Commerce Jam | March 2025 Edition

Gentian Shero

Written by Gentian Shero

Co-founder & CSO at Shero Commerce

Commerce Jam | March 2025 Edition

Welcome to the March 2025 edition of Commerce Jam!

Last week, I needed to compare two Shopify apps. Out of habit, I opened a new tab on my browser to do a Google search but then stopped myself.

Instead, I asked ChatGPT.

It gave me a clean, summarized answer in seconds (pros, cons, pricing, even direct links). No ads, no scrolling. Just what I needed.

Later that day, I ran a quick LinkedIn poll to see if I was alone in this shift. Turns out I wasn’t:

  • Over half of the respondents now use both Google and AI tools for search
  • One-third said they rely on AI tools alone
  • And only one in five people stick with Google only

The takeaway?

AI is becoming the new front door to the internet. That changes everything about how we think about SEO.

This month’s newsletter is all about how to adapt your eCommerce website to this new reality, how to get your brand cited in the answers, and more.

In this issue:

  • How to Optimize Your eCommerce Site for AI Search
  • What Brands Need to Know About Tariffs
  • Trending Ideas & Platform Updates
  • Adobe Commerce Optimizer
  • The Adobe Commerce / Magento Mirage
  • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
  • Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Website
  • SEO and Content Marketing
  • 9 Must-Have Shopify Apps for Smarter Growth
  • Celebrating Women Shaping eCommerce
  • Final thoughts

Let’s dive in!

How to Optimize Your eCommerce Site for AI Search

What is AI Search (Answer Engine) Optimization?

AI Search Engine Optimization, AI SEO, or AEO, is the process of optimizing your content not to rank on a search engine results page but to appear as a cited source in AI-generated answers. These answers are increasingly being used by people who ask questions on platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, Claude, and Microsoft Copilot.

Unlike traditional SEO, where the goal is to rank among the top ten blue links, AI SEO is about structuring your content so that AI understands it, trusts it, and uses it in a response.

AI tools are trained on vast datasets and constantly refine their sources. If your eCommerce content is authoritative, structured, and relevant, you might find your site mentioned in an AI answer, not in a list of links but in the answer itself.

This is a fundamental shift. When people ask AI about the best shoes for flat feet or how long shipping takes for handmade jewelry, they aren’t browsing; they’re listening. They want immediate answers. And if your brand is part of that response, you’ve already earned trust before they even reach your site.


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Traditional SEO vs. AI SEO

Think of traditional SEO like a map. You’re trying to place your store in the most visible street corner of Google’s town square. AEO? That’s like being recommended by the town’s most trusted guide (AI), who walks people straight to your storefront.

AI SEO is broader and more powerful. It helps you show up across different AI tools, not just search engines.

Continue reading the rest of the article on our website....

What Brands Need to Know About Tariffs

We discussed tariffs briefly last month. As of April 2, 2025, new tariffs are official. They include:

  • A universal 10% tariff now applies to most imported goods starting April 5.
  • Higher tariffs hit key trading partners next:
  • China (54%)
  • Vietnam (46%)
  • Japan (24%)
  • European Union (20%)
  • Canada and Mexico are largely exempt for now

 

If your brand/business imports anything from Asia or Europe, your landed costs are about to spike fast.


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Here’s what you should be doing right now:

  • Reprice Strategically  - layer in small price increases with your next drops. Don’t shock your customers all at once.

 

  • Prioritize Profitable SKUs - focus on your best-margin products. Kill or freeze anything that can’t absorb an extra 10–50% cost at the border or port of entry.

 

  • Talk to Your Suppliers Weekly - you’ll need fast updates to dodge sudden shipment costs. Don’t wait for next quarter’s invoice.

 

  • Offer Value, Not Just Discounts - if you must raise prices, bundle smarter. Add loyalty points, free shipping thresholds, or perks that feel like upgrades.

 

  • Start Sourcing Alternatives Now - China and Vietnam are hot zones. Mexico, India, and even local U.S. production are safer bets if you act early.

 

Bottom Line - unfortunately, tariffs aren’t just headlines anymore. They’re baked into the cost of doing business. Brands that stay rigid will bleed margin. Brands that stay nimble will win.

Trending Ideas & Platform Updates

Shopify Simplifies Logins with “Sign In with Shop”

Shopify has rolled out “Sign in with Shop” allowing returning customers to log in using their Shop app credentials. No passwords or emails are needed.

This reduces checkout friction, improves returning and new customer conversion rates, and is available to all merchants using new customer accounts.

Easier login = higher conversions. Below is an example of how the "Sign in with Shop" works on Grove:


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Grove's Sign in with Shop

If you haven’t upgraded to new customer accounts yet, now’s the time. Check your theme compatibility to unlock this feature.

Shopify Launches AI Store Generator

Shopify announced a new AI Store Generator Tool to help entrepreneurs create entire storefronts faster and more efficiently. Learn more →

Baymard’s UX AI Bot Goes Live

Baymard Institute launched a new UX AI Bot to instantly answer any UX-related questions based on their huge research database. A big win for optimizing eCommerce experiences faster. Learn more →

Alexa’s New AI Updates for 2025

Amazon unveiled major updates to Alexa with generative AI features to make it more conversational and personalized than ever. Learn more →

Adobe Commerce Optimizer

Adobe has introduced Adobe Commerce Optimizer, a platform-agnostic tool that lets merchants improve their storefront experience without changing their eCommerce backend.

It works with Adobe Commerce, Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, separating the customer-facing experience from backend operations like cart and checkout.

What it does:

  • Improves front-end speed, stability, and flexibility
  • Reduces risks and dev effort compared to full re-platforming
  • Uses Adobe Experience Manager for digital asset management and AI-driven merchandising
  • Boosts content delivery through Edge Delivery Services

 

For high-volume merchants, it’s a smart way to modernize the customer experience without ripping and replacing their existing commerce engine. Despite the hype and warm welcome from Adobe Commerce / Magento agencies and partners, this announcement has had mixed reactions.

Industry voices like Rick Watson have been critical, pointing out that Adobe’s new solutions either change too little or risk another Magento 1-to-2 style disruption. For many merchants and agencies like us, this feels like a Magento 2 rollout and PWA déjà vu.

While Adobe Optimizer is an interesting move, I think it is too late in the game. Platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, and newer composable players already made headless and frontend innovation faster, easier, and cheaper years ago.

Adobe’s approach is still too complex for what it promises.

For most eCommerce brands under $100M, it’s an expensive and heavy solution at a time when agility matters more than ever.

The Adobe Commerce / Magento Mirage

In addition to the Adobe Optimizer news, I wanted to share my thoughts on Adobe/Magento and the current state of the platform.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Magento, and without it, we as an agency would not be here. But at the same time, I am a pragmatist too. Magento used to be seen as a powerful choice for eCommerce. That was up to 2018, when Magento 2 was released. Since then, the platform has continued to lose market share. In 2025, the reality is hard to ignore. Magento merchants continue to jump ship en masse.

Despite vocal support from some developers, merchants are voting with their feet. Many who invested hundreds of thousands into Magento are walking away, frustrated by high costs, endless technical complexity, unexpected patches, upgrades, and slow time to market.

Here’s the reality I see firsthand:

  • It’s a developer’s platform, not a merchant’s platform. Development projects routinely take 2–3x longer (and cost 2–3x more) compared to modern SaaS platforms like Shopify or BigCommerce.
  • Admin is clunky and outdated. The back-end experience feels stuck in 2015, confusing, slow, and not intuitive for most non-technical teams.
  • Upgrades and patches are constant pain points. Staying up-to-date with security and functionality often leads to surprise costs and instability.
  • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is out of control. Between hosting, maintenance, agency fees, and dev costs, many merchants end up stuck in an endless spending cycle.

 

The simple truth?

Adobe/Magento might still make sense for massive enterprises with huge development teams, endless budgets, and truly unique needs.

But for most brands trying to scale profitably, it’s dragging down innovation and ROI.

Open source is great, but it comes with even greater responsibility and cost. If you’re still hanging onto Adobe/Magento because “it used to be good,” it’s time to rethink.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

How do you turn more clicks into customers in today’s tough economy? The brands that succeed in 2025 aren’t sitting still. They’re obsessed with refining every part of the customer journey, from discovery to checkout.

On average, eCommerce sites are seeing 2–3% conversion rates. But brands that prioritize optimization are consistently beating that benchmark.

I’ve talked about this at length in past Commerce Jam editions, but again, here’s what matters from a CRO perspective:

  • Simplify Checkout - eliminate any unnecessary steps. A smooth, frictionless checkout is critical once shoppers are ready to buy.
  • Personalization Boosts Conversions - personalized experiences can increase conversion rates by up to 8X. From smart product recommendations to dynamic landing pages, relevance wins.
  • A/B Testing Works - brands that commit to consistent A/B testing can see conversion improvements of 300% or more over time. Test faster, learn faster.
  • Don’t Just Optimize for Checkout - also focus on micro-conversions like email signups, wishlist adds, and add-to-cart actions. Early buying signals are powerful when nurtured.
  • Mobile is Non-Negotiable - nearly 70% of eCommerce traffic is mobile, but mobile conversion rates still lag behind desktop. Speed and simplicity aren’t optional. They’re your biggest CRO levers.
  • Trust Still Sells - authentic customer reviews, security badges, and transparent return policies still have a huge impact on buyer confidence.
  • Fast Sites = Better Conversion Rates - a fast-loading, AI-ready website doesn’t just help with SEO; it directly improves conversions. Customers (and AI search engines) expect speed.

 

Spring Cleaning Tips for Your Website

Before you jump into AI SEO, it’s a must to get the basics right. Here’s how to spring-clean your site for better performance and visibility:

Testing your website speed is important, but knowing what to fix is where the magic happens.

First, I'd check your site’s performance using trusted tools like:

 

Then, depending on the findings, focus on these key improvements:

  • Compress images – large image files are one of the biggest site speed killers.
  • Reduce third-party scripts – remove or delay loading non-essential apps and tracking pixels.
  • Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) – if not on Shopify, who have their own CDN, serve your site faster by caching assets closer to your users.
  • Prioritize critical content – load important content first (especially above the fold).
  • Fix Core Web Vitals issues – address metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

 

Remember - a load time under 3 seconds is the new baseline. Faster = better SEO rankings and happier customers.

Additional Useful Resources for Optimization

 

Action Tip: Optimization is a continuous effort and not a one-time fix. Add it to your calendar to schedule a quarterly speed check-up for your site. This can be a simple DIY task with the tools I provided above, or if you have an in-house dev team, add speed to the list of items they have to report to you.

SEO and Content Marketing

Google’s March 2025 Core Update is favoring websites that deliver real expertise, fast load times, and user-first content. Meanwhile, Gemini AI and AI Overviews are reshaping how results are presented, moving away from links toward direct answers.

My Top 3 Recommendations for March’s update:

  • Audit Your E-E-A-T - showcase real expertise, experience, and trust across your site. Update bios, authorship, and references.
  • Target Queries, Not Just Keywords - structure your content around answering user intent, not just ranking for keywords.
  • Speed, Speed, Speed - sites that load in under 2.5 seconds dominate AI rankings. Prioritize Core Web Vitals optimizations.

 

Google’s New Automated Marketing Content Extraction – Google’s latest AI feature can now automatically pull marketing copy and product details directly from websites for ads, streamlining ad creation like never before.

SEO KPIs in 2025 – which SEO key performance indicators will matter most as AI and semantic search reshape how success is measured.

A Guide to Semantics: How to Be Visible Both in Search and LLMs – how to optimize your content for both traditional search engines and large language models to stay ahead in AI-driven search.

Competitor Reviews: The Untapped Goldmine for SEO Writing – how analyzing competitor reviews can uncover valuable SEO insights and help you create content that ranks and converts.

Best Content Creation Tools in 2025 – explore the latest tools that are helping marketers produce better content faster.

9 Must-Have Shopify Apps for Smarter Growth

Running a successful Shopify store isn’t just about great products. It’s about using the right tools behind the scenes. Here’s a curated list of apps that can help you boost conversions, streamline operations, and deliver a better customer experience.

  1. Rivo (Retention, Loyalty & Reviews Platform) 🎁 Consolidate loyalty programs, referrals, and reviews to boost retention. Learn more →
  2. Shoplift (AI Landing Page Optimization) 🧠 AI-driven A/B testing to optimize landing pages and lift conversion rates. Learn more →
  3. Census by Vervaunt (Customer Surveys) 📝 Collect real customer feedback post-purchase to improve your strategy. Learn more →
  4. Swap Commerce (Returns & Exchanges Management) 🔄 Turn returns into exchanges and save the sale effortlessly. Learn more →
  5. Dataships (Email Compliance & Consent Management) 🛡️ Automate GDPR compliance and grow your email list safely. Learn more →
  6. Klaviyo (Email & SMS Marketing) 📈 Build powerful automations that drive sales and loyalty. Learn more →
  7. Rebuy (Personalization Engine) 🛒 Smart upsells cross-sells, and personalized product recommendations. Learn more →
  8. Gorgias (Customer Support Helpdesk) 💬 Manage all customer support channels in one dashboard. Learn more →
  9. Matrixify (Data Migration & Bulk Management) 📊 Easily manage bulk data imports, exports, and migrations across your Shopify store. Learn more →

 

Celebrating Women Shaping eCommerce

March was Women’s History Month. We’re highlighting some of the incredible women leaders making a real impact in the eCommerce world today and in many of our lives. Of course, I wish I could include them all here, but it would take me weeks to write the entire list.

 

A big thank you to these incredible women leading the way in eCommerce. As a son, brother, husband, and dad, I see every day how important strong women are in life and in business. Your work and leadership make a difference and inspire more people than you know.

Final thoughts

That’s a wrap for this month’s Commerce Jam!

The world of eCommerce isn’t just moving fast. It’s being re-engineered by AI, supply chain shifts, and rising customer expectations. Whether it’s optimizing for AI-driven search, navigating tariffs, or rethinking the tech you trust, staying proactive is the only way to stay ahead.

I’ll be in London on April 9–10 for Vervaunt’s Pulse Summit and then in Chicago on April 22 for Content Jam.

If you're attending either event, I’d love to connect in person. 👋

Remember, life’s too short for checkout lines.

P.S. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please feel free to comment and share your feedback or ideas for future topics.

Gentian Shero

Co-founder & CSO at Shero Commerce

Gentian is the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Co-founder of Shero Commerce. With over 15 years of experience in eCommerce strategy, technical SEO, and inbound marketing, he has helped hundreds of brands grow smarter and scale faster. At Shero, Gentian leads digital strategy and optimization for mid-market and enterprise merchants, combining hands-on expertise with a deep focus on ROI.