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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.
We've just launched our first CommerceGurus Community Survey - have your say in where Shoptimizer, CommerceKit and CommerceGurus Turbo go next.
Many of our best features started life as a support conversation: someone asks "can it do this?" and it becomes the next thing we ship.
But those chats only reach the people who open a ticket. This survey is our way of hearing from everyone.
We're asking how you build (page builders, blocks, or FSE), how your store performs, which CommerceKit modules you actually use - and the big one: what you'd have us work on first.
It takes about five minutes and closes on August 14th.
Once the responses are in, we'll publish the results and tell you what we're acting on - and where we've decided against something, we'll say why.
👉 Take the CommerceGurus Community Survey 2026
More background in the full post if you're curious.
🎉 Introducing CommerceGurus Turbo!
One plugin. One click. CommerceGurus Turbo is the only performance plugin built purely for WooCommerce stores.
Includes page and edge caching, CSS and JS optimization, lazy loading, Cloudflare image optimization, and preloading — all with safe defaults that work immediately.
Discover CommerceGurus Turbo
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Baymard’s latest Search UX benchmark shows that eCommerce search still frustrates a huge number of shoppers, with 56% of sites failing to adequately support common search behaviours.
Their research found that users often struggle to find products even when those products are actually available - leading to wasted time, repeated searches, and ultimately abandonment.
While search is one of the most-used ways to shop online, most eCommerce sites still deliver only a mediocre experience.
A major issue is that many stores only handle very basic keyword matching, while real shoppers search in much more natural and varied ways.
But better eCommerce search isn’t just about installing a smarter search tool - it also depends heavily on having structured product data, strong tagging, and clear product attributes.
For stores willing to invest in this area, there’s a real opportunity to stand out, reduce friction, and help shoppers find products faster.
Discover eCommerce Search UX 2026: 8 Best Practices
(The article can be read with a free Baymard account)
Steve Chou (My Wife Quit Her Job) takes a critical look at Google's recent AI search guidance, arguing that merchants should focus less on Google's often vague recommendations and more on what actually drives results.
He suggests that fundamentals such as earning high-quality backlinks, creating genuinely useful content for different search intents, and building brand mentions across trusted websites continue to matter far more than chasing the latest technical SEO trends.
One point that is particularly interesting is Steve's discussion of Reddit.
He notes that AI tools frequently cite Reddit discussions, making authentic participation in relevant communities an increasingly valuable way to build visibility.
While AI search is changing how people discover products, the winning strategy is still to create helpful content, build authority, and earn mentions where your customers already spend their time.
Watch Steve Chou Discuss Ranking in AI Search
Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) continues to grow in popularity, and WooCommerce makes the case that it's becoming an important payment option for many online stores.
The article highlights research showing that customers who use BNPL often spend more, leading to higher average order values, while merchants still receive payment upfront as the provider takes on the repayment risk.
It's not the right fit for every business, but if you sell higher-ticket products or want to reduce hesitation at checkout, BNPL is worth considering.
WooCommerce supports providers including Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay through WooPayments, making it easy to offer flexible payment options without adding another payment gateway.
Learn More about Buy Now, Pay Later within WooCommerce
Cloudflare Drop is a neat new feature that lets you deploy a static website simply by dragging a folder or ZIP file into your browser.
No Git repository, no CLI, and you don't even need a Cloudflare account to get started. Within seconds you get a live URL that's available for one hour.
If you decide you want to keep it, simply claim the deployment, create a free Cloudflare account, and it becomes a permanent site that you can connect to a custom domain.
It's a great way to quickly share prototypes, AI-generated websites, landing pages, or client demos with almost zero friction.
For larger projects with Git integration and continuous deployments, Netlify (even the free plan) is still hard to beat, but Cloudflare Drop is an incredibly simple way to get a static site online in seconds.
Check out Cloudflare Drop
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That's it for this edition. Simply reply to this email if you have any questions or suggestions, we read every message.
You can also take a look at our entire back catalog of newsletters.
Have a great week and best of luck with your projects!
Simon and Colm from CommerceGurus
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