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.

Public libraries have a surprise hit on their hands: "Avoiding AI" workshops, where librarians teach packed rooms how to turn off Apple Intelligence, Gemini, and the other AI features nobody asked for. One librarian in Maine had 70+ people enroll in her first session, and dozens of libraries worldwide have since copied the format. As every brand races to bolt AI onto everything, it's a useful reminder that a real chunk of your customers are actively opting out.

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

1/ DTC Headlines

Is Hoka slowing down?

-> Deckers topped $1B in quarterly revenue for the first time, but Hoka grew just 7.7% after years at 20%+.

-> DTC was the bright spot, up 13% to $353M, while wholesale grew only 2%.

-> The stock fell anyway. Wall Street sees "visible deterioration" in demand; management sees discipline.

Is Hoka actually losing steam? →

Nike is shutting down most of its online distribution in China

-> Starting in January, Nike's China e-commerce lives only on its own app and site, plus official flagships on Tmall, JD.com, and Douyin.

-> Everything else closes. The marketplace had "become too fragmented," per Nike's Greater China chief.

-> China revenue fell 12% last quarter and has been dragging down the whole turnaround.

Inside Nike's dramatic China e-commerce reset →

GameStop now owns 10% of eBay, and Ryan Cohen isn't letting go

-> GameStop's stake is now roughly 10%, about double what it held when it made its $56B offer in May.

-> eBay's board rejected that bid as "neither credible nor attractive." Cohen responded by buying more.

-> The strangest M&A saga in e-commerce keeps escalating, one SEC filing at a time.

Where GameStop's hostile pursuit of eBay goes next →

Instacart is buying AI shelf-scanning startup Arpalus

-> The computer vision tech lets store workers record real-time shelf inventory with just a smartphone.

-> Inventory accuracy is the biggest failure point in pickup and delivery orders.

-> Instacart is betting AI can fix the "item substituted" problem at the source.

Why Instacart is buying its way into shelf intelligence →

Reformation is going public at a $1 billion valuation

-> The DTC womenswear brand is offering 14.1M shares at $15 to $17, listing on the NYSE as "REF" this week.

-> It gets about 90% of revenue from DTC and booked $533M in sales over the last 12 months.

-> It's the first real test of public-market appetite for a fashion brand in years.

What Reformation's IPO means for DTC fashion →

Michaels launched an AI shopping assistant it built in six weeks

-> "Ask Mike," built on Google Cloud's Gemini, is now live on michaels.com after a quiet May rollout.

-> It has already run nearly 75,000 conversations, with 60%+ focused on product discovery.

-> Michaels joins Ulta, Macy's, and Lowe's in the retailer-built AI assistant wave.

Meet Ask Mike, the AI built in six weeks →

Amazon is capping product titles at 75 characters starting July 27

-> Titles over the limit risk suppression; a new searchable "Item Highlights" field takes up to 125 characters.

-> Years of keyword-stuffed titles just became a liability overnight.

-> If you sell on Amazon, listing rewrites should be this week's job.

What Amazon's new title rules mean for your listings →

Garmin just launched a $200 Whoop rival with no subscription

-> The Cirqa is Garmin's first screenless tracker: sleep, heart rate, recovery, 80+ activities, 10-day battery.

-> Whoop charges $199 to $359 every year and won't sell you the hardware outright. Garmin's pitch: pay once.

-> With Fitbit Air and Polar Loop already in the mix, the screenless category is suddenly crowded.

How the Cirqa stacks up against the Whoop →

2/ Shopify

An analyst just downgraded Shopify because of what Meta might build

-> Rothschild's Dominic Ball says Meta could launch a "one-prompt entrepreneur" AI platform for small businesses.

-> The thesis: if Meta owns the storefront layer inside its apps, Shopify's social commerce tailwind becomes a headwind.

-> Nothing is confirmed or launched, but the call moved both stocks.

Watch the full breakdown of the Meta-vs-Shopify thesis →

3/ What We Found Interesting

Why AI recommends some Shopify brands and not others

-> Our new deep dive breaks down why AI engines cite one brand and skip a nearly identical competitor.

-> Structured data, third-party mentions, and extractable content beat brand size every time.

-> It includes the concrete steps to make your store the one that gets recommended.

Read why AI picks the brands it picks →

Oil hit $100 a barrel this week, and retail is bracing for the squeeze

-> Gas prices act like a tax on discretionary spending, right as back-to-school season kicks off.

-> Retail Dive flagged the price as a direct risk to household budgets in its Weekly Closeout.

-> Worth watching your AOV and conversion over the next few weeks if it holds.

‍What $100 oil means for retail spending →

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4/ What We Found Helpful

How to add shoppable video to your Replo pages on Shopify

-> If you build landing pages in Replo, our new guide shows how to drop shoppable video into any page.

-> Step-by-step setup, placement tips, and how to keep pages fast while you do it.

-> A quick win for anyone running paid traffic to custom landing pages.

Read the Replo shoppable video guide →

New research: 35% of consumers now start product research in an AI engine, not Google

-> 5W's synthesis of 32,000+ prompts found 85.5% of AI citations come from earned media, not brand websites.

-> Brands appearing on 4+ third-party platforms are 2.8x more likely to be cited in ChatGPT.

-> The playbook is shifting from ranking on Google to being quotable everywhere else.

See the full AI citation research →