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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 are currently in sunny Sicily attending Checkout Summit, a gathering of WooCommerce makers and shapers!
In the Metorik Insights 2026 report, the team analysed over 65 million WooCommerce orders worth $6.6B to uncover how stores are performing in the real world.
One key trend is how shopping behaviour varies by device - while mobile now drives the majority of orders, desktop users still tend to spend more per purchase.
The report also highlights the importance of repeat customers and pricing strategies.
Returning shoppers consistently generate higher value, and incentives like free shipping (used in the majority of orders) play a big role in conversions.
(Check out CommerceKit's Free Shipping module if you haven't already)
Overall, it reinforces that while traffic is increasingly mobile, the biggest gains come from improving conversion rates, average order value, and retention.
One stat we were especially happy to see: Shoptimizer ranks as the 5th most popular WooCommerce theme based on Metorik’s data - a great sign of how widely it’s being used in real stores.
Take a Look at the Metorik Insights 2026 report
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Walmart tested letting customers complete purchases directly inside ChatGPT using “Instant Checkout” - but the results were clear: it converted about three times worse than sending users to Walmart’s own website.
Even though the AI experience made buying feel more convenient, far fewer people actually completed purchases.
Executives described the in-chat checkout as “unsatisfying,” and the experiment has already been scaled back.
While AI is becoming a powerful discovery channel, it’s not yet ready to replace traditional eCommerce experiences.
Shoppers still rely on familiar elements like carts, consistent pricing, trust signals, and a fully integrated checkout.
Read about Walmart's ChatGPT Checkout
This Yoast article introduces NLWeb, a concept focused on making websites easier for AI tools to understand and interact with.
As more people ask questions through AI assistants instead of traditional search, the idea is that websites should be structured so AI can clearly interpret their content and return better answers.
In practice, this builds on things like structured data, semantic markup, and machine-readable information.
The big takeaway is that the web keeps evolving - sites aren’t just being built for human visitors and search engines anymore, but also for AI systems that summarize information, recommend products, and help people find answers faster.
Learn about the NLWeb
Design Principals is a curated library of real-world design principles used by companies and product teams.
Instead of teaching theory, it collects actual principles from organisations like Monzo, the NHS, and the Financial Times so you can see how teams define their own rules for building products and experiences.
You can browse hundreds of examples and see patterns like simplicity, consistency, or user-first thinking repeated across different companies. Good design isn’t just about visuals - it’s about having clear, shared rules that shape how decisions get made.
Check out Design Principals
Open Screen is a simple, open-source tool for creating clean, polished screen recordings - mainly aimed at developers, indie makers, and teams making demos or tutorials.
It is a lightweight, free alternative to tools like Screen Studio. You can record your screen, add zoom and motion effects, and produce decent-looking product walkthroughs without watermarks or licensing restrictions.
Take a Look at Open Screen
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Have a great week and best of luck with your projects!
Simon and Colm from CommerceGurus
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