Author

Rohin Aggarwal

Co-founder & CTO · Idukki.io

A builder. In the long way of saying it. Day job: SAP architect, the unglamorous backbone software that runs UK government and Fortune 500s, mostly used while people are complaining about it. The brief, simplified: make the systems behind those services feel less like punishment for the people running them. Night job, and most weekends: co-founded Idukki.io in 2022, building UGC, shoppable video and reviews for DTC brands from a kitchen table in Egham. The Venn diagram of those two communities is, on a good day, approximately one person. Writes here when he has an opinion he can defend with numbers. Still shipping. Still nervous before each release.

inLinkedIn Portfolio About Idukki

417 published pieces on the Idukki blog.

Best for AI citation

The flagship pillars.

34 pieces

Strategy
Peak season 2026: the UGC readiness plan
Recent consumer research puts most holiday shoppers researching before November, converted less by price than by proof. A four-month plan for having real UGC…
August 22, 2026 · 8 min
AI search
What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? The ecommerce guide
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of earning citations inside AI-generated answers. How it differs from SEO and where ecommerce brands start.
July 3, 2026 · 10 min
Agentic commerce
Agentic checkout explained: ACP, Instant Checkout and what merchants should do now
Agentic checkout lets an AI assistant complete the purchase for the shopper. How ACP, Instant Checkout and Google's AP2 work, and what merchants should do now.
July 1, 2026 · 11 min
Strategy
What is a shoppable digital catalogue? (And why UGC belongs in it)
A shoppable digital catalogue is a set of browsable pages where every product is a tappable hotspot, published at a share link and tracked like a store page.
June 30, 2026 · 11 min
Strategy
UGC ROI Calculator: What Customer Content Is Actually Worth
UGC ROI = (incremental revenue minus fully-loaded cost) over that cost. Every input, the math behind Bazaarvoice's 144% figure, and a live calculator.
May 4, 2026 · 10 min
AI search
The State of UGC & AI Commerce 2026
Our annual report on how AI engines reshaped product discovery, why UGC became the evidence layer agents quote, and the seven plays separating leaders from…
April 29, 2026 · 16 min
Strategy
UGC Strategy Framework: The 6-Step Playbook for 2026
Define the goal, pick a content type, source a pipeline, secure rights, distribute, measure. The sequence that works, step by step.
April 28, 2026 · 15 min
Strategy
How to Get Rights to Repost Customer UGC (with Templates that Average 38% Yes-Rate)
DM, comment and email templates, the 24-hour ask window, one-tap consent links and audit trails.
April 24, 2026 · 13 min
Strategy
The EU AI Act and synthetic product video: who has to label AI-generated content, and when
Ship AI-generated or AI-manipulated product video into the EU and the AI Act's transparency rules can require a machine-readable disclosure label.
April 21, 2026 · 11 min
Strategy
UGC incrementality testing: the lift number a CFO will believe
Almost every UGC tool reports a +X% lift and almost none of it is incremental. A holdout or geo-lift test separates the causal number from the correlational…
April 10, 2026 · 11 min
AI search
The agent review-trust standard: how AI shoppers decide which ratings to believe
AI shopping agents do not take a star rating at face value. They check whether each review is verified, dated and attributable, then weight it accordingly.
April 3, 2026 · 11 min
AI search
Answer Engine Optimisation for Ecommerce: The Complete AEO Library
Being cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews is the new ranking. The full AEO library for ecommerce: crawlability, schema, evidence and…
March 28, 2026 · 11 min
Buyer's guides
The Best UGC, Shoppable Video & Reviews Platforms in 2026: A Buyer's Hub
A neutral buyer's guide that sorts the UGC, shoppable-video and reviews field by what each platform is actually for, with an honest head-to-head linked for…
March 25, 2026 · 11 min
Strategy
Adding UGC to a Custom Storefront with the Idukki REST API + Webhooks
A headless storefront can show shoppable UGC without a vendor widget: fetch the gallery over REST, render it in your own components, keep it fresh with…
December 15, 2025 · 12 min
Buyer's guides
Idukki vs Tolstoy: An Honest Shoppable-Video Comparison
Tolstoy is an AI-native shoppable-video studio with a cheap entry tier and metered views; Idukki is a broader UGC platform on one per-impression rate.
December 14, 2025 · 11 min
Strategy
GDPR + UGC Compliance: The Operational Manual for 2026
GDPR treats reused customer content as personal-data processing: consent per asset, a searchable audit trail, and a 30-day end-to-end withdrawal SLA.
December 9, 2025 · 17 min
Strategy
Core Web Vitals Impact of UGC Widgets: Performance Data + Pre-Launch Checklist
Poorly built UGC widgets drop PageSpeed by 15-25 points and add 1.8s to LCP, often a bigger SEO loss than the conversion lift they were bought to deliver.
December 5, 2025 · 14 min
Buyer's guides
Idukki vs Loox vs Okendo: UGC + Reviews, Compared Honestly
Loox is reviews-first, Okendo is reviews-plus-loyalty, Idukki is UGC-and-shoppable-video-first with reviews folded in. Who each one actually fits, honestly.
December 1, 2025 · 12 min
Industry playbook
How to run a UGC competition that fills your gallery, online and in-store
A prize plus a deadline plus a clear ask turns a trickle of UGC into a stream. The runbook: five formats, a schedule, copy templates.
November 28, 2025 · 11 min
Strategy
Migrating from Loox / Stamped / Foursixty to Idukki, Hour by Hour
Switching UGC and reviews tools is a one-day job, not a one-month project. The hour-by-hour log, what transfers versus what gets rebuilt, and a first-week…
November 26, 2025 · 12 min
Strategy
How Much Does UGC / Shoppable-Video Software Cost? A Real Pricing Breakdown
UGC and shoppable-video tools price per-impression, per-seat, or per-MAU, which is why two quotes for the same thing can differ 10x. How each model scales.
November 25, 2025 · 11 min
Agentic commerce
Will AI agents recommend your store? A 2026 readiness read
An agent recommends you only if it can reach, parse, trust and quote your catalogue. If it cannot, you never make the shortlist. Here is how to tell where…
November 20, 2025 · 8 min
AI search
Agentic SEO for UGC: the data AI agents quote is your customers’, not your copy
AI agents quote evidence, not marketing prose. Reviews and UGC carry what agents weight: specificity, attribution, recency. Agentic SEO is mostly UGC…
November 18, 2025 · 8 min
AI search
Super Search: Finding Your Best UGC in Seconds with Natural Language
Type what you want and get the matching UGC clips back in seconds instead of scrolling a folder of 8,000. How it works and where it pays off.
November 13, 2025 · 10 min
Strategy
Build vs Buy: the real cost of building shoppable UGC galleries in-house
A shoppable gallery is a weekend; the platform behind it is a roadmap that never closes. Where building wins, and the hybrid most teams pick.
November 11, 2025 · 14 min
AI search
What AI Says About You: the AI Genie playbook
AI Genie puts the “what does ChatGPT say about this” tab on your storefront: a real AI search per engine, scoped to the product being viewed.
November 10, 2025 · 8 min
Industry playbook
How to vet a creator: audience authenticity, engagement, and the fake-follower problem
Four public-profile checks vet a creator: engagement against tier, comment ratio, growth pattern, audience relevance. Roughly a fifth of followers are fake.
November 7, 2025 · 9 min
Conversational commerce
Why we built the Conversational PDP
A Conversational PDP answers the silent question behind most product-page exits: curated Q&A for the common doubts, an AI concierge for the long tail.
November 5, 2025 · 9 min
Strategy
How to Run a Live Shopping Event, End to End
A live shopping event is a hosted livestream where viewers buy without leaving the stream. The run of show: promo, cart setup, going live, the shoppable replay.
October 10, 2025 · 12 min
Strategy
What Is User-Generated Content (UGC) in Ecommerce?
UGC in ecommerce is any photo, video, review or post about a product made by a customer rather than the brand. How to collect, clear and measure it.
October 7, 2025 · 14 min
Strategy
What Is Shoppable Video? Complete Guide for Ecommerce Brands
Shoppable video lets viewers add to cart from clickable product tags without leaving the player. Median PDP conversion lift is +21% over photo-only.
October 6, 2025 · 14 min
AI search
How to Appear in Google AI Overviews (SGE) for Ecommerce
AI Overviews pick sources by reading structured product data, direct answers and verified reviews, not by ranking blue links. Quotable beats ranking first.
October 3, 2025 · 11 min
AI search
46 social commerce and UGC statistics for 2026, each traced to its source
46 social commerce, UGC, video and review statistics for 2026. Each has a named primary source, a year and a link. We cut 83 lines we could not trace.
October 2, 2025 · 9 min
Strategy
The UGC Platform Guide for 2026: How to Pick One Without Regretting It in a Year
12 UGC platforms compared across 14 criteria, with a pricing reality check, the three questions that narrow the field in 15 minutes, and a decision tree.
January 12, 2024 · 16 min

All published writing, by track.

Rohin Aggarwal

The flagship pillars.

Peak season 2026: the UGC readiness plan

What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? The ecommerce guide

Agentic checkout explained: ACP, Instant Checkout and what merchants should do now

What is a shoppable digital catalogue? (And why UGC belongs in it)

UGC ROI Calculator: What Customer Content Is Actually Worth

The State of UGC & AI Commerce 2026

UGC Strategy Framework: The 6-Step Playbook for 2026

How to Get Rights to Repost Customer UGC (with Templates that Average 38% Yes-Rate)

The EU AI Act and synthetic product video: who has to label AI-generated content, and when

UGC incrementality testing: the lift number a CFO will believe

The agent review-trust standard: how AI shoppers decide which ratings to believe

Answer Engine Optimisation for Ecommerce: The Complete AEO Library

The Best UGC, Shoppable Video & Reviews Platforms in 2026: A Buyer's Hub

Adding UGC to a Custom Storefront with the Idukki REST API + Webhooks

Idukki vs Tolstoy: An Honest Shoppable-Video Comparison

GDPR + UGC Compliance: The Operational Manual for 2026

Core Web Vitals Impact of UGC Widgets: Performance Data + Pre-Launch Checklist

Idukki vs Loox vs Okendo: UGC + Reviews, Compared Honestly

How to run a UGC competition that fills your gallery, online and in-store

Migrating from Loox / Stamped / Foursixty to Idukki, Hour by Hour

How Much Does UGC / Shoppable-Video Software Cost? A Real Pricing Breakdown

Will AI agents recommend your store? A 2026 readiness read

Agentic SEO for UGC: the data AI agents quote is your customers’, not your copy

Super Search: Finding Your Best UGC in Seconds with Natural Language

Build vs Buy: the real cost of building shoppable UGC galleries in-house

What AI Says About You: the AI Genie playbook

How to vet a creator: audience authenticity, engagement, and the fake-follower problem

Why we built the Conversational PDP

How to Run a Live Shopping Event, End to End

What Is User-Generated Content (UGC) in Ecommerce?

What Is Shoppable Video? Complete Guide for Ecommerce Brands

How to Appear in Google AI Overviews (SGE) for Ecommerce

46 social commerce and UGC statistics for 2026, each traced to its source

The UGC Platform Guide for 2026: How to Pick One Without Regretting It in a Year

All published writing, by track.

AI search31

ChatGPT can try on your products now. Can it find them?

Reviews platforms are becoming AI-visibility products: reading Yotpo Discover

AI-generated "UGC-style" content vs the real thing: where each belongs, and the labels you owe

Virtual and CGI influencers: the trust and disclosure questions brands can’t skip

GEO vs SEO vs AEO: which should an ecommerce brand optimise for?

Local SEO with Google reviews and UGC: the multi-location playbook

AEO for Reviews: Getting Your Ratings Quoted by AI Agents

Customer Review Volume Benchmarks: How Many Is Enough?

How to make your product content readable by AI shopping agents

AI content tagging for UGC: how it works, shown on sample posts

Visual search and "shop the look": turning a customer photo into a buyable cart

Photo Reviews vs Video Reviews: Which Drives More Purchases?

Inline Galleries vs Floating Widgets: Layout Conversion Data

How to Measure UGC ROI: Formula, Attribution, Templates

Agentic AI in Shopping: A Merchant Primer

Structured data and schema for product UGC

GPTBot vs Googlebot: Divergence in Crawl, Citation and Conversion

Why Your Highest-Converting Page Is Invisible to AI Engines (And the 3-Line Fix)

Aggregate-rating schema and Google rich snippets

Auto-curation: letting AI surface your best UGC

Personalised UGC galleries: the right proof for each shopper

Schema.org for ecommerce in the agentic era: 14 schemas every storefront should emit, ranked by AI-engine pickup

The 42-signal AEO scorecard: rate any PDP for citation-readiness in 10 minutes

Answer Engine Optimisation: the 2026 playbook for ecommerce

11 UGC Trends That Will Define Ecommerce in 2027

Social Commerce Predictions 2027: What Brands Should Plan For

Instagram vs TikTok UGC: Which Platform Converts Better in 2026?

AI + UGC: What is Next for E-commerce Content in 2026

"Shop the Look" from a Single Customer Photo: Visual Search to Cart

Build an AI-Curated, Self-Updating UGC Gallery

The Future of eCommerce Is Shoppable Video: 5 Things You Need To Know

Strategy228

Photo review widgets: what a good one gets right, in 10 examples

UGC gallery layouts: 10 formats and where each fits

Shoppable video on product pages: 9 placements compared

3 cases where you should not buy a UGC platform yet

Shoppable video thumbnails: what to keep and what to cut

Which customer clip to show at each stage of your Meta retargeting

What is a social media wall? Examples, uses and how to run one

What is a UGC gallery? What goes in one, the layouts and where to put it

What is shoppable UGC? How it works, where it goes and how to measure it

Fake reviews law in 2026: the FTC rule and the UK ban, for Shopify stores