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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.
This post from Shopify looks at seven content trends influencing how shoppers discover and engage with brands in 2026.
Social platforms are increasingly being used as search engines while short-form video is expanding beyond TikTok and Instagram and appearing directly in search results.
The article also highlights the growing importance of founder-led content, behind-the-scenes stories, and less polished product demonstrations.
An analysis of 3,000 brands found that lo-fi social content generated 34% more likes and 18.5% more comments than polished content, while smaller niche creators are increasingly favoured over big influencers because of the trust they've built with their audiences.
Discover 7 Content Trends for eCommerce Brands in 2026
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WooCommerce 11.1 has been released, with one of the biggest additions being variation image galleries built directly into WooCommerce.
Stores can now add multiple images to individual product variations without needing the separate Additional Variation Images extension, which is being retired.
There's also a new order withdrawal feature for EU stores, allowing customers to submit a withdrawal request through My Account, although merchants still need to process the request and any refund manually.
As with any significant WooCommerce update, I'd give 11.1 a little time before installing it on a live store.
Read About WooCommerce 11.1.0
Carl Weische has shared a detailed breakdown of how product images affect conversion rates, arguing that because shoppers increasingly scan rather than read PDPs, your image gallery needs to communicate much of the sales pitch on its own.
He recommends building galleries around a repeatable set of images: a strong main image and value proposition, how the product works, how to use it, multiple product views, before-and-after results, size and materials, objection handling, and social proof.
Every image should communicate a benefit, build trust, or answer an objection identified through customer research.
There's some good practical advice too.
Models should resemble the target customer, products should be shown in the context they're actually used, before-and-after shots shouldn't look unrealistically perfect, and dimensions should use measurements familiar to the audience.
Most importantly, the headlines across the images should tell the complete sales story even if that's all the shopper reads.
Learn About How Product Images Affect Conversion Rates
I came across NearoLeads recently and really liked the idea, particularly for small or solo web design agencies that don't have a dedicated sales team.
It finds local businesses that don't currently have a website and provides their contact details in a CSV, giving you a ready-made prospecting list.
The idea is simple. Instead of spending hours searching Google Maps, checking whether each business has a website, and then hunting down contact details, NearoLeads does that research for you.
You can target businesses by location and category, making it possible to build quite focused lists, or whatever niche your agency works with.
Take a Look at NearoLeads
Catalog.cool is a huge collection of more than 16,000 brands, and it's particularly useful for finding eCommerce design inspiration.
You can browse brands across fashion, beauty, food, home, health and other categories, making it easy to discover online stores you probably wouldn't find through the usual design galleries.
Check out the Catalog Gallery
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Have a great week and best of luck with your projects!
Simon and Colm from CommerceGurus
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