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.

Accenture is now trying to stop its own employees from blowing through its AI budget on tasks as small as turning a PDF into a slide deck. After a year of companies maxing out AI usage to look productive, the "tokenmaxxing" era is over, and rationing is here. It's a strange moment: the same tool companies pushed everyone to max out is now the thing they're asking people to use less.

Here's what else caught our attention this week 👇

1/ DTC Headlines

Amazon's Prime Day could drive $26.3 billion in US e-commerce sales

-> Adobe projects a 9% jump over last year, with mobile shopping driving over half of online sales.

-> Walmart, Target, and Costco are all running overlapping sales to capture comparison shoppers.

-> Day one alone hit $8.3 billion, already tracking ahead of Adobe's full-event forecast.

Why Prime Day keeps growing even as shoppers get more price-conscious →

Apple just raised MacBook and iPad prices for the first time in years

-> The entry MacBook jumps to $699 from $599; the cheapest iPad rises to $449 from $349.

-> Apple blames a historic memory and storage chip shortage driven by AI data center demand.

-> Shares fell more than 6% on the news, Apple's worst single-day drop since April 2025.

What's behind the price hikes hitting nearly every consumer electronics brand →

Meta is building a prediction markets app, and DraftKings already felt it

-> Internally called Arena, the app will use a points system at launch, not real money.

-> DraftKings and Robinhood shares both dropped on the news of Meta's entry into the space.

-> Meta's 3.56 billion daily users give it a distribution advantage no existing platform can match.

Why Wall Street is already worried about Meta's next standalone app →

Getty Images stock jumped as much as 145% after one deal with OpenAI

-> The multi-year agreement puts Getty's licensed photos inside ChatGPT's search results.

-> It's a display deal only; OpenAI can't use the images to train its own models.

-> A reminder that being the trusted, licensed source for AI answers can be worth more than the AI hype itself.

What Getty's deal means for the future of licensed content in AI search →

Meta launched $299 AI glasses, including a Kylie Jenner edition

-> Three new styles, 26 color and lens combinations, all built around Meta AI.

-> The Kylie Jenner edition starts at $399 and lets you hear Meta AI in her voice.

-> A clean playbook for any brand: pair a mainstream price point with one famous face for the premium tier.

Why Meta tapped Kylie Jenner instead of running a standard product launch →

Instagram is testing new ways to let you reshape your own algorithm

-> New prompts let you tune your feed by pulling down, swiping up on a Reel, or tapping buttons under each video.

-> It builds on "Your Algorithm," which already lets users add or remove topics they want to see.

-> Worth watching if your content leans on a specific niche; this could shift how easily new audiences find you.

What Instagram's expanding algorithm controls mean for content discovery →

California drivers are suing BP, Walmart, and Marathon over AI-driven gas prices

-> The suit claims a shared AI pricing tool from Kalibrate pushed prices up by as much as 30 cents a gallon.

-> It's one of the first cases under AB 325, California's new law banning algorithmic price collusion.

-> A preview of the legal risk any brand faces if competitors' pricing tools start looking too coordinated.

Why this lawsuit could become a test case for AI pricing tools everywhere →

Facebook is testing a stand-alone AI companion app for creators

-> The reimagined Creator Studio app drafts comment replies in a creator's own tone and surfaces daily priorities.

-> It's built to keep creators answering questions inside Facebook instead of turning to ChatGPT.

-> Part of a bigger pattern: Meta wants every creator workflow to happen inside a Meta-owned AI assistant.

What Facebook's new AI companion app means for creators →

Ex-Apple and Audi designers built a $25,000 electric buggy for resorts

-> The Amble One tops out at 40 mph with 62 miles of range, styled after NASA's lunar rover.

-> Materials include aluminum, leather, cotton, and cork, with the chassis left visible by design.

-> Resorts like Amangiri and Six Senses have already signed on ahead of 2027 deliveries.

Inside the design story behind the most stylish way to go nowhere fast →

2/ Shopify

Shopify's Harley Finkelstein: personal shopping used to be a luxury, not anymore

-> AI shopping agents are starting to do what a personal stylist or store concierge once did, for any merchant.

-> The argument: agentic AI removes the cost barrier that made true personal shopping a high-end-only service.

-> It echoes Shopify's broader bet that agentic commerce becomes the next front door for every merchant, big or small.

See Harley Finkelstein's full post on Shopify's agentic shopping bet →

3/ What We Found Interesting

Reformation's IPO filing proves profitable DTC is still possible

-> The brand makes 90% of revenue from DTC and has posted 20 straight quarters of double-digit growth.

-> Full-price sales make up about 80% of its DTC revenue; discounting isn't part of the playbook.

-> A sharp contrast to Allbirds and Casper, both of which went public without ever turning a profit.

What Reformation's S-1 reveals about building a profitable DTC brand →

Shopify's president on how AI is about to change shopping forever

-> Harley Finkelstein argues AI agents will act as personal shoppers, discovering and comparing products for people.

-> Only about 18% of US retail happens online today; he sees agentic shopping as the lever that grows that share.

-> He frames it as a chance for smaller merchants to get discovered by shoppers who'd never have found them otherwise.

Watch Finkelstein's full conversation on agentic shopping →

TikTok is quietly building itself into a super app

-> Beyond TikTok Shop, the app now offers hotel bookings through TikTok GO and has applied for fintech licenses in Brazil.

-> It's chasing the WeChat playbook: one app for shopping, payments, travel, and search instead of switching between apps.

-> TikTok Shop alone grew US sales 108% last year to nearly $16 billion, about 18% of all US social commerce.

Every step in TikTok's plan to become an all-in-one app →

4/ What We Found Helpful

Google's free Insights Finder tool can show you what your audience watches and searches

-> Pick a topic or brand and it surfaces demographics, YouTube viewing habits, and search trends in one view.

-> Useful for finding new audience segments before you build a campaign around them, not just after.

-> Available inside Google Ads under Tools & Settings, no extra cost to use.

A practical look at what Google's Insights Finder can do for your targeting →

How to actually use UGC video to boost Shopify sales (not just collect it)

-> Bazaarvoice found UGC on product pages can lift conversions by up to 64%.

-> The biggest mistake brands make: collecting UGC but never placing it where the buying decision happens.

-> Product pages near the add-to-cart button are still the highest-converting placement, by far.

The full breakdown on turning UGC into a Shopify sales driver →

Ulta, Stitch Fix, and Tapestry all say the same thing about AI: it's not about the tech

-> Tapestry's AI shopping bot converts visitors at 4x the normal rate and lifts cart adds by 5x.

-> Ulta ties AI personalization to its loyalty program, where 95% of sales already flow through.

-> The shared takeaway: AI works best when it's trained on what your own customers actually ask.

How three major retailers are actually using AI for personalization →