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.

Anthropic's private shares are trading at roughly $1 trillion on secondary markets, eclipsing OpenAI's $880B mark on the same platforms. The catalyst: annualized revenue jumped from $9B to $30B in a single quarter, driven almost entirely by Claude Code and enterprise API adoption. An IPO is reportedly targeting $400-500B. The secondary market has other ideas.

Here's what else caught our attention this week 👇

1/ DTC Headlines

Meta sued for knowingly running 15 billion scam ads a day

-> The Consumer Federation of America filed a class action alleging Meta ran scam ads while publicly claiming to fight them.

-> Internal documents suggest Meta estimated 10%+ of earnings came from scam ads, illegal gambling, and prohibited goods.

-> The kicker: rather than blocking high-risk advertisers, Meta allegedly charged them more to run the ads anyway.

What the CFA's Meta lawsuit reveals about the cost of platform scale →

Canva relaunches as an AI-first platform with agentic design tools

-> Canva AI 2.0 replaces templates with a conversational AI that generates fully editable, layered designs from a single prompt.

-> It connects to Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, and Zoom -- turning meeting transcripts and emails into designed outputs automatically.

-> Its proprietary models are reportedly 7x faster and 30x cheaper than comparable frontier alternatives.

Why Canva's biggest-ever update matters for every brand with a marketing team →

Walmart plans 650 store remodels and 20 new openings in 2026

-> Wider aisles, updated layouts, expanded pickup and delivery options, and new digital touchpoints across 650+ locations.

-> Select Neighborhood Markets are testing a rapid 4-week remodel format to minimize disruption.

-> This comes as 75% of Walmart's market share gains are now coming from households earning $100K+.

What Walmart's $1B+ store investment says about the future of physical retail →

Lululemon launches e-commerce in Mexico and plans eight new stores

-> lululemon.mx is live, giving Mexican shoppers online access to its full athletic apparel, footwear, and accessories range.

-> Eight of its roughly 15 planned North America stores this year will open in Mexico -- more than half of continental expansion.

-> International revenue is up 17% YoY as U.S. sales stagnate -- Mexico is where the runway is.

Why Lululemon is betting big on Mexico →

Amazon allegedly pushed Levi's and Hanes to raise prices at Target and Walmart

-> Newly unsealed documents from California's 2022 antitrust lawsuit show Amazon pressuring vendors to "fix" prices on competitor sites.

-> Hanes confirmed it "reached out to Target and Walmart to have the prices increased" after Amazon flagged lower listings.

-> Amazon's Buy Box controls ~80% of sales on its platform -- and vendors that don't comply risk losing it entirely.

What Amazon's alleged price-fixing scheme means for brands selling across channels →

OpenAI switches ChatGPT ads from CPM to cost-per-click

-> CPMs fell from $60 to ~$25 in weeks, so OpenAI is now testing CPC at $3-$5 per click to compete with Google's core model.

-> The shift makes ChatGPT a performance channel, not just a brand environment -- and easier for DTC brands to test ROI.

-> OpenAI is projecting $2.5B in ad revenue this year and $100B by 2030. The platform is all in.

What ChatGPT's CPC shift means for your ad budget →

Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple CEO, John Ternus takes over September 1

-> Cook, who has led Apple since 2011 and grown it from $350B to $4T in market cap, becomes executive chairman.

-> Ternus, Apple's SVP of hardware engineering for the past 5 years, takes the reins -- a product person from day one.

-> Ternus is expected to introduce the first foldable iPhone -- his biggest hardware moment lands almost immediately.

What Tim Cook's exit means for Apple and the brands that depend on its ecosystem →

2/ Shopify

Alix Earle's brand hit $1M in sales in under 5 minutes on Shopify

-> Shopify President Harley Finkelstein called out Reale Actives as one of the fastest-growing brands on the platform.

-> The skincare brand Alix built with her dermatologist sold out its doubled inventory within 10 hours of launch.

-> The reason it worked: her audience watched her acne journey in real time for years. By launch day, they didn't need to be sold.

Harley Finkelstein on what made Reale Actives' launch one of the fastest in Shopify history →

3/ What We Found Interesting

Why Allbirds is "eating crow"

-> Retail Dive's deep-dive into what actually killed Allbirds: not DTC, but fashion -- the product simply stopped being interesting.

-> "At the end of the day, fashion killed Allbirds" -- too basic, not enough freshness, no reason to buy a second pair.

-> The AI pivot to NewBird AI is being called "a Hail Mary" -- but the analysis of what went wrong is worth reading regardless.

The full postmortem on Allbirds' rise and fall →

UBS says more than 40,000 retail stores will close in the next 5 years

-> E-commerce is projected to hit 27% of U.S. retail by 2030, up from 21% today -- and AI is accelerating the shift.

-> Department stores and specialty retailers are most at risk. Off-pricers and large-format chains are expected to keep growing.

-> Tariffs and tighter immigration policy could push the number even higher if they stay in place.

What 40,000 store closures in 5 years means for the brands that sell through them →

Shopify: entrepreneurship is the most future-proof career

-> Shopify surveyed founders across 5 countries: in every market, more owners said entrepreneurship feels more financially secure than a traditional job.

-> In the U.S., twice as many people said employment takes more effort than running a business (46% vs. 24%).

-> 90% of Australian founders, 89% of U.S. founders, and 87% of Spanish founders said they'd start their business again -- in this economy.

Why the data says entrepreneurship is becoming the safer bet →

4/ What We Found Helpful

How to collect customer video testimonials at scale

-> A practical guide to getting high-quality video content from real customers without chasing them down.

-> Covers the right timing, the right ask, and how to structure incentives that actually work.

-> Most brands leave this on the table entirely -- this is the playbook for not doing that.

The guide to building a scalable customer video testimonial program →