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.

A brand that sells $50 cashmere just raised money at a $10 billion valuation. No, that's not a typo.

Quince built a billion-dollar business by cutting out every middleman and selling factory-direct. Now they're valued like a luxury conglomerate. The "affordable quality" lane is getting very crowded — and very serious.

Busy week in the world of DTC / e-commerce. Here's what caught our attention 👇

1/ DTC Headlines

Quince Raises $500M at a $10.1B Valuation

→ The manufacturer-to-consumer brand hit $1B+ in revenue last year and just closed a massive Series E led by Iconiq.

→ Their model: go direct to factories, cut out wholesalers and retail markups, and pass the savings to the customer.

→ If you're in apparel, home, or any category where quality perception drives repeat purchase — this is the playbook to study.

See how Quince built a $10B brand on a $50 cashmere sweater →

De Minimis Lawsuit Gets the Green Light to Proceed

→ A court case challenging the suspension of the de minimis exemption was unpaused — but the exemption itself is still dead.

→ Brands that relied on sub-$800 duty-free imports are still eating the cost, with no near-term relief in sight.

→ If you source internationally, this case is worth watching — a ruling could flip your landed cost math overnight.

Track the case that could change your import costs →

Costco Is Refunding Tariff Duties After Court Order

→ A court ordered CBP to begin refunding duties paid under IEEPA-era tariffs, and Costco is already passing savings back to shoppers.

→ It's a rare win after months of cost absorption — and a signal that the legal landscape around tariffs is still shifting.

→ For DTC brands, the bigger takeaway: pricing decisions you made in Q4 may need revisiting sooner than you think.

What the Costco ruling means for your pricing strategy →

eBay Acquires Depop From Etsy for $1.2B

→ eBay is buying Depop from Etsy, which originally paid $1.6B for it in 2021 — a $400M loss for Etsy and a clear signal the platform struggled to integrate resale.

→ Nearly 90% of Depop's 7 million buyers are under 34, making this eBay's biggest bet on Gen Z commerce in years.

→ For DTC brands in apparel, beauty, or lifestyle: resale is now a legitimate acquisition and retention channel, not just a PR play.

See why eBay's Depop bet could reshape secondhand for DTC brands →

Cyklar Goes From DTC to 450 Sephora Stores

→ The ayurvedic body care brand — backed by beauty accelerator The Center — is launching across Sephora's website and roughly 450 retail locations this month.

→ They built the brand DTC-first, proved demand, then walked into wholesale with leverage.

→ The lesson: DTC isn't just a revenue channel — it's the proof of concept that gets you into the rooms wholesale brands dream about.

How Cyklar used DTC to earn a Sephora shelf →

Best Buy's New CEO Is Betting on Agentic Commerce

→ CEO Corie Barry said the retailer wants to "serve customers in new ways, both on and off platforms" as agentic commerce matures.

→ Translation: Best Buy is planning to be present wherever AI agents are making purchase decisions — not just on BestBuy.com.

→ If a $40B retailer is restructuring around AI-native buying, DTC brands should be thinking about the same thing.

Why Best Buy's new strategy is a signal every brand should pay attention to →

2/ Shopify

Shopify + Google AI Integration Drives 15X Order Growth

→ After integrating with Google AI Mode via the Universal Commerce Protocol, Shopify reported a 15-fold jump in AI-powered search orders.

→ Shoppers are now completing purchases directly inside Google's AI conversations — no redirect, no browser tab, no checkout friction.

→ If you're on Shopify, your products are already eligible. The question is whether your listings are optimized for AI-first discovery.

Find out how the Google AI integration is changing how people buy →

Shopify Sidekick Can Now Write Analytics Queries — And Simulate Shoppers

→ Two new Sidekick features dropped: it can now write ShopifyQL queries for payments and web performance data, and merchants can run AI shopper simulations before pushing live changes.

→ The shopper simulation tool lets you model how different buyer personas will behave on your site before you test on real customers.

→ Both features are live in admin now — if you haven't opened Sidekick in a while, it's worth another look.

Check out what Sidekick can do that it couldn't three months ago →

3/ What We Found Interesting

DTC Operators Survey: Brands Are Reshaping Strategy Around Tariff Chaos

→ DTC.co polled 600+ operators on how they're navigating tariffs, rising costs, and soft consumer spending in 2026.

→ The most common moves: diversifying suppliers, raising prices selectively, and leaning harder into retention over acquisition.

→ If you haven't audited your margin stack against current tariff exposure, now is the time.

See what 600+ operators are doing to survive the tariff era →

Indē Wild's Full Shopify App Stack, Revealed

→ The ayurvedic beauty brand powering its U.S. DTC growth shared a breakdown of every Shopify app in its stack.

→ It's a practical look at how a fast-growing brand actually builds its tech layer — not the tools they're paid to mention, but what they actually use.

→ Worth bookmarking if you're auditing your own stack or trying to figure out what a real-world high-growth setup looks like.

See the exact Shopify stack behind Indē Wild's U.S. growth →

4/ What We Found Helpful

Spikeball Email Flow Breakdown: Abandoned Cart + Welcome Tactics

→ DTC Newsletter did a deep teardown of Spikeball's email sequences — from first touch to abandoned cart recovery.

→ The standout move: their welcome flow doubles as product education, not just a discount push.

→ Worth a read if your email flows are on autopilot and you haven't stress-tested them lately.

Steal Spikeball's email playbook for your own flows →

New Ecommerce Tools Roundup: March 11, 2026

→ Practical Ecommerce's weekly tools digest covers Klaviyo's deeper Shopify global commerce integration, an AI feed agent from Feedoptimise, and a new TikTok Shop analytics platform from Revuze.

→ Riskified also dropped a new AI fraud detection agent built for high-velocity DTC checkout flows.

→ If you do one thing this week, check if your feed and fraud stack is still earning its seat at the table.

Browse this week's new ecommerce tools before your competitors do →

2026 Annual Ecommerce P&L Benchmark Report

→ A2X pulled full-year 2025 data from 18 private DTC brands ($1M–$100M+) and broke down gross margin, ROAS trends, and EBITDA by revenue cohort.

→ The headline finding: small brands had a breakout year on margin, while mid-market brands got squeezed between rising CAC and softening AOV.

→ If you want to know whether your numbers are actually good — or just feel good — this is the benchmark to check yourself against.

See where your P&L stacks up against 18 real DTC brands →

Our guide on how Shopify brands can measure shoppable video ROI

→ The guide breaks down how video views, engagement, and conversions contribute to revenue.

→ Brands can estimate impact by comparing conversion lift from pages that include shoppable video.

→ An ROI calculator helps merchants project sales gains from adding video to product pages.

Check out how to calculate the ROI of shoppable videos →