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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.
Google Analytics runs on almost every eCommerce store. It provides incredibly comprehensive data to the store owner but it does come at a cost - speed.
Analytics tools do impact the performance of websites. They usually add a script which adds the functionality and logically this has a cost in terms of performance.
I've seen a number of light-weight alternatives to Google Analytics appear in recent months, the most popular of which are Fathom and Plausible.
This interesting post by Simple Analytics, another contender, delves into the speed differences between running Google Analytics, Simple Analytics, and no analytics at all.
See how Google Analytics can affect page speed
Colm discovered an interesting new WooCommerce focused podcast from the team at SkyVerge (acquired in 2020 by GoDaddy).
There are two episodes to start with. The one I was most interested in covered order fulfillment in WooCommerce.
The panel covered strategies including setting up order status update emails in WooCommerce, how to offer multiple shipping speeds, live versus flat rate shipping, and much more.
It's certainly worth a listen and I hope they'll keep covering relevant topics like this in future episodes.
Listen to eCommerce unscripted: mastering WooCommerce
I've been pleased to see Elementor take performance seriously with a number of important improvements in the past 12 months.
There is far more awareness these days from website owners about Core Web Vitals and the effect slow sites have on conversions and, this summer, page rankings.
This article, from their VP of product goes over five key areas which Elementor will improve on in the coming months.
- Load only what you need
- Reduce the Use of JavaScript/CSS Libraries and Leverage Native Browser Support
- Improve and Optimize Existing Internal JavaScript and CSS
- Optimize Backend and Rendering Processes
- Improved, Slimmer, and Better Code Output
If you use Elementor on your website this is an important article to read and be aware of.
Read about Elementor's planned performance improvements
I was interested to see this week that MailChimp are getting into eCommerce with the launch of a new Stores feature on their platform.
This will enable merchants to create an online storefront, add and edit products, process orders, and configure payments, tax, and shipping.
They revealed that 40% of their 14 million customers are in the commerce space so it's a logical evolution of their offering.
A truly integrated store and email marketing funnel could be an interesting proposition for small businesses getting started and may provide a challenge for WooCommerce and Shopify.
Learn about MailChimp's new Store feature
UK designers Orman Clark and James McDonald have designed this beautifully minimalist set of icons which are free for anyone to use.
If you create a free login you can copy the SVG code for each icon and drop them into your projects.
They're a nice complementary option to Heroicons, which are still my favorite.
Despite sharing a name, they're no relation to IconicWP - the (excellent) collection of WooCommerce plugins.
Take a look at Iconic's SVG icons
Latest Shoptimizer updates
If you've been using our Shoptimizer WooCommerce theme, we pushed a couple of nice updates this week in version 2.4.0. See everything on the theme's changelog page.
That's it for this edition. Simply reply to this email if you have any questions or suggestions, we read every message. Have a great week and best of luck with your projects!
Colm and Simon from CommerceGurus
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