON structure fully compatible.
Instead of returning a single mixed list of related products, the Product JSON API now groups them by relationship type, making integrations simpler and more predictable.
The export currently supports:
Within each category, products are returned according to Icecat’s ranking logic, ensuring that the most relevant recommendations appear first.
To improve recommendation quality, Icecat now automatically filters related products before they are returned.
The export excludes:
This filtering pipeline helps ensure that applications receive only relevant and currently available recommendations, reducing unnecessary processing on the partner side.
A new request parameter allows developers to control how many related products are returned for each relation type, rather than limiting the entire related products collection.
For example:
https://live.icecat.biz/api?shopname={channel_partner_login}&lang=en&content=&icecat_id={icecat_product_id}&relationslimit=20
With relationslimit=20, the API returns up to:
rather than only twenty related products in total.
If no value is specified, Icecat applies a default limit of 500 related products per relation type. Invalid values automatically fall back to the default.
Whether you’re powering an e-commerce platform, marketplace, or product information system, the enhanced Product JSON export gives you greater control over how related products are delivered and displayed.
Contact your Icecat account manager to learn how these contextually related product capabilities can improve your integration and help deliver more relevant product recommendations to your users.
Icecat.biz enables businesses to upload and manage their product catalogs through its Import/Export functionality. If a partner organization operates as a distributor, its catalog can also be designated as a distributor catalog, allowing it to become part of Icecat’s distributor ecosystem.
Distributor catalogs play an important role in keeping Icecat’s product database comprehensive and up to date.
Once a partner catalog is designated as a distributor catalog, it is processed through Icecat’s distributor import workflows, contributing to the continuous enrichment of Icecat’s product database. Product descriptions from distributor catalogs are also considered during Icecat’s editorial enrichment process in accordance with Icecat’s editorial policies and prioritization rules.
If partners are already using Icecat.biz to upload their product catalog, no additional upload process is required. The same catalog can be designated as a distributor catalog, allowing it to participate in Icecat’s distributor workflows while continuing to use the Import/Export Icecat.biz functionality.
As a distributor, a partner may also be eligible for additional reporting services that help them monitor and improve the quality of product datasheets:
By addressing the reported issues, partners can gain insights into the quality of product datasheets, increase successful product matching, and ensure more products become available within the Icecat ecosystem.
If your organization operates as a distributor and would like your catalog recognized as a distributor catalog, please contact your Icecat Account Manager.
Our team will be happy to discuss your business case, enable distributor status for your organization where applicable, and advise you on the distributor services available to support your business, including the Data Health Score Report and Skipped Products Report.
Getting help with Icecat has never been easier. Lena, Icecat’s AI Assistant, is now available directly on Icecat.biz, providing instant assistance wherever you are on the platform.
Whether you’re exploring subscription options, looking for API documentation, troubleshooting an issue, or learning more about Icecat’s services, Lena is only one click away. Simply open the chat bubble on any page of Icecat.biz to start your conversation.
Lena is designed to help users quickly find the information they need without searching through documentation or waiting for support. Built on Icecat’s official knowledge base, she provides reliable answers about Icecat’s products, services, APIs, and product data.
Lena is accessible from every page of Icecat.biz and works seamlessly across desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Look for the chat bubble on any page of Icecat.biz and ask Lena your next question. Whether you’re a new visitor or a long-time Icecat user, expert assistance is now just a click away.
In addition to the major features introduced in Release 254, we’ve delivered several enhancements that improve usability, data quality, and prepare the platform for future capabilities.
The Organizations interface has been redesigned with a cleaner and more intuitive layout, making organization management easier and more consistent.
While the update focuses on the user experience, it also prepares the interface for new organization management functionality planned for release later this summer. Users can already benefit from improved navigation, a more structured organization details page, and the ability to create new organizations directly from a brand page.
Icecat now imports all valid GTINs provided for products that contain multiple GTINs.
By capturing every valid product identifier supplied by distributors, Icecat improves product matching, increases catalog completeness, and ensures valuable product information is no longer lost during import.
To improve transparency and make important documentation easier to access, the legal section in the Icecat.biz footer has been updated to include the latest links to the Terms of Use and Fair Use Policy.
While Release 254 introduces several new customer-facing capabilities, it also includes a wide range of behind-the-scenes improvements that strengthen the Icecat platform. These investments focus on performance, reliability, security, and maintainability, helping us deliver a faster, more stable experience today while preparing the platform for future innovations.
Our engineering teams continued optimizing the core platform by modernizing key components, improving browser caching, refining database usage, and strengthening internal service communication. These enhancements help reduce response times, improve system reliability, and create a more scalable foundation for future growth.
Release 254 also includes foundational work that supports upcoming product enhancements. By standardizing communication between services and strengthening the platform architecture, we’re making it easier to introduce new features while maintaining a consistent and reliable experience for our customers.
As automated traffic continues to grow across the internet, we’ve expanded our capabilities for identifying legitimate crawlers and detecting unwanted bot activity. These improvements help protect Icecat services from unnecessary load while ensuring reliable access for customers and trusted partners.
Behind every new feature is continuous work to improve the platform itself. In this release, our development teams modernized legacy components, removed obsolete code, and standardized internal implementations. Although these changes are invisible to end users, they improve code quality, reduce operational risk, and enable faster, more reliable delivery of future enhancements.
Release 254 delivers a balanced combination of new customer-facing capabilities and platform improvements. From smarter APIs and AI-powered assistance to enhanced distributor services and continuous infrastructure investments, this release further strengthens the Icecat ecosystem for partners and developers alike.
Interested in learning more about any of these new capabilities?
Contact your Icecat Account Manager to discover how Release 254 can help you optimize the product data workflows, enhance integrations, and get even more value from the Icecat platform.
Read further: Icecat, AI, e-commerce, ecommerce, Icecat, product content, release notes
