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.

Self-driving trucks are officially on California highways. Aurora and Kodiak just received DMV permits to test autonomous big rigs on public roads, a first for a state that banned them for years, though a safety driver still has to be behind the wheel. The Teamsters are already suing, but the freight math is getting hard to ignore.

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

1/ DTC Headlines

Lululemon lost its AI chief, and analysts are getting nervous

-> Chief AI and technology officer Ranju Das left after less than a year, the second C-suite exit in a week.

-> Analysts say they're "increasingly concerned" about turnover before new CEO Heidi O'Neill even starts September 8.

-> The stock logged its worst week since June. Turnarounds are hard when the turners keep leaving.

Inside Lululemon's executive exodus →

Fabletics is opening 45 stores and tripling its international footprint

-> About 20 international stores are planned over the next 12 months, entering India, the UAE, Colombia, Peru, and Central America.

-> Another 25 US stores are coming after three straight years of double-digit same-store sales growth.

-> The digitally native brand passed $1B in revenue and wants to double it in five years. Physical retail is the growth engine now.

Why Fabletics is betting big on stores →

Etsy is laying off 12% of its workforce, and says it's not about costs

-> About 220 roles were cut, mostly in product and engineering, under new CEO Kruti Patel Goyal.

-> She framed it as a restructuring for speed, announced alongside a Q2 revenue beat and a $2B buyback.

-> Analysts call Etsy's native ChatGPT app "the most idiosyncratic swing factor" for its future.

What Etsy's restructuring says about its AI bet →

‍Wayfair's growth is coming almost entirely from higher-income shoppers

-> Q2 revenue rose 7.5% to $3.5B, its best US growth since the pandemic.

-> Luxury banner Perigold grew more than 35%, and its customers spend about 3x a typical Wayfair shopper.

-> One earnings report, one very clear picture of the K-shaped consumer.

How high-income shoppers are carrying Wayfair →

US credit card debt just hit $1.26 trillion

-> Balances rose $21B in Q2, closing in on the all-time record of $1.28T.

-> The share of balances 90+ days delinquent has jumped from 7.6% to 12.8% since mid-2022.

-> The New York Fed's read: a K-shaped economy where a large group of households has no cushion left.

What record card debt means for consumer spending →

Myspace is officially coming back

-> Owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook confirmed a relaunch in a new documentary, pitched as an algorithm-free alternative to Instagram and TikTok.

-> Their last revival attempt lost roughly $150 million, and Tom won't be involved this time.

-> No launch date yet, but the nostalgia-for-a-simpler-internet bet keeps getting stronger.

Inside the plan to bring Myspace back →

Thrift giant Savers Value Village built an AI to price 25 million items

-> ThriftIQ has priced 25M+ apparel items across 45,000 brands in 58 pilot stores, with that count doubling by year end.

-> Pilot stores saw higher sell-through and bigger baskets while keeping prices 40% to 70% below traditional retail.

-> The CEO is clear it's not dynamic pricing: once an item is tagged, the price never changes.

How AI is modernizing the thrift store →

Heinz is proof that brand spending still works

-> Kraft Heinz just added another $100M to its marketing budget on top of the $600M already committed.

-> 36% of revenues now come from brands holding or gaining share, up from 21% last year.

-> Heinz itself is growing in every region and category. Its new Love Lid ketchup cap is launching DTC only, naturally.

Why Heinz is winning big right now →

Shein's IPO is happening at a fraction of its former valuation

-> The Hong Kong listing is targeting $30B to $40B, down from a $98B peak in 2022.

-> Orders open August 20, with a debut expected around August 28.

-> Shein has told investors net income will fall this year before recovering in 2027. The tariff era has a price tag.

The full story on Shein's discounted debut →

2/ Shopify

AI shopping is sending retailers better leads. The question is who keeps the customer

-> Visitors referred by AI services generate 41% more revenue per visit than traditional channels.

-> Ulta says shoppers arriving from Gemini and ChatGPT show roughly double the conversion and purchase intent.

-> OpenAI killed its standalone checkout and now hands the sale back to merchants. For now, AI is a referral channel, not a storefront.

Why AI referrals are e-commerce's best new traffic →

3/ What We Found Interesting

Shoppers are warming up to letting AI buy things for them

-> 68% of US consumers used an AI platform to shop in the past three months, and 62% used AI to compare prices and reviews.

-> 42% of millennials would let an AI agent spend up to $250 unsupervised, as long as returns are easy.

-> AI now beats influencers, media outlets, TikTok, and Instagram on purchase-decision trust. Friends and family still win, barely.

See the full agentic shopping survey →

‍One creator logged every source her AI cited since June. She recognized almost none of them

-> The viral breakdown: 60% of high-credibility news sites now block AI crawlers, so AI reads the "unlocked web" instead.

-> Of 26,000 sources cited by AI search engines, one in six was written by another AI, and 44% of ChatGPT citations come from "best of" listicles.

-> Hey advice: when AI gives you a link, click it and see what's actually on the page.

Watch the full breakdown of the "unlocked web" →

Shopify's own numbers on AI-referred shoppers keep climbing

-> AI-referred orders are up roughly 13x year over year and convert about 50% higher than average.

-> Those shoppers also carry 14% bigger baskets and beat organic search traffic in 23 of 25 merchant categories.

-> Pair this with the citation story above and the takeaway writes itself: being quotable on the open web is the new SEO.

Read Shopify's AI search data →

4/ What We Found Helpful

How to increase your Shopify store's average order value

-> Our new guide breaks down the AOV levers that actually move revenue: bundles, thresholds, upsells, and social proof.

-> It covers where shoppable video fits, since watching real customers use a product is a proven basket builder.

-> Practical and step-by-step, built for Shopify stores of any size.

Read the full AOV playbook →

How Liquid I.V. turns Prime Day insights into its DTC playbook

-> The #2-selling Prime Day product treats Amazon, TikTok Shop, and DTC as distinct channels with distinct jobs.

-> On its own site, the focus is AOV and basket building, backed by constant A/B testing.

-> Summer learnings feed straight into Cyber 5 planning. Last year's hot chocolate flavor sold out on TikTok in three weeks.

Inside Liquid I.V.'s channel playbook →