ICO3 - Plymouth E Commerce Company Set To Reach One Million

ICO3 are an all-embracing E Commerce company based in Plymouth, Devon, and are about to hit one million pound turnover. The company offer E Commerce partnerships for businesses who want to launch on-line and for those who want to re-develop and optimise an existing E Commerce website.

ICO3 originally started as a small University of Plymouth Spin Out company in 2000 and now have over 50 E Commerce business partnerships. In the last 2 years, ICO3 have grown substantially due to their innovative business model and the company’s high growth strategy - with all profits being reinvested back into the business. The company have grown from 8 employees to 27 – which include employing a PR Manager with the launch of the company’s own PR department and a designated sales team - and are continuing to create new jobs as the business continues to grow and reaches this landmark figure. PWGF funding has been extremely important in helping to fund this growth.

ICO3’s successful business model is based upon a partnership process whereby a retailer agrees to a partnership with ICO3 who, in return, will develop, maintain and optimise the partner’s website in order to generate and increase sales, maximise search engine rankings and integrate the website with on-line market places. ICO3 also produce campaign materials including banners and email newsletters and social media and blog posts, in exchange for a small percentage of commission from sales – all part of the partnership programme.

Recent partnerships include Plymouth based company Dave Nicholl’s Upholstery who launched the brand new on-line side of their fabric business with the name of Faraday Fabrics, and local start-up business, Devon Hampers, who have suppliers such as Portlebay Popcorn, Plymouth Tea and Langage Farm. The Devon Hampers on-line launch in October 2013 was so successful that Devon Hampers sold more than four times the initial predicted sales, which was largely due to a high impact PR launch with national and consumer press coverage, strategic SEO planning and a striking brand image and web design.

David Gadd, CEO of ICO3, is excited at reaching the million pound turnover mark in such a small time but is entirely focused on the challenges of the year ahead:

“The ICO3 management team are very proud of what we have achieved. Our expansion so far has been based almost entirely from partnering businesses and entrepreneurs in the South West with their online marketing and development and we hope to continue this into our next phase of growth. It is likely this year we will expand our operations into even more areas of E Commerce such as translations, PR and even fulfilment, and to widen our scope to London and the North of England. Our presence at the recent Spring Fair has attracted many new businesses outside of the South West, including some very exciting up and coming entrepreneurs and designers. So it’s an exciting time for us.”

For further press information please contact ICO3's PR Manager Sarahjane: sarahjane@ico3.co.uk