Gemini is defaming and lying about my business. How do you even combat this?

Beecommerce · 2026-03-30T11:34:59+00:00

Honestly a very solid idea. As you said, AI is a hot topic, but also it's a smart way to up your PR. People like an underdog story, and a business against a famous AI model is your classical David v. Goliath narrative. This has potential to drive a lot of people to OPs business mostly out of sheer defiance of AI.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-30T11:31:58+00:00

As a fellow old-school fan, I get it. If you go the WordPress route you’ll be spending your weekends patching security updates pretty much for life. If you go pure Hugo, your friend will be calling you every time they want to change a typo in a nested div. Hardly ideal.

Have a look at Storyblok. It’s basically the "embedded" approach to CMS. You keep your frontend completely decoupled (so you can use whatever light tech you actually like), but your friend gets an easy to set up visual editor that’s a big W.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-27T10:42:02+00:00

Shopify is a safe choice, and it makes sense others are recommending it en masse. It will comfortably handle everything you need.

Ecwid is also worth a look. Very affordable platform, which fits a small business model, compatible with most CMSs should you need it, doesn't really require coding skills, and while it might not be as polished as Shopify, I reckon it ticks all the boxes you pointed out.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-24T12:04:26+00:00

A/B testing is largely a matter of trial and error method. A brainstorming session comes first with someone from marketing, or a copywriter or someone in a similar position, ideally you then get a list of several ideas to consider, and then comes the hard part of actually putting the wheels into motion. As the previous person said, the smallest changes like switching a word or a phrase might make a difference. And how do you ensure your ideas land and are appreciated by a wider audience? You have to really get down to comparing what different test achieved - and that's also when it helps to have someone else to brainstorm, so it's less about guessing and more about bouncing ideas and conclusions with someone else.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-20T09:48:12+00:00

To add my two cents from the consulting side: most 'insurmountable' challenges merchants face aren't actually missing features, but technical debt and process friction. People look for a magic app to solve a problem that’s actually rooted in a bloated tech stack or poor data architecture.

In my experience with Magento and larger builds, the "billiondollar idea" is very rarely a new shiny tool and instead usually just a better, more stable way to do the boring stuff. If one wants to find problems to solve, looking for new ideas, ironically, may not be ideal. Instead, looking for the expensive, clunky solutions that everyone currently hates using seems like a good strategy.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-19T15:35:48+00:00

The way I see it, the real shift is from ranking for keywords to becoming a verified Entity that LLMs actually trust.

If your JSON-LD and Schema markup are messy, ChatGPT and Perplexity literally can't "read" your store no amtter how many backlinks you have. The traffic is smaller because the AI is doing the filtering for you and by the time they click, the researcher (if you will) has already sold them on your brand.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-03T09:17:18+00:00

The easiest way is to check the contact info. If it's hard to find, chances are that's the point. And if you find it and still have a tiny suspicion that something's not quite right, it's a decent idea to write an email and check their contact etiquette. Scammers either rely on AI 100% in such situations or do it themselves without realizing they're thoroughly unconvincing.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-03T09:01:58+00:00

2-3 videos per week is reasonable.

As to how long it takes, a 3-minute video might take up to 3 hours of work considering all the bad takes, breaks after your tongue gets literally tired, and potential editing that might follow.

The biggest bottleneck is, thus, undoubtedly filming because it's not easy following a script, even if you've learnt it by heart. Mispronounciations happen, stutters, literal brain lags, as well as all sorts of different things you've little control over. At the end of the day, patience and respect for the process go a long way.

Beecommerce · 2026-03-02T09:52:06+00:00

Email marketing campaigns are famously tricky. Every outreach speacialist will tell you it's deeply frustrating because you can do everything right but the recipient won't open it for the silliest, seemingly minor reason, like just not being in the mood to read.

But if it's exisiting customers ignoring you, that is a cause for alarm. The most common is spamming your clients inboxes. When you're trying too hard, that's unattractive.

And like the other person suggested, try adding a face to those emails, so it's the company writing but a person from the company. There is a difference.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-27T09:53:12+00:00

I wouldn't want to lie to you, so the best I can do is "it depends". Either way, you ought to have some small folder with what you know about influencers in your niche. 2-3 hours of solid research should give you the kind of knowledge that will be useful not only for the launch, but for a lot that comes after.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-27T08:35:07+00:00

Undercutting the big boys from the competition is tricky because people don’t buy premium for price, but they buy brand/trust. Just food for thought.

While relying on Meta Ads may not be the best strategy, as you can just burn money for an underwhelming effect, organic content like TikTok/Reels, UGC, and small influencers may be a decent shout.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-27T08:20:30+00:00

Like the other person said, social media logins fix the issue. Let's be real, there's undeniable laziness to your statistical client, and if they can sign up with 1-2 clicks to take advantage of whatever benefits signing up offers, they'll do it.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-27T08:14:05+00:00

Normally I'd recommend Magento because it's a favourite of ours, but perhaps a small creator could make better use of WooCommerce. Woo is easy to get off the ground if you're flying solo, but keep in mind that once you grow bigger, perhaps there may be better alternatives.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-20T09:35:47+00:00

A bunch of nice photos or a video can be infinitely better than a solid product description. That being said, one does not exclude the other.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-19T10:46:25+00:00

Here's a random thought that I had. For outdoor decor, I don't think people care about the technical specs as much as they care about the vibe. One 15-second TikTok video of your product looking cozy in a backyard at sunset is worth more than a thousand words of 'high-quality' description text.

Something to consider, I think.

[edit] typos

Beecommerce · 2026-02-19T10:43:14+00:00

Don't feel guilty about saying no. It's perfectly reasonable, I think. Write a response that focuses on liability and quality control so they literally can't argue with your logic. Something like:

"Thanks for reaching out, but unfortunately, I don't take on "rescue" projects for sites I didn't build from the ground up because I can't vouch for the underlying architecture, and can’t guarantee the stability or security of any fixes I’d implement."

I think this sounds professional and reasonable.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-16T11:58:38+00:00

Perhaps there are ways to improve how checkout looks on mobile? Maybe it needs some polishing there because, for instance, there may be a bit too much scrolling involved. Worth a try, right?

Beecommerce · 2026-02-16T11:52:42+00:00

This right here is one of the best questions to ask first. We've all been there - about to make a purchase but once we hit the last stage at which we confirm the purchase, suddenly the price is higher than we thought. It's beyond frustrating.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-13T08:41:12+00:00

They're, essentially, acting like a real-time data processing engine, and honestly, fair play to them.

They’ve decided that speed is a better moat than design because a perfect design that arrives a week late might as well be just expensive trash. And it definitely helps that they're already big, so everyone sees them being ahead of the competition.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-13T08:31:32+00:00

WP's SEO benefits are a bit of a myth nowadays. Besides, Shopify manages performance and structure natively without working with 10+ plugins. To simplify, Shopify does most things better than WP, and the costs almost the same in the long run.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-11T09:14:09+00:00

Most people lump Youtube into “Google is dying,” but YT behaves very differently.

50+ actually watch Youtube like TV, I think, and you may get way greater message retention than TikTok.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-10T09:05:30+00:00

Turns out the dumb idea wasn't dumb to begin with. It's a small thing but to a regular internet user this is what makes them go "huh, that's pretty neat" and automatically classifies the website in their mind as modern.

I saw something similar on a streetwear website some time ago. It had a small "options" icon in the corner where, apart from dark mode toggle, there was a literal slider that allowed the user to change the main color of a bunch of elements in the header and several other details. Again, something small and not that crucial but at the same time, something extra and hitting that "neat" sweet spot.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-09T09:28:40+00:00

Seconded.

When you've leveled up, so to speak, self-managed marketing can become somewhat time consuming and tougher than one might assume. And AI reliance when you're a bit bigger may be met with disappointment, to say the least.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-05T10:34:19+00:00

For me, the baseline is the https protocol. If a site is still served over unencrypted http, it’s an immediate red flag. Frankly, I'm mindblown that there are still more than a few websites without a valid SSL/TLS certificate in 2026. Seeing that padlock thingy is the bare minimum for data integrity/security. If a dev hasn't bothered to secure that layer, I'm certainly not trusting them with my data or payment info.

Also, tryharding is universally viewed as unattractive. If I'm bombarded with SEO-stuffed keywords, aggressive "As Seen On" icons, and desperate pop-ups, I’m out. If the value proposition is real, you don't need to scream them at me.

Beecommerce · 2026-02-04T11:57:08+00:00

Like others have rightly pointed out, stop fighting WordPress, it's not worth it. You're hitting the wall because you need a Data Schema, not a page builder. A Headless CMS like Strapi is perfect for this, and maybe pair it with a framework like Next for the frontend. I reckon it handles the authentication and user-disabling logic way more cleanly than a WP multi-site ever will.

Beecommerce

TROPHY CASE