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Hi, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋
Welcome to Issue #187 of Loop WP!
Last week was about two of my favourite plugins for boosting WooCommerce performance.
This week focuses on WooCommerce 10.4, the final release of 2025.
Let’s go! 👇
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WooCommerce 10.4 is here!
WooCommerce 10.3 was released seven short weeks ago, bringing a host of improvements and features, including Address Autocomplete, for which I created a free plugin.
10.4 was initially scheduled on November 24th, 2025, just four days before Black Friday. 😬
Thankfully, Woo wisely changed this until after Cyber Monday and most extended sales periods had ended. 😮💨
Let’s look at the highlights from this release. 👇
Accessibility Improvements
Product Collections Carousel now features improved keyboard focus support (with more padding on linked images) and clearer navigation buttons, even in mobile or zoomed views! 😎
Email templates have been updated to improve screen reader accessibility. Layout tables now use
role="presentation", and data tables use proper semantic markup.
HPOS Datastore Caching: Now Standard
🎉 The HPOS Datastore caching feature moves out of “experimental” mode.
While it won’t be enabled by default just yet, this signals a more stable, performant data storage system in future releases.
Block & UX Optimisations
The “Add to Cart + Options” block now supports product variations when used within the Single Product block, bringing it in line with the classic version.
Cart and Checkout blocks have been refreshed with improved typography and spacing for a cleaner, more polished look.
The Featured Product & Featured Category blocks now allow more flexible layout control. Inner blocks let you rearrange titles, descriptions, or prices as needed.
The new Interactivity-API-powered Mini Cart replaces the older React-based Mini Cart by default, improving performance and compatibility.
✨ That last point is particularly awesome!
Faster REST API & Admin Performance
The wc-admin and wc-analytics REST API endpoints are now lazy-loaded — meaning requests not using them should be about 30–60 ms faster, improving performance across the board.
🚀 WooCommerce has been on a performance roll since 10.3 (and subsequent Dot releases), so it’s great to see even more performance improvements in 10.4.
What does it mean for Store Owners?
If you run an accessible-first store, these email, carousel, and UI improvements will help make your site more compliant and user-friendly.
For larger stores (or stores scaling up), the HPOS caching and REST API performance enhancements can make a noticeable difference in speed and stability. **
For shops using block themes and block-based layouts, the new block fixes and refinements provide greater flexibility, a smoother UX, and fewer legacy quirks.
Can you answer this quick question? 👇
Do you use WooCommerce Blocks or Block Theme?
Before You Go
This is the last regular-format newsletter of this year!
🤩 Next week, on December 17th, I get to share one of my favourite emails of the year!
We will then take a break for a couple of weeks as I spend time with the family over the Christmas Holidays.
The regular format will resume on January 7th, 2026. 🎊
That’s it for this week, {{first_name|friend}}. 👋
Sponsorship Opportunities
🚨 The Google Doc contains all the details if you’re interested in sponsoring the Loop WP Newsletter.
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Weekly WordPress News & Tips
This week's excellent and insightful WordPress News & Tips:
Whoops! - WordPress Misconfiguration Blamed for UK Budget Leak as OBR Chair Resigns (The Repository)
😎 So cool!!! - Building a Woo Product Category Image Block with WordPress 6.9. (Brian Coords)
😂 It’s Still Valid! - Is this the coolest robots.txt file ever!? (Bernd Wunsch)
Award Winners - The WP Awards 2025 results are in. (The WP Weekly)
Img.Express - Simple, client-side tools to edit and optimize images for your website. No uploads, no tracking—just fast, browser-based image processing. (Corey Maass)
What’s Next? - Why I Left Circle and Closed The WPTuts Academy. (WPTuts)
33% Boost – WooCommerce on PHP 8.5 gets a big boost over 8.4. (Kinsta)
eCommerce SEO - This is an epic addition in GMC Next and directly addresses work related to Google's Top Quality Store badge. (Brodie Clark)
Inline Editing - Comes to ACF blocks! (ACF)
Tenant Solution - How and Why We Rebuilt Scanfully for True Multi-Tenancy. (Scanfully)
🤔 AI for WordPress Hosts - The project depends on hosts taking ownership of this step and including it in their offerings. (WordPress)
State of the Word 2025 - AI, Education, and a Community Holding Steady Through a “Rollercoaster” Year. (The Repository)
Borrow from the Best - 5 Enterprise E-commerce Tactics for Your WooCommerce Store. (Katie Keith & WP Product Talk)
Virtual Media Folders - Brings virtual folder organization to your WordPress Media Library. (Per Søderlind)
If you have a question about this email or WordPress, please reply, and I will respond as soon as possible.
👋 Until next time,
WooCommerce and the WooCommerce logo are registered trademarks of Automattic Inc. Their use within this material is for descriptive and editorial purposes only. This work is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Automattic Inc.