Welcome to the Moast newsletter. We spend the week collecting news, trends, and other content that we think would be interesting to e-commerce founders and CMOs. Our goal is to provide value without sounding like a promo for our app. Helpful wether you use Moast or not.

New research out this week put numbers on something the startup world rarely says out loud: VC-backed companies commit fraud at higher rates than bootstrapped ones. Researchers at Imperial College and Emlyon mapped two decades of SEC and DOJ prosecutions and found that startups born in overheated markets with weak investor oversight are 19% more likely to later commit fraud, and founder-controlled boards double the odds. Their warning: today's frothy AI funding environment is exactly the kind of setup that tempts founders to fake it.

Here's what caught our attention in the world of e-commerce this week 👇

1/ DTC Headlines

DoorDash is now a certified airline (for drones)

-> DoorDash Air earned FAA Part 135 certification, making it just the eighth drone operator in the US allowed to fly commercially.

-> The aircraft is built in-house by DoorDash Labs, with first-party deliveries planned for this fall.

-> Merchants in earlier drone pilots saw order volume jump roughly 30% after launch. Speed sells.

Inside DoorDash's plan to own the skies →

Amazon now requires sellers to label AI-generated people in product images

-> Sellers must tag images and A+ content containing photorealistic AI-generated people with special metadata before upload.

-> Amazon will show shoppers an indicator on qualifying listings, following a New York law on "synthetic performers" in ads.

-> With 60%+ of Amazon units sold by third parties and AI lifestyle imagery now routine, this touches a lot of listings.

What Amazon's AI disclosure rule means for sellers →

Adidas had a record World Cup quarter, powered by apparel

-> Q2 revenue rose 13% to €6.7B, with apparel up 34% while footwear stayed flat.

-> DTC sales jumped 24%, and marketing spend rose 30% as Adidas went all-in on the World Cup.

-> The football category alone grew 74%. Jerseys, not sneakers, carried the quarter.

How the World Cup reshaped Adidas' quarter →

Kohl's launched an AI shopping assistant across its site and app

-> The tool aggregates deals, compares products, tracks orders, and searches by uploaded photo.

-> It grew out of April's Mother's Day Gift Finder, built on Google Cloud's Gemini.

-> Kohl's joins Michaels, Ulta, Macy's, and Lowe's in the retailer-built AI assistant wave. The list grows weekly.

See what Kohl's AI assistant can do →

Amazon posted its first $200 billion quarter

-> Q2 revenue hit $200.6B, up 20%, with the stock jumping 9% after hours.

-> Advertising grew 26% to $19.8B, and AWS grew 37%, its fastest pace in 18 quarters.

-> Heads up on reporting: Amazon says Q3 comps will look soft because Prime Day moved to June.

The full breakdown of Amazon's record quarter →

Reformation is now a public company worth $886 million

-> Shares priced at $15, the bottom of the range, and closed their first day at $15.08.

-> The muted debut landed below the $1B valuation the brand had been targeting.

-> With 90% of revenue from DTC and 20 straight quarters of double-digit growth, it's now the public-market test case for DTC fashion.

What's next for a newly public Reformation →

TikTok Shop is quietly building its own Amazon Prime

-> It's testing "TikTok Shop Plus," a paid membership with free shipping and discounts at $6, $10, or $15 a month.

-> Product subscriptions already launched in June for select sellers across eight categories.

-> After $20B+ in US GMV in H1, TikTok is adding the boring machinery that turns viral buyers into repeat customers.

Why TikTok's next move looks a lot like Prime →

Crocs topped $1 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time

-> The Crocs brand grew 4.3% to $1.0B, with DTC up 13% while wholesale fell 5%.

-> Heydude's DTC rose 7% too, credited to TikTok Shop and a record Prime Day.

-> North America snapped a five-quarter losing streak. The stock still fell 11% on soft Q3 guidance.

Inside Crocs' billion-dollar quarter

2/ Shopify

Shopify's CEO set off a firestorm over voting rights

-> Not about the company itself, but an interesting read nonetheless: Tobi Lütke endorsed a tax-tiered voting system on X, calling it a "good system."

-> The idea would tie voting power to income tax paid, and reaction split between thought experiment and plutocracy.

-> Fortune notes the historical echo: property-qualified voting was the norm in the 19th century before universal suffrage movements dismantled it.

Read Fortune's full piece on the Lütke debate →

3/ What We Found Interesting

Shein opened its books, and the tariff damage is real

-> Its Hong Kong IPO prospectus revealed a $99M Q1 loss, swinging from a $395M profit a year earlier.

-> US revenue fell 14.3% after the de minimis exemption ended, and Shein confirmed it has been raising US prices since May 2025.

-> It also disclosed an FTC investigation. The listing targets a $40B to $50B valuation anyway.

What Shein's prospectus reveals about the tariff era →

Nike is betting a hoodie can fix its sportswear business

-> The new Studio Fleece line is a "unified system" of hoodies, sweats, and zip-ups built from insights from 300+ women.

-> It launches with just two colorways, three weights, and two fits. Scarcity and simplicity by design.

-> With sportswear sell-through struggling, Nike is going after the category Gap's fleece campaign proved is very much alive.

Why Nike is starting its sportswear reset with fleece →

‍

4/ What We Found Helpful

What TikTok Shop taught us about the future of e-commerce

-> Our new deep dive unpacks what TikTok Shop's $33 billion growth run means for every Shopify brand.

-> The short version: discovery is moving into the feed, and video is doing the selling.

-> It covers the lessons worth stealing, from content-led conversion to why entertainment now beats search.

Read what TikTok Shop teaches Shopify brands →