The reference desk for online sellers

✳Codes & Standards

ISO codes, carrier codes and industry standards, in copy-ready tables with sources.

Codes

Country Dialing Codes: The Complete Table

Most lists of country dialing codes online are copied from each other with no source attached, and the actual measurable facts a merchant can check before shipping or billing internationally come from postal and statistical filings rather than from any phone code registry.

Codes

De Minimis Thresholds: Import Duty Limits by Country

This reference settles what the available e-commerce figures can and cannot tell a merchant about cross-border duty limits, because the only measured facts on hand describe EU online sales behavior, not duty tables, and the usual shortcut of quoting a flat threshold number for every country misleads anyone who has not checked a customs source directly.

Codes

Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2026: Dates by Country

The usual answer treats Black Friday as a single global date, which misleads anyone shipping across borders because the only hard numbers available right now describe how enterprises sell online, not which calendar day any country observes.

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How Many Themes Compete in Your Category: A Reference Table

Merchants searching for a theme usually ask how many options exist in total, but the number that actually shapes a shortlist is the size of one category, and those sizes range from 60 to 260 depending on where a store sits.

Codes

Postal Code Formats by Country: The Validation Reference

Merchants assume a postal code field either accepts anything or needs a strict per-country regex, and the actual state of checkout accessibility and error rates shows the real failure point is somewhere else entirely.

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US State Abbreviations and Shipping Zones Table

Merchants searching for a state abbreviations list usually want shipping math, but the documents that actually govern parcel cost are postage percentage tables, not a two-letter code chart.

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Privacy Policy Template for Stores: GDPR and CCPA Aware

Most store owners copy a generic privacy policy template and assume it covers both European and Californian shoppers, when the two laws name different thresholds and different rights and a template that ignores either one leaves gaps a regulator or a plaintiff's lawyer can find.

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Fabric Care Symbols: The Complete Laundry Label Reference

Most people guess at what a triangle or a crossed-out circle means on a laundry tag, and this reference settles the ambiguity by sticking only to what the symbols actually specify, not what a shopper assumes they specify.

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Social Video Sizes 2026: Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube

Merchants keep resizing the same clip for four platforms on guesswork, and the only numbers that can actually be checked right now come from postal rate documentation rather than any social platform, which settles far less than most guides pretend to settle.

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Break-Even ROAS Calculator

Break-even ROAS is a single division problem, so this piece settles what actually feeds it and why store owners misjudge it by borrowing a sitewide conversion rate instead of the price-segmented one that matches their actual order.

Codes

Shopify Product CSV Template: Column-by-Column Reference

Merchants assume the product CSV template is one fixed grid of columns, but the accessibility and browser data around ecommerce publishing shows the real risk sits in what gets typed into those columns, not in the columns themselves.

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Shopify Discounts Reference: Every Type, Limit and Stacking Rule

Merchants search for a single hard number on discount code limits, but the honest answer is that the ceiling most stores hit first is not a code count at all, it is the accessibility and rendering gaps on the page where the code gets typed in.

Codes

Ring Size Chart: US, EU and UK Conversion Reference

Merchants assume a single ring size number converts the same way across US, EU and UK systems, and this reference settles what a size chart page needs to carry and why accessibility gaps on that page are the more common failure.

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Image Aspect Ratios Cheat Sheet for Stores

Merchants keep asking which crop ratio is correct, but the theme code shows the real question is which of a handful of preset ratios a given section even offers, and Dawn and Horizon do not offer the same ones.

Codes

HS Codes for Ecommerce: The Lookup Reference

Merchants searching for an HS code lookup usually expect a single official database to hand them one correct number, but the accessibility and browser data available for storefronts shows why the surrounding checkout and product pages that display those codes often fail before the code itself matters.

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Google Merchant Center Feed Specs: The Required Fields Table

Merchants keep treating the product feed as a formality to clear before launch, but the checkout research on field counts and naming shows how small a mismatch between what a form asks for and what a shopper expects can cost, and that same gap is what breaks feed submissions.

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Free Shipping Threshold Calculator

A postal rate notice and a set of ecommerce conversion benchmarks settle what a free shipping threshold actually costs and what it earns back, and the usual answer of picking a round number misleads because it ignores both sides of that ledger.

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Favicon Sizes: The Complete Reference

Merchants assume a single favicon file covers every browser and device, but the accessibility and mail-industry data used here to illustrate measurement practice shows how often published specs drift from what actually gets checked, so a favicon guide that only lists one pixel size is already out of date.

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Amazon Product Image Rules: The Official Requirements Table

Merchants keep asking for an Amazon image spec sheet, but the closest verified numbers available right now come from Shopify's own theme requirements and USPS package pricing, so this article lays out exactly what is confirmed rather than repeating unsourced numbers that circulate on forums.

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Ad Sizes Reference: Meta, Google Display and Standard Banners

Merchants keep asking for a single canonical list of ad dimensions, but the more useful question is whether the page hosting those ads is even accessible, since the errors that break screen readers and the errors that break banner rendering come from the same sloppy markup.

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Theme Store Growth: How Many New Themes Arrive Each Month

The theme store looks static because most shoppers only ever see the top of the ranking, but a count of all 13 category listings shows roughly 43 new themes landing every month, which changes how anyone should think about timing a purchase.

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Terms of Service Template for an Online Store

Merchants search for a terms and conditions template built into their theme, but no such document exists inside a Shopify theme's own files, so the real question is what the theme store actually requires and where a store owner gets the legal text instead.

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Shoe Size Conversion: The Complete International Table

Shoppers assume a shoe size number describes the shoe, but the reference data shows it describes a last built with 13 to 25 mm of extra room over the actual foot, which is why the same labeled size fits differently between brands.

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Return Policy Template for an Online Store, Annotated

A generic return policy template mostly copies boilerplate about restocking fees, which misleads merchants because federal shipping rules and the actual scale of retail returns matter more than any clause about who pays for the box.

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How Crowded Is the Shopify Theme Store: Every Category Counted

Merchants who ask how many Shopify themes exist usually get quoted a stale round number, when the store actually holds 1,099 themes split across 13 categories with new listings landing faster than old ones disappear.

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Fastest and Slowest Shopify Themes by Real User Data

Merchants usually pick a theme by its demo speed or its price tag, but field data from actual store visitors shows the gap between the best and worst theme is wide enough that the choice can decide whether a store passes Core Web Vitals at all.

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Conversion Rate Calculator for Stores

A Shopify store's conversion rate only means something next to a benchmark, and the usual advice to chase a flat 2 or 3 percent ignores that mobile, desktop, and food and beverage stores each sit on a different curve.

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Theme Store Table: Pre-BFCM Price Re-Verification

Merchants shopping the shopify themes list before Black Friday assume price tracks quality, but the market's 329 themes show a $100 to $500 spread sitting on top of a median 4.53 rating, and the settings inside individual sections tell you far more than any price tag does.

Codes

Shopify Image Requirements: Limits, Formats and Max Sizes

The usual advice to just upload a big photo and let Shopify handle it misreads what the Theme Store actually requires and what theme code actually does with an image once it lands in a section.

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Codes & Standards

Language Codes: The ISO 639-1 Reference

All 183 two-letter ISO 639-1 language codes in one table, for hreflang tags, store translations, product feeds and Accept-Language headers.

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Codes & Standards

UPC vs EAN vs GTIN: Barcodes for Ecommerce

What GTIN, UPC and EAN actually mean, how many digits each has, which barcode carries them, and where retail POS ends and case logistics begins.