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Hi there, hope you're having a great Friday!
This is Colm and Simon from CommerceGurus, with a handpicked weekly roundup of eCommerce articles.
In the latest article on our CommerceGurus blog, Joe Fylan explores the shift from traditional SEO to AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) - and what it means for eCommerce stores.
As AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews become more common, users are increasingly getting direct answers instead of clicking through to websites.
This means visibility is no longer just about ranking on Google, but about being included in those AI-generated answers.
Joe explains that while SEO still matters, stores now need to adapt their content to be more structured, clear, and answer-focused.
This includes writing product and informational content that directly addresses customer questions, using natural language, and ensuring key details (like specs, use cases, and FAQs) are easy for AI systems to understand and surface.
Read The Invisible Storefront: The Shift from SEO to AEO in eCommerce
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Baymard’s latest research highlights just how much room there is to improve product pages.
Their large-scale benchmark shows that many sites still struggle to give shoppers the clarity and confidence they need.
Instead of a single major issue, it’s usually a combination of smaller friction points, e.g. unclear size selections, lack of “in-scale” or model imagery, hidden shipping costs, weak return policy visibility, or missing trust signals - that gradually wear down user confidence.
The key point is that product page UX is often held back by overlooked details rather than big design flaws.
Small improvements such as showing products in context, being upfront about total costs, and improving how reviews and images are presented can significantly reduce hesitation.
For store owners, this makes the product page one of the highest-impact areas to optimise, with relatively simple changes often leading to meaningful gains in conversion and user experience.
See Baymard's Product Page UX: 10 Pitfalls and Best Practices
In this fascinating video, Steve Schoger from Tailwind UI shares how he’s using Claude Code as his primary design tool.
Instead of starting within traditional design tools, he prompts AI to generate UI components, then refines them step by step, tweaking layout, spacing, typography, and interactions in real time.
Design is becoming more fluid and immediate: you can go from idea to working UI in seconds, test variations quickly, and refine details without switching tools.
Combined with strong design fundamentals, this makes it much easier to prototype, experiment, and ship polished interfaces faster.
Watch How Steve Schoger Designs with Claude Code
This article takes a closer look at modern news websites and highlights how bloated they’ve become.
A single article can load tens of megabytes and trigger hundreds of requests, largely due to ad-tech, trackers, autoplay media, and third-party scripts - often far outweighing the content being delivered.
The result is a noticeably worse reading experience: slow load times, layout shifts, intrusive pop-ups, and heavy data usage, especially on mobile.
The broader point is that many sites have prioritised monetisation over usability, turning what should be simple, fast content into something frustrating to consume.
It’s a reminder that performance and user experience aren’t just technical concerns, they directly shape how people engage with your content.
Discover the 49MB Web Page
Following on from a 49MB Web Page, to something a lot more minimal and performance-focused.
COBE is a tiny (around 5KB) JavaScript library that lets you add a smooth, interactive 3D globe to your website with minimal effort.
It’s lightweight, doesn’t rely on heavy frameworks, and can be easily customised with things like markers, animations, and user interactions - making it ideal for modern landing pages or visual experiences without hurting performance.
Check out COBE: The 5KB WebGL Globe
We released updates to both our Shoptimizer WooCommerce theme and our CommerceKit plugin this week!
- More flexibility for developers: New header and footer hooks make it easier to build full-width layouts in child themes.
- Improved UX & accessibility: Enhancements to “Load more” (customisable label + accessibility improvements), better grid behaviour on mobile, and fixes to Sticky Add to Cart.
- Stability & tracking fixes: Resolved issues with AJAX add-to-cart (including Google Analytics tracking), navigation warnings, and product quantity display.
- CommerceKit improvements: Added support for the Twenty Twenty-Five theme, stronger security and cookie handling, plus ongoing PHP 8 compatibility and code quality improvements.
See the Full Changelog of Updates
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Have a great week and best of luck with your projects!
Simon and Colm from CommerceGurus
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