Table of Contents:
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.
Netflix just raised prices for the second time in under two years. Standard is now $19.99/month, up $2, and the ad-supported tier hit $8.99, its first-ever increase. The company is spending $20B on content in 2026 and clearly feels it has the pricing power to match. The real question for subscription brands everywhere: do you?
Here's what else caught our attention this week 👇
1/ DTC Headlines
How Tecovas Is Leveraging AI to Improve the Store Experience
→ AI-managed inventory categories saw a 9.6% revenue lift vs. human-managed ones.
→ Built "Boot Runner" in 36 hrs — cuts stockroom lookup from minutes to seconds.
→ Goal: AI in the background, humans front and center with the customer.
How Tecovas uses AI to keep the right boots on the floor →
Sephora Launches App in ChatGPT
→ US pilot lets users get curated beauty advice inside ChatGPT conversationally.
→ Link your Beauty Insider account for personalized recs from your history.
→ Payments + checkout inside ChatGPT coming in a future update.
Why Sephora is betting on AI chat as the new beauty discovery channel →
Walmart Brings Sparky to ChatGPT as OpenAI Rethinks Instant Checkout
→ Instant Checkout conversion was 3x lower inside ChatGPT than on Walmart.com.
→ Walmart is embedding its own Sparky agent into ChatGPT — full cart experience intact.
→ OpenAI is pivoting away from in-chat checkout toward retailer-owned apps.
What Walmart's Sparky pivot reveals about the future of AI commerce →
TikTok Ads Are About to Get a Tad More Disruptive
→ Logo Takeover lets brands co-brand TikTok's launch screen — Warner Bros. tested it.
→ Prime Time delivers up to 3 ads from the same brand in a 15-minute window.
→ TikTok debuted these at NewFronts, signaling serious intent to scale ad revenue.
TikTok's bold new ad formats and what they mean for DTC brands →
OpenAI Will Shut Down Sora Video App; Disney Drops $1B Investment
→ Sora lasted 6 months — shut down March 24 over compute costs and strategic pivot.
→ Disney's planned $1B stake and character licensing deal dissolved with it.
→ OpenAI is shifting toward robotics and productivity apps ahead of its IPO.
What Sora's shutdown says about the economics of AI video →
Kendall Jenner Enters Beauty With Salt & Stone Collaboration
→ Advent International acquired a majority stake in Salt & Stone this week.
→ Kendall Jenner is collaborating with the brand as it prepares to scale.
→ Celebrity-backed + PE investment = accelerated retail and DTC expansion ahead.
How Salt & Stone is using celebrity and capital to scale →
Nespresso's Dua Lipa Era Marks a Shift from George Clooney to Gen Z Aspiration
→ Nespresso trades Clooney's silver-fox luxury for Dua Lipa's Gen Z cool.
→ The move signals a deliberate brand repositioning toward a younger demographic.
→ When your brand persona ages out, swapping the ambassador is the fastest reset.
What Nespresso's Dua Lipa pivot says about modern brand repositioning →
2/ Shopify
Millions of Merchants Can Now Sell in AI Chats
→ Shopify's Agentic Storefronts let merchants sell across ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini.
→ One setup in Shopify Admin — no custom integrations per platform required.
→ Non-Shopify brands can now join Shopify Catalog too via the new Agentic plan.
How Shopify is making every merchant AI-channel-ready by default →
3/ What We Found Interesting
In the Age of AI, Home Depot's Stores Have 'Never Been More Relevant'
→ Home Depot's EVP: stores were once threatened by e-commerce — now they're essential.
→ Magic Apron (generative AI suite) is expanding to more customer touchpoints.
→ Key insight: AI works best when it routes customers to the store, not away from it.
Why Home Depot sees AI as its biggest argument for physical retail →
E-Commerce Retailers Plan Hefty Investments in Agentic Commerce
→ 96% of e-commerce retailers have already invested in agentic AI tools.
→ 47% plan to spend $1M+ more — discovery and chatbots are the top use cases.
→ Best ROI: AI embedded in ops (pricing, forecasting), not customer-facing bots.
What 600+ e-commerce leaders are spending on agentic AI →
How Lowe's Creator Network Is Winning Over the Next Generation of Shoppers
→ Lowe's built a creator network with MrBeast and Gen Alpha DIY creators.
→ The play: meet younger shoppers on YouTube before they ever walk in-store.
→ Home improvement is becoming aspirational content — not just a chore category.
How Lowe's is using creators to own the next generation of homeowners →
4/ What We Found Helpful
Shopify Rollouts: Native A/B Testing That Changes Everything for DTC Brands
→ Shopify's native A/B testing is live — no third-party apps needed for basic experiments.
→ Test landing pages, product pages, and checkout flows directly in the platform.
→ Removes one of the biggest friction points for DTC brands running CRO programs.
What Shopify's native A/B testing means for your optimization workflow →
Instagram Rolls Out AI-Powered Transitions for Still-Image Stories
→ Instagram can now auto-generate animated transitions between static images in Stories.
→ Makes it easier to create more dynamic content without video production skills.
→ Useful for product-focused brands that shoot stills but want higher engagement.
How Instagram's AI transitions can upgrade your product story content →
Reimagine: A New AI-Powered Remix Tool in YouTube Shorts
→ YouTube Shorts' Reimagine tool lets creators remix existing videos with AI prompts.
→ Change backgrounds, add effects, or entirely reframe a scene with text instructions.
→ Low-effort content variation is now on the table for brands active on Shorts.
What YouTube's Reimagine tool means for brand video on Shorts →
How Shopify Brands Can Use Shoppable Video to Increase Conversion Rates
→ Shoppable video reduces the gap between product discovery and checkout.
→ Brands using it see conversion lifts by making UGC and demos directly purchasable.
→ Covers exactly where to embed shoppable video for maximum impact on Shopify stores.
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