SECOND QUARTER
YEAR TO DATE
Letter from the CEO
One year in, growth is accelerating
In September 2025, we raised 45 mSEK to invest in four growth initiatives. The most important progress has been in tech and AI acceleration, where we have expanded our engineering team to accelerate platform development and integrate AI-driven improvements. The new features delivered by our team have driven a positive inflection in our sales and gross profit in Q3 2026.
At the end of August, we launched article grouping on our new product-data service. It merges duplicate listings of the same product into one, improving the shopping experience and enabling us to expand our product feeds in Google Shopping dramatically.
The effect of this launch was immediate. In September, GMV grew by 32%, compared with 11% in July and August combined, while comparable GPAM grew by 10%, compared with −3% in July and August combined. The improvement has carried into October, driven mainly by Fyndiq.
What excites me most is that this is only the first step. Next, our tech team is enabling services that will let us enrich our products’ presentations with fuller data, categorise them better and link related products, such as accessories to the products they fit. Our new AI commerce search function from Google is also live, with early results pointing to higher conversion.
Large European merchants continue to be an important part of our growth. Our European giants have generated around 85 mSEK in GMV since January and now account for around 6% of group GMV, up from less than 1% a year ago, with several more onboarded in the quarter.
Many giants sell in categories with lower commission levels, such as electronics, and some join on introductory terms. Together, this lowers our blended take rate in the short term. It is a deliberate trade-off: they bring broad supply at scale and add gross profit in absolute terms.
The quarter’s financials in brief
Group GMV grew 18% in the quarter, with CDON up 21% and Fyndiq up 11%. The summer was weak, especially for Fyndiq, where the EU’s new €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from outside the EU dampened conversion from 1 July. Since the end of August, the feed expansion has turned Fyndiq’s performance into strong growth, although the duties remain a headwind for cross-border supply.
GPAM is growing more slowly than GMV. Spend and sales in paid channels grew at about the same pace, so channel efficiency held, but our channel mix shifted further towards paid traffic.
Reported figures were also burdened by non-recurring, non-cash costs of 6.4 mSEK from closing our 1P business. With those costs booked, the 1P chapter is closed. Overall, reported GPAM declined 10%, but grew 1% adjusted for 1P costs and brand marketing spend.
EBITDA was −5.4 mSEK. Adjusted EBITDA, excluding non-recurring 1P costs, was +1.0 mSEK, compared with +11.5 mSEK last year, and includes 5.3 mSEK of growth-initiative expenses, including the brand launch.
Progress in our other growth initiatives
Besides our tech and AI initiative, our three other initiatives continue to progress:
- Nordic expansion. The Nordic markets outside Sweden grew 45% in the quarter versus last year, and now account for 34% of group GMV, up from 28% a year ago. More than 130 merchants have expanded to additional markets outside of Sweden so far this year.
- Brand marketing. On 21 September, our CDON brand campaign went live online all over Sweden and offline in Stockholm and Gothenburg. It is too early to measure the effect on brand KPIs, and ultimately traffic and sales, but early feedback is encouraging.
- Retail media. Our retail media platform is live but has not yet generated any material revenue, which is disappointing against the ambition we set out in July. Above all, we need to extend sponsored products to areas where merchants reach customers with high purchase intent, which we aim to launch in the fourth quarter.
New CCO in place
I am very happy to announce that Emma Danielsson joined us as Chief Commercial Officer on 1 October. Emma was previously SVP Digital Sales and Marketing at the beauty retailer Kicks.
Full focus on the important Q4 sales
In the fourth quarter, we are preparing for Black Week and Christmas together with our merchants and rolling out the next steps of our product-data service. While we work to grow our unpaid channels, such as organic search, direct traffic and email, GPAM can grow more slowly than GMV, as long as it grows in absolute terms, as it did in September. With GPAM growth and a largely fixed cost base, we expect the operating leverage to start showing towards the end of the year. Our ambition for 2027 remains unchanged, with EBITDA approaching 100 mSEK.
We enter the peak season with accelerating growth, a stronger platform and a more mature merchant base. I want to thank our team and our merchants for the work behind this quarter’s turn, and I look forward to building on it together.
Conference Call
CDON Group invites the press, investors and analysts to a webcast where CDON Group’s interim report for the third quarter of 2026 will be presented. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to submit written questions. The presentation will be held in English on 22 October 2026, at 10:00 CEST.
If you wish to participate via webcast, please use the link below.
Link to Webcast:
https://qcnl.tv/p/xrVm4mHkxEzSJI3DuZ4nhg
The presentation material and the webcast will be published on:
https://investors.cdon.com/en/investors/financial-reports/