Good morning DTC readers!
In case you haven’t seen already, we’re running a survey right now on Q4 discounting with a little bonus thrown in for one lucky recipient. 👀
The survey link and more info are about halfway through today's newsletter (spot the 🚨 and you’ll know you’re in the right place).
Also this is exactly what it feels like waiting for a host to let you into a meeting.
Anyways, let's go.
‼️ Your AI-generated text will now carry an invisible watermark, and you can’t opt out
Anthropic announced this week that all AI-generated copy and images, when copied and pasted, will include an invisible watermark to comply with EU regulations.
The news triggered huge online backlash from users who called this change “problematic.”
Anthropic stated the watermark isn't “foolproof.” If a text is heavily edited, the watermark could disappear. The same goes for images. The AI company shared that they will release more details in the coming weeks.
🔍 Your logo might start winning clicks before your headline does
Google is testing a new mobile search layout that shows advertisers’ favicons and domain names above the actual ad. Here’s the screenshot.
This is great news if you are a trusted brand with a recognizable logo. Newer brands may get overlooked when ad copy becomes secondary.
Google hasn’t confirmed if this will be a wider rollout, but it's something to watch.
💡 Don’t let one strong Meta ad carry your whole account
@benradack shares a fix for a specific kind of Meta crash. If one ad set carries your whole scaling budget, that’s a risky play. Once it fatigues, your whole account goes down.
He shares a better structure. Keep one ad set for historical winners and have a new “feeder” ad set for every fresh batch of proven winners from testing. Set a minimum spend limit so Meta doesn’t automatically dump 80% of the budget into whatever is already winning.
A hot ad can’t run away with the account budget before it’s proven at scale. And this way if an ad does die off, the account is still chugging along.
🛍️ Phia’s founders reportedly knew they were taking affiliate commission
Newly leaked Slack messages reveal that co-founders Phoebe Gates and Sophia Kianni knew about the “cookie stuffing” practice as early as December 2025. Â
Last month when this story broke, Phia called it a bug. Bloomberg later confirmed the issue was fixed. Turns out it was happening for way longer than anyone realized.
In response to these new allegations, an unnamed spokesperson for Phia responded “Any features causing misattributions were immediately removed over a month ago on July 7. We are reviewing every transaction, we are fully committed to and have already begun issuing all transaction reversals to brand partners as a result of any misattribution.”
Phia is searching for a head of compliance to ensure incidents like this never happen again.
🚨 Everyone's guessing on Q4 discounts. You could know.
You're about to set your biggest discount of the year without seeing what the rest of the market is planning. Our Benchmark survey, Beyond the Discount fixes that: brands on Q4 plans, shoppers on what actually converts. Five minutes gets you the full report first, plus a shot at a $1,000 gift card.
Note: Survey results may be used in DTC editorial and advertorial content. Personal info won’t be shared.
* One entrant will be randomly selected to win a $1,000 Amazon Gift Card. No purchase necessary to enter. Survey must be completed by Sunday, August 23rd, 2026 to be eligible. This giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 years or older. Void where prohibited.
đź’ˇ Nodpod optimizes PDP and checkout with these Shopify apps
Nodpod makes an estimated $2M a month through its DTC site. The sleep and wellness brand runs on a stack of Shopify apps built for order protection, pre-order sales, and product cross-sell.
Here's a peek at a few things that are running under the hood:
Captain Shipping Protection
Captain runs shipping insurance without a third-party insurer. It adds a protection fee at checkout, covers lost, stolen, or damaged packages, and the brand pockets the fee itself, no outside insurer involved.
On Nodpod's site it's the shipping protection add-on at checkout: a small opt-in fee covering the package in transit.
Preorderly
Preorderly turns out-of-stock or upcoming products into sales. It swaps the "sold out" button for a pre-order button, shows a ships-by date and countdown, and takes a deposit or full payment upfront with the balance charged automatically closer to ship day.
A built-in waitlist captures demand on anything still sold out.
This keeps popular Nodpod masks and colorways selling through every restock and turns sold-out pages into captured demand via the waitlist.
Shop the Look
This cross-sell app groups complementary products into a single shoppable look, either as a popup or inline on the product page. A shopper clicks one look and adds multiple items to cart at once, no catalog hunting required.
Easy way to raise AOV as we head into Q4.
🎧 Why Dôen is Jordan’s New Favorite Email Program and One Mistake You Can Avoid
Jordan has a new favorite email program, and it breaks a lot of the rules marketers usually follow.
In this TWBERP episode, he breaks down Dôen’s intentional creatives, from its layered photo grids and behind-the-scenes creative to tiny copy, cursive fonts, and understated CTAs.
He shares how behind-the-scenes content helps pull customers deeper into a brand’s world and one abandonment mistake they are making in an otherwise excellent program.
▶️ Watch here | 🎧 Listen on Spotify
‍📦 Selling on Walmart Marketplace is one of this year's smartest investments. New Seller Savings 2026 is happening now. Sign up to unlock up to $75K in New Seller Savings to build your business on Walmart Marketplace.* Conditions apply.
🛒 Running an online business? Your experience can influence the future of ecommerce tools. Join Blink UX’s research panel, share your insights, earn gift cards, and test products for Big Tech companies at the frontier of AR and AI. Join here. *
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