TikTok Survives, Meta's AI Works, and Tariffs Might Die

Your Weekly DTC Industry Roundup

Another week in the ecommerce trenches, and nobody seems to know what the heck is happening anymore …

One minute TikTok's getting banned, the next minute Trump's cutting deals and calling up Xi Jinping like they're old drinking buddies. Meta's shoving AI into everything that moves, and the Supreme Court might just blow up the entire tariff system right before the holidays.

Here's everything you may have missed from the ecommerce world over the past week or so:

• TikTok survives another death sentence with a $14 billion American buyout deal
• Meta's trending Reels ads are officially out of beta (and actually working)
• Supreme Court could nuke Trump's tariffs on November 5th
• Revenue growth is back (+5.47% YoY) while brands finally pull back on discount wars
• Plus hard truths about escaping Meta's learning phase (it's not about media buying)

Let's dive in …

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Market Performance

DTC Revenue Rebounds as Discount Wars Cool Down

New data shows +5.47% growth while brands pull back on pricing games

Finally, some good news …

Revenue jumped +5.47% year-over-year over the last 28 days, with new customer revenue climbing +2.92%. That's a massive turnaround from Q1 when that metric was down -1.50% and had everyone questioning if consumers were completely tapped out.

Even better? This growth came with less aggressive discounting. Brands offered 10.06% discounts compared to 9.58% last year — still up, but way less brutal than the 11.17% year-over-year spike we saw earlier this year.

The real story is consumer sentiment. The percentage of people preferring to save over spend hit record highs in January, but it's dropping fast. Purchase intent is back to normal levels after bottoming out at the start of the year.

Could be that tariffs are forcing brands to protect margins. Or maybe customers are just ready to spend again without needing their arms twisted with discounts.

Either way, the data suggests you don't need to slash prices to make sales happen anymore.

Read more details

Platform Survival

TikTok Dodges the Ban Bullet (Again)

Trump executive order delays enforcement while $14B deal gets done

Well, that escalated quickly …

Just when everyone thought TikTok was toast, Trump swooped in with an executive order that basically says “hold up, we're working something out.” The deal values TikTok's U.S. operations at around $14 billion and hands control to an American investor group.

Oracle gets to play security guard, overseeing all the data and computing services. The algorithm, source code, and content moderation all transfer to U.S. control. ByteDance gets 120 days to make it happen or face the music.

Trump even got on the phone with Xi Jinping to smooth things over. “I told him what we were doing, and he said, ‘Go ahead with it,’” Trump said during a briefing.

For brands already building TikTok strategies? You just got a reprieve. For those who abandoned ship? Might want to rethink that decision.

Read full details

Ai Advertising

Meta's Trending Reels Ads Actually Work

32% higher recall proves AI-curated content hits different.

Meta finally moved their trending Reels ads out of beta, and the results are … actually impressive …

The AI automatically pairs your ads with viral-style content, and early tests show 32% higher ad recall and 6x better favorability compared to regular ads. JCPenney's pilot with agency Dentsu proved this isn't just Meta marketing fluff.

The system uses AI to insert brands into culturally relevant, popular Reels clips without you having to chase trends manually. Perfect timing for Q4 when everyone's fighting for attention.

This is Meta's answer to the explosive growth of short-form video. Instead of hoping your content goes viral, you're literally buying your way into what's already working.

See for yourself here

Trade Wars

Supreme Court Could Destroy Trump's Tariffs

November 5th hearing might save brands billions in import costs.

Plot twist nobody saw coming …

The Supreme Court will hear arguments on November 5th about whether Trump's global tariffs are even legal. A federal appeals court already ruled he overstepped his authority by using emergency powers to impose broad duties without Congress.

If the Supreme Court agrees, it could invalidate most of Trump's tariffs and force the government to refund tens of billions collected from importers. That would cut the average U.S. tariff rate in half and dramatically lower your cost of goods.

The tariffs currently average 16% and remain in effect during the appeal. But if you're planning 2026 sourcing strategies, this case could reshape everything about pricing and supply chains.

Trump called the lower court ruling something that “would literally destroy the United States of America.” The Supreme Court will decide if he's right.

Track this case

Podcast

How Do You Exit Meta's Learning Phase?

You can’t media-buy your way out of a product problem.

In this episode, Richard, Tony, and Luke tackle two big questions from listeners:

• What can low-conversion brands do to escape Meta’s learning phase?
• How do you actually measure if YouTube demand gen is working?

And the answers? They don’t live in your ad account.

You’ll hear hard truths about attribution, the real power of offer strategy, and why performance marketers need to stop over-optimizing and start zooming out.

Plus: how CTC is rethinking creative testing and what the “just-in-time” model for ad production might look like.

Watch now

Final Thoughts

What This Means For You

TikTok's survival means the platform wars just got more interesting. If you pulled ad spend, you might want to reconsider. If you stayed the course, you're looking pretty smart right now.

Meta's trending Reels ads prove AI curation can actually drive results when done right. The 32% lift in recall isn't just a vanity metric … it's the difference between campaigns that work and campaigns that waste money.

And that Supreme Court case? It's the wildcard that could make or break your 2026 margins. If tariffs get struck down, cost of goods could plummet. If they don't, you're stuck with the current reality.

The pattern here is uncertainty becoming the only certainty. Smart operators are building flexible strategies that work regardless of which way these dominoes fall.

While everyone else is trying to predict the future …

The winners are building systems that adapt to whatever chaos comes next.