Ads are awesome. Ignorance is expensive. And the American dream is alive on the wild web.
Today, Amazon is about to charge sellers to ask for reviews, an AI avatar maker says it fooled almost half the people who talked to it, and Caraway keeps getting mileage out of being sued. Apothékary founder Shizu Okusa and Dataships CEO Michael Storan join us live. Here's what we're riding into at noon.
✶ PLATFORM WARS
The review button is back for a fee
Amazon is launching Review Requests as an ad product. Sellers and vendors can pay to invite recent buyers to leave a star rating or review while they shop on Amazon. The open beta starts in the US in late October. It covers products with fewer than 1,000 ratings and reviews, and campaigns pause automatically at 1,000. In the closed beta, products got three times as many ratings and reviews per week (Amazon Ads).
"Give us a tool to request reviews. Then use the FTC lawsuit to remove a bunch of reviews. Then take away the tool that allows us to ask for reviews. Now you bring it back but want us to pay to request a review. Is this actually a joke, @amazon?"
The pitch from Amazon: "Same authentic reviews customers already leave. Just more, faster." The reaction from sellers is in Prue's thread on X.
✶ AGENTIC COMMERCE
Tavus Says Its AI Avatar Passes for Human
Tavus is calling its new Griffin model "the first model to pass the video Turing test." It says 48% of people who talked to it live thought it was a real person, compared with under 3% for earlier systems. Oliver Brocato spent a morning trying to stump it and wrote that "it legit seems like a real human" (Oliver Brocato on X). We're running a live demo on the show (Tavus).
OPERATOR TAKE: Live video agents for sales, support, and onboarding are getting close. Before you put one in front of customers, decide how you'll tell them it's AI.
✶ MONEY & MOAT
Caraway Turned a Lawsuit Into a Campaign
In February, Groupe SEB and Meyer, the companies behind T-fal, All-Clad, and KitchenAid cookware, sued Caraway over its PFAS claims. Caraway answered with billboards, "join our fight" ads, and a customer petition that has passed 50,000 signatures. Founder Jordan Nathan says the goal was to be "impossible to ignore." Caraway's new coffee maker launched September 22, sold out its first batch, and passed seven figures in sales, according to a spokesperson (Modern Retail).
OPERATOR TAKE: If a bigger competitor attacks your positioning, that can be your biggest megaphone. Just have your lawyers read every ad first.
Spotlight: Shizu Okusa
FOUNDER AND CEO, APOTHÉKARY
She's a former Goldman Sachs trader who founded the cold-pressed juice brand Jrink before launching Apothékary in 2020 (Goldman Sachs Alumni).
Apothékary raised $16M, with $10M of it as venture capital and $6M as debt, bringing the total to about $32M. It's aiming for $40M in sales in 2026 (Beauty Independent).
Its bestseller, Blue Burn, sells roughly 352,000 units a year. The brand has been in Ulta Beauty, Whole Foods, and The Vitamin Shoppe since mid-2025 (Beauty Independent).
TikTok Shop is its biggest channel, ahead of DTC and retail. Inc. covered her Kyoto customer retreat on September 24 (Inc.).
WHAT WE'LL ASK: "Your team pays TikTok Shop affiliates 20% when 15% is closer to standard. What did that extra five points actually buy you?"
From the Checkout: Michael Storan
CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, DATASHIPS
Dataships collects consent for email, SMS, and WhatsApp at checkout. Its benchmark of 100+ A/B tests across 15M+ Shopify Plus checkout sessions found average opt-in rising from 39% to 81%. Subscribers averaged $106 in CLV, compared with $44 for non-subscribers (Dataships benchmark). Before Dataships, Michael built a fantasy rugby business that RugbyPass acquired in 2017 (Michael on X).
WHAT WE'LL ASK: "What's the cost of a brand getting consent wrong, and who at a typical ecom brand owns keeping up with the law?"
Follow the guests: Shizu on LinkedIn ✶ @mickstoran
1. An AI-run store is up 106% with zero Meta spend
Tom Brown says he handed a small store to Fable and Opus as a test. Sales are up 106% with no Meta ads, and it's running a 19% net margin. It's one test store, and he says more is coming (Tom Brown on X).
2. Reta: the drug of the future?
A viral post from a peptide account claims retatrutide was over 97% effective across more than 1,000 people, with average weight loss above 25%. Treat that as a viral claim, not a trial readout, but GLP-1 commerce is a category to watch (Peptime on X).
3. "Instagram is for girls," Elon Musk declares
Polymarket's post of the quote picked up more than 825K views overnight (Polymarket on X).
4. Theragun Mini and the 2000s comeback
"2000s aesthetics are so back," Drew Coffman wrote. Michael Miraflor's reply: "Time is a flat circle" (Michael Miraflor on X).
5. 98% of US households don't pay for AI yet
That's a16z's chart from State of Markets II (a16z on X). The DTC read from Bryan MacDonald's share: "If you're building in AI right now, you're so early you don't even know it."
How to Get an Interview
"A college senior just walked into the @meow office uninvited asking for a job
He brought an envelope with a handwritten letter
The team is interviewing him right now"
Talent Shortage
"Reminder, people are training jr editors now versus hiring senior ones only, the real way in a talent shortage."
The 3:1 Brand-to-Partner Mix
A takeaway from Commerce Roundtable in San Diego, shared by Aaron Warshawsky. Read his LinkedIn post.
Trader Joe's Viral Sandwich
"I made the viral TikTok Trader Joe's Italian sandwich. It's so special." 1.5M views and counting (@_JBanks__ on X)
UNIVERSAL ADS (Launch TV Ads with Universal Ads)
FEATURED SPONSOR: UNIVERSAL ADS
TV that actually performs — built for DTC.
If your growth is plateauing on social and search, it might be time to rethink TV. Universal Ads makes it simple for DTC brands to run TV campaigns designed for performance — without the usual guesswork or overhead.
You get premium streaming and linear inventory in one place, so you're reaching new audiences beyond the same crowded digital channels. No hidden markups or fees eating into your results — 100% of your spend goes to actual media, so every dollar works harder. Setup feels just like search and social, so you can be up and running in minutes.
It's TV that delivers for performance marketers.
→ New advertisers: sign up at UniversalAds.com with code UACOWBOY for $1,500 in matched ad credits on your first campaign.
INTELLIGEMS
Free AI-powered audit that gives you three ideas you can test today. intelligems.io/audit
POSTSCRIPT
The SMS partner focused on making SMS your biggest channel. See the SMS benchmarks
PROPPEL
Recruiting for ecom brands, paid on performance. Mention Ecomm Cowboy for 10% off your first hire. weareproppel.com
RICHPANEL
AI helpdesk that automates 70–80% of interactions. Ridge cut cost per ticket by 70%. richpanel.com
UNIVERSAL ADS
Performance TV for DTC brands. Code UACOWBOY gets $1,500 in matched ad credits. universalads.com
NORTHBEAM
Measurement built from real orders, clicks, and verified views. northbeam.io
TRENDTRACK
Every ad and email any brand sends is refreshed every 24 hours. trendtrack.io
OUTERSIGNAL
Find the VIPs on your list. Say Ecomm Cowboy sent you to get a free persona report. outersignal.com
SEGUNO
Email, popups, banners, and reviews that live inside Shopify.
ROKT AFTERSELL
Today's partner for post-purchase upsells.
