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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.
Based on Baymard Institute's research, navigation best practices focus heavily on providing clear orientation and reducing cognitive load for shoppers, especially on mobile devices.
A major failing found on most sites (95%) is the inability to highlight the user's current scope within the main navigation.
This lack of visual cues leaves users disoriented and uncertain of their place in the site hierarchy, an issue that is particularly damaging on smaller screens or when users land directly on a product page from an external source.
The study also stresses the importance of effective structural organization to prevent users from feeling overwhelmed.
Baymard found that 60% of sites fail to divide categories and subcategories into manageable chunks.
Since the nature of drop-down menus allows for an unlimited number of options, sites often present confusingly long lists of subcategories.
The recommended practice is to subdivide product collections when the number of categories reaches around ten to create a more digestible, less "cluttered" experience.
Finally, the research supports making sure that parent categories are actual, browsable parts of the product catalog - not just shallow text labels - to effectively support users who are exploring or looking for inspiration.
Read Baymard's Homepage and Category Navigation UX 2025
(Note: this article can be read after registering for a free Baymard account - it is well worth it)
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Cloudflare’s 2025 Founders’ Letter reflects on how the Internet has evolved over the past 15 years and how its core business model, driven by traffic and ad revenue, has begun to show cracks.
While the shift to widespread encryption marked real progress, the company notes that an obsession with clicks and outrage has distorted incentives and degraded online content quality.
The rise of AI “answer engines” like ChatGPT is accelerating this shift, reducing the need for users to click links and threatening traffic-dependent industries like media and research.
Despite the disruption, Cloudflare is optimistic. The company sees a chance to create a healthier ecosystem where AI companies compensate content creators fairly, fostering a more balanced and sustainable Internet.
They argue this next phase will require new rules - where content holds value not by traffic volume, but by the quality and usefulness it provides to both humans and AI systems.
Read Cloudflare’s 2025 Annual Founders’ Letter
I came across this neat product page recently from Stio, an outdoors clothing and footwear brand.
One small detail which caught my eye was the caption in the second grid item image.
The text "Clark is 6'3", chest 42", waist 33" and wears a size M" added greater context to the image and allows a viewer to better understand if the sizing would be suitable for them.
We'll be including this functionality in our next CommerceKit update, you'll have the option to display captions within any image in our Product Gallery in a similar fashion.
Check out Stio's Product Page
Mamba is a performance plugin made especially for WooCommerce stores, designed to help them load faster, serve more visitors, and stay stable under pressure.
Under the hood, Mamba caches entire product, category, and shop pages, while excluding dynamic areas like cart, checkout, and account pages.
It also handles caching of WooCommerce’s Store API: catalog data is cached longer, while cart and checkout data use very short “micro-caches” so they stay accurate but still reduce server load.
When something changes, e.g. stock, prices, or product details, Mamba doesn’t flush everything; it clears only the relevant bits so performance stays optimal.
If the cache is cleared, Mamba “warms up” pages in the background, regenerating cache before users hit them. It also integrates with CDNs like Cloudflare and BunnyCDN, so cache purging stays consistent from server to edge.
Beyond caching, Mamba optimizes media (compressing images, converting to WebP, prioritizing key images), cleans out unnecessary database clutter, and removes unneeded WooCommerce scripts or notices. A single-site license costs USD$59.
Mamba Performance Plugin for WooCommerce
Unblast is a curated library of free design assets, including mockups, fonts, templates, icons, graphics, and colors.
It lets designers browse, preview, and download high-quality PSD, vector, or design files (e.g. mockups of packaging, mobile devices, apparel) to support their creative projects.
Take a look at Unblast
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Have a great week and best of luck with your projects!
Simon and Colm from CommerceGurus
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