# AI for Ecommerce Brands: See Sales, Ads, Profit and Cash in One Place Each Morning

A founder business overview each morning: how ecommerce founders use Luca to see sales, ad spend, profit and cash from Shopify, Amazon, Meta, Google and Xero together, in plain English and on a dashboard built for the brand.

- Applies to: Founders and CEOs of Shopify and Amazon brands on any Luca AI plan; Slack on the Leadership plan and above
- Status: Live
- Verified: 2026-10-29
- Canonical page: https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/use-cases/see-the-whole-business

A founder business overview should tell you how sales, ad spend, profit and cash moved before your first meeting of the day. AI for ecommerce can now do that job without anyone building a report. Luca reads Shopify, Amazon, Meta, Google and Xero together, refreshes them overnight and answers your questions in plain English. Each morning you can open a Numbers dashboard built for your brand, or simply ask Luca how yesterday went.

## At a glance {#at-a-glance}

| | |
|---|---|
| **The job** | See how the whole business is doing each morning, in one place, without building reports |
| **Sources in one view** | Shopify, Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Ads, Meta, Google Ads, TikTok Ads, GA4, Xero or QuickBooks, Stripe, European banks through Open Banking, plus Recharge and Klaviyo set up by the Luca team |
| **How you ask** | In plain English, in the web app, or from Slack on the Leadership plan and above |
| **The morning dashboard** | Numbers, built for your brand by the Luca team and refreshed every morning, plus a control centre and custom dashboards |
| **Before you ask** | A daily insight, a priority brief by email ranked by impact, and alerts when a number moves |
| **Once a month** | A business health snapshot and a written review from Luca's analysts |
| **How you compare** | Benchmarks against similar brands, from public sources |
| **Data freshness** | Every source refreshes automatically overnight |
| **What it changes** | Nothing. Luca reads every source and writes to none |
| **Trying it** | Try Luca on your own data ([plans and pricing](https://ask-luca.com/pricing)) |

## Where it fits {#where-it-fits}

### What it's for {#what-its-for}

A founder business overview answers one question each morning: how is the business doing? Luca puts sales, ad spend, profit and cash in one place, so you see the whole picture without opening five tools or building reports.

### How it helps {#how-it-helps}

- **One place to look.** Store, marketplace, ads and books sit side by side in one view.
- **Plain-English answers.** You ask how yesterday went, and Luca replies with figures and a chart.
- **Ready before you are.** Sources refresh overnight, so the numbers wait for you each morning.
- **Numbers you can trust.** Each figure in a reply links to the table it came from.
- **Told before you ask.** Luca tells you what changed and why, and what to do this week, ranked by impact.

### What happens without it {#without-it}

Without one view, the morning starts with five logins and a spreadsheet. Each tool tells a partial story, and the full picture arrives days later. Decisions on spend and stock get made on yesterday's guesses.

### Why buyers care {#why-buyers-care}

Founders and CEOs of growing Shopify and Amazon brands feel this first. They own the whole business but rarely have an analyst on hand. It matters most on busy mornings, when there is one meeting to decide where the week's money goes.

## The Luca AI approach to the morning overview {#approach}

{/* 5P */}

The CEO of a subscription coffee brand sells through Shopify and Amazon, with renewals running in Recharge. Her team meets at nine. She wants to walk in knowing how sales, subscribers and ad returns moved overnight.

Most mornings start the same way. She opens Shopify, then Seller Central, then two ad dashboards and a subscription app, and copies figures into a sheet. It might take half an hour, and the totals rarely agree. By the time it is done, the meeting has started.

None of those tools is wrong. Each answers for its own corner of the business, and none of them sees the others. What she needs is one view that has already joined them overnight. Then the morning question has an answer waiting, and the meeting can start with decisions.

Luca builds that view with her. She connects Shopify, Seller Central, Google Ads and Xero herself, and the Luca team sets up Meta, Recharge and Klaviyo. Every source refreshes overnight into her brand's warehouse. The team builds her a Numbers dashboard that refreshes each morning, and she asks Luca follow-up questions in plain English.

Her brand's dashboard shows sales, subscriptions and ad spend from the overnight refresh, before her nine o'clock. If one figure looks off, she asks Luca why in the same window. How that stacks up against other analytics tools is covered in How Luca AI compares for a founder business overview, below.

## What you see each morning {#each-morning}

Two parts of Luca work together on a morning check. Numbers gives you the fixed view, and chat answers the question the dashboard raises.

### The Numbers dashboard {#numbers-dashboard}

Numbers is a dashboard built for your brand, sitting next to chat. It refreshes every morning. Depending on the business, it covers profit and loss, revenue and product forecasts, inventory, sales-to-cash reconciliation, or subscription retention, CAC and churn. The Luca team builds the views around your business. You can add custom dashboards of your own, and custom metrics and KPIs calculated to your own definitions.

For a subscription brand, the subscription view matters most. Subscription metrics come as standard once Recharge is connected: active subscribers, skips, pauses and churn. Luca also covers failed payments and dunning, subscriber against one-off margin, plan and frequency mix, and churn reasons with customer comments. The example below shows active subscribers, recurring revenue, churn and skips on one tab.

![The Subscriptions tab in Numbers headed How the refill subscriptions are holding up, with cards for active subscribers, recurring revenue, monthly churn and skips this month, above a monthly table of subscribers who joined, came back or cancelled](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/images/use-cases/subscriptions-overview.webp)

*The Subscriptions tab in Numbers, drawn from Recharge, Shopify and Stripe, shows a subscription CEO the health of the base in one glance. The figures are sample data for Fernlow, a demo brand.*

When a figure surprises you, ask about it in chat, where the next question is one line away. The page on [what Luca does as an analyst](https://ask-luca.com/the-agent) describes that conversation. The guide to the [Shopify analytics dashboard](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/shopify-analytics-dashboard-explained) shows what a store-only view leaves out.

### The control centre and the priority brief {#control-centre}

The control centre is Luca's home screen, one place to see the whole business every morning. It greets you with the one thing that needs you today. Next to it sit your objectives, the week's tasks, the latest business health snapshot and a box to ask Luca. Goals and pacing to plan live here too, so you can see whether the month is on track.

![The Luca control centre home screen greeting Joe with the one thing that needs him today, a balm order due by 30 October, above tiles for the profit objective, operating profit, contribution margin, net revenue and ad spend over budget, a business health snapshot list, a task board and an Ask Luca panel](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/images/use-cases/control-centre-morning.webp)

*The control centre puts the day's one decision, the objective and the latest health snapshot on the first screen a founder opens. The figures are sample data for Fernlow, a demo brand.*

Luca also comes to you. Every day it sends one proactive insight without being asked. The priority brief, a scheduled email report, tells you what to do this week, ranked by impact. Each item is scored for impact and ease, comes with the revenue impact worked out, and carries an implementation plan. Role lenses for growth, finance and operations send each brief to the right seat.

> **Try asking Luca:** "What are the three things I should do first this week, and what is each one worth?"

### Alerts when a number moves {#alerts}

Some mornings can't wait for a dashboard. Luca warns you before you run out of cash or stock, and it tells you what changed and why before you ask. It watches the business with anomaly detection that uses a stated method, the 2-sigma rule.

- **Threshold alerts.** Set a floor or ceiling, for example ROAS below a floor or runway under 60 days.
- **Stock-out alerts.** A warning before a product runs out.
- **Margin-drift alerts.** A warning when margin slips.
- **Retention alerts.** Cohort-decay, retention-regression and subscription churn alerts.
- **Connection alerts.** A warning when a connection fails or data goes stale.

Noise control keeps the list short: alerts are held until Luca is confident, deduplicated and capped. You choose where they go: Slack, email or the app. You can rate an insight as useful, and Luca learns what to send.

### Questions to ask in chat {#morning-questions}

Ask the way you would ask a co-founder. [These questions each join more than one source](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/chat/cross-source-answers).

| Morning question | What Luca draws on |
|---|---|
| How did we do yesterday across Shopify and Amazon? | Shopify orders and refunds, Amazon Seller Central orders and fees |
| Did last weekend's promotion make money? | Shopify discounts and orders, ad spend, product costs in Xero or QuickBooks |
| Is our Meta and Google spend paying back? | Meta and Google Ads spend and conversions, Shopify orders |
| How many subscribers cancelled last month, and why? | Recharge cancellations and reasons, monthly and 90-day churn |
| What did we make after ad spend last month? | Shopify sales, ad spend, the Xero or QuickBooks profit and loss |
| Which products are close to running out? | Shopify inventory by location, Amazon FBA stock |

![A Luca chat titled Last week's sales, where the question How did we do last week is answered with tiles for net revenue, orders, average order and new customers, three What changed bullets and a line naming Shopify, Amazon, Recharge, Klaviyo and Meta Ads as sources](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/images/use-cases/how-did-we-do-last-week.webp)

*A plain-English morning question answered from five connected sources at once, with no report to build first. The figures are sample data for a demo brand.*

> **Try asking Luca:** "How did we do yesterday across Shopify and Amazon, and what changed?"

For subscription brands, the [guide to customer churn analysis](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/customer-churn-analysis) suggests follow-ups on cancellations. With Recharge connected, Luca reads cancellations and the reasons subscribers give, so the why sits next to the count.

![The Why subscribers cancel card, a bar chart of reasons from the Recharge cancellation survey led by too much product at home and price, with a note on how many subscribers take a skip and three recent comments](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/images/use-cases/subscriber-cancellation-reasons.webp)

*Cancellation reasons from Recharge turn a churn figure into something a subscription CEO can act on that morning. The figures are sample data for a demo brand.*

> **Try asking Luca:** "How many subscribers cancelled last month, and what reasons did they give in Recharge?"

Luca's guide to [e-commerce KPIs that decide profitability](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/ecommerce-kpis) and its [list of top e-commerce KPIs](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/top-ecommerce-kpis) help you pick the ones worth asking about daily.

### A written review once a month {#monthly-review}

Luca's analysts prepare a monthly written review from the brand's data. Each section names a decision with money attached, and the review ends with what to do first. It is written by people, not generated as a score.

Luca also builds a business health snapshot of the whole business, with the decisions that have money attached, and sends business health reports by email. Behind both sits done-with-you strategy and analysis from Luca's team.

### Weekly digests and board packs {#digests-and-board-packs}

Between monthly reviews, scheduled digests keep the rhythm: a Monday health digest and a weekly review you can run in fifteen minutes. When the board or investors need an update, Luca writes it. It builds board and investor packs as PDFs, and QBRs, from your data, and its reporting is ready for an exit or a fundraise.

### Forecasts {#forecasts}

Luca [forecasts daily revenue up to a year ahead](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/forecasting/revenue-forecast) and product demand with likely run-out dates. With Xero or QuickBooks connected, it adds a free-cash-flow forecast and your cash runway. Forecasts are checked against actuals every night and corrected. You can run what-if scenarios, set a budget and track pacing against plan, and plan Q4 and Black Friday on the same numbers. Luca's article on [AI cash flow forecasting](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/ai-for-e-commerce-cash-flow-forecasting) explains the method in general terms.

## What the morning numbers measure {#morning-metrics-explained}

A founder business overview usually rests on five figures. Each one answers a different question about yesterday, and each has a standard definition worth agreeing on before the team argues about it.

### Net sales {#net-sales}

Net sales are what customers paid for orders, after refunds, returns and discounts. Gross sales flatter a morning that had a wave of returns. For a brand on Shopify and Amazon, net sales only make sense once both channels sit in one total.

### Marketing efficiency ratio {#mer}

Marketing efficiency ratio, or MER, is [total revenue divided by total marketing spend](https://www.shopify.com/blog/marketing-efficiency-ratio). It is a blended figure for the whole business, so it doesn't depend on which ad platform claims a sale. Channel ROAS still matters for individual campaigns, but MER tells you whether marketing as a whole paid back.

### Contribution margin {#contribution-margin}

Contribution margin is [net sales less variable costs, as a share of net sales](https://www.shopify.com/blog/contribution-margin-vs-gross-margin). Variable costs include product costs, fees, shipping and, for many brands, ad spend. It shows what each day's trading left over to cover rent, salaries and software.

### Profit and cash {#profit-and-cash}

Profit and cash move on different clocks. Accrual accounting [records income when it is earned and expenses when they are incurred](https://www.shopify.com/blog/cash-basis-vs-accrual-basis), not when money moves. A strong sales day can still leave the bank lower, because stock was paid for weeks before it sold. Luca shows your cash position across banks and payment processors such as Shopify, Stripe and Amazon, traced from sale to cash, with European banks connected through Open Banking.

### Subscription churn {#subscription-churn}

For a subscription brand, churn is the share of subscribers who cancel in a period. The simplest version divides the month's cancellations by the subscribers you had at the start of the month. Skips and pauses are worth watching beside it, because they often come before a cancellation.

### What Luca calculates for you {#what-luca-calculates}

Luca calculates your KPIs itself rather than copying each platform's version. From Shopify it works out gross and net sales, average order value and refund rate. With Recharge connected, it adds active subscribers, monthly and 90-day churn and recurring revenue. With Xero or QuickBooks, it adds gross and operating margin and free cash flow.

Luca goes further on the two questions founders ask most: is the ad spend profitable, and which products make money? It compares real, store-based ROAS with what each ad platform reports and shows the gap. It compares ROAS with contribution margin, known as POAS, so you see which spend actually makes money. It works out contribution per order, profit by product, variant and SKU, and the profit impact of each promotion. On the customer side, it shows lifetime value by acquisition channel and by cohort, predicted lifetime value and churn risk per customer, and RFM-style segments.

### How you compare with brands like yours {#benchmarks}

A number means more next to a peer group. Luca benchmarks your brand against similar brands from public sources, so you can see where you are ahead and where you are behind on measures such as repeat purchase and margin.

![Diagram of the daily cycle in four steps: every connected source refreshes overnight, data is modelled and checked in one warehouse, the dashboard built for your brand is refreshed for the morning, and you ask why in chat before the first meeting](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/images/explainers/overnight-cycle.webp)

*Illustrative diagram of the overnight cycle that has a founder's morning view ready before the first meeting of the day.*

## How to tell whether the morning numbers are right {#are-the-numbers-right}

A morning view is only useful if the team trusts it. A few standard checks settle most arguments about a number, whatever tool produced it.

- **Tie sales to the source.** Yesterday's net sales should match Shopify and Amazon's own reports for the same day, after refunds.
- **Keep one definition.** Shopify's guide to MER advises using the same revenue and spend definitions every time, so that one month compares fairly with the next.
- **Watch for double counting.** If the revenue your ad platforms claim adds up to more than you sold, use MER rather than platform ROAS for the overview.
- **Know the cut-off.** A view refreshed overnight shows the business to the last refresh, not this minute.

Luca does the first of these every day. Daily data-quality audits compare Luca's data with Shopify, Amazon and QuickBooks, and catch gaps, duplicates and stale tables. Each figure in a chat reply also links to the table it came from, so you can check it before it reaches the team.

## Set up your morning view {#set-up}

You can [set up Luca without a developer](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/getting-started/set-up-luca), in an afternoon. Most sources connect by clicking **Connect** and approving access, and the Luca team maps your data with you.

1. **Sign up and register your organisation.** At signup, Luca reads your website and gives a first insight within minutes, before any data has synced.
2. **Connect Shopify.** Open **Sources**, click **Connect** on the Shopify card and [approve read-only access](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/platform/read-only-access). You need admin access to your store. Luca imports your full Shopify history.
3. **Connect Amazon and Google.** Amazon Seller Central connects self-serve, per region, with up to two years of history. Google Ads, GA4 and Search Console share one **Google** card.
4. **Connect your books, payments and bank.** Xero, QuickBooks Online and Stripe connect self-serve through each platform's own approval screen. European banks connect through Open Banking.
5. **Ask the team for the rest.** Meta connects through guided partner access with the Luca team. Recharge and Klaviyo show **Get in touch**, and the team sets them up.
6. **Let the team map your data.** During onboarding, the Luca team maps your data, and daily checks compare it with Shopify, Amazon and QuickBooks to catch gaps and duplicates.
7. **Open Numbers and chat the next morning.** From the next overnight refresh, every connected source is in your answers and on your dashboard.
8. **Add Luca to Slack, if your plan includes it.** Then ask from Slack, and Luca replies there with its own answers.
9. **Tell Luca about your business.** Goals, constraints, cost rules, lead times and seasonality are held as business context. Luca remembers your goals and context across conversations, and gets smarter the longer you use it.

If your data is messy on day one, that's expected. The mapping and the daily checks exist for exactly that. Luca's article on [why founders drown in data](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/why-e-commerce-founders-are-drowning-in-data) describes what this replaces.

## The morning view in peak season 2026 {#peak-season-2026}

Most founders still start the day with sales alone. In Shopify's fourth-quarter 2025 survey of store owners, [77% of merchants tracked sales or total revenue](https://www.shopify.com/blog/marketing-efficiency-ratio), and fewer than half tracked profit margin. A morning view that adds ad spend, margin and cash closes that gap.

The gap matters most in the weeks ahead. Black Friday is Friday 27 November 2026 and Cyber Monday is Monday 30 November. Over the same weekend in 2025, Shopify merchants recorded [14.6 billion US dollars in sales, up 27% on the year](https://www.shopify.com/news/bfcm-data-2025); Shopify says the figures are approximate and unaudited. On those mornings, ad spend is at its highest and a margin slip costs the most.

UK trading gives a mixed picture going in. The ONS estimates that online sales in September 2026 were [6.8% higher than a year earlier](https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/latest), even though they fell 0.4% on the month. These are seasonally adjusted official estimates, so read single months with care.

## How to build a morning business report {#morning-report}

Every founder business overview starts life as a report someone builds by hand. Knowing the steps shows you what a tool has to get right on your behalf.

### The manual method {#manual-method}

1. **Pull yesterday's sales.** Export Shopify and Amazon orders for the day and take off refunds to reach net sales.
2. **Pull yesterday's ad spend.** Export spend from Meta and Google Ads for the same day.
3. **Apply product costs.** Use the cost of each product sold, from your books or a cost sheet.
4. **Take off fees.** Subtract marketplace and payment fees from each channel.
5. **Work out the ratios.** Divide net revenue by ad spend for MER, and contribution by net revenue for margin.
6. **Add subscriptions.** Export cancellations from your subscription app and divide by subscribers at the start of the month.
7. **Check cash.** Look at the bank balance and upcoming bills in the books.

### The same job in Luca {#same-job-in-luca}

In Luca, the exports happen overnight. Shopify, Amazon, the ad platforms, Recharge and Xero refresh into one warehouse for your brand, and the Numbers dashboard is refreshed every morning. You open it with your coffee, then ask Luca in plain English about anything that looks off. The decisions that follow stay with you.

### A worked example: yesterday's numbers for a coffee brand {#worked-example}

This illustrative calculation follows the manual method for one day at a demo subscription coffee brand. The figures are rounded sample data in pounds sterling, not a Luca output.

| Line | Where it comes from | Arithmetic | GBP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify net sales | Shopify orders less refunds | 6,800 - 300 | 6,500 |
| Amazon sales | Amazon Seller Central | From the orders report | 1,500 |
| **Net revenue** | | 6,500 + 1,500 | **8,000** |
| Product costs | Xero | 35% of 8,000 | -2,800 |
| Marketplace and payment fees | Amazon and Shopify payouts | From the fee reports | -700 |
| Ad spend | Meta and Google Ads | 1,100 + 500 | -1,600 |
| **Contribution after ads** | | 8,000 - 2,800 - 700 - 1,600 | **2,900** |

Yesterday left a contribution margin of about 36% (2,900 ÷ 8,000) and an MER of 5.0 (8,000 ÷ 1,600). On the subscription side, the brand began the month with 2,000 subscribers and 90 have cancelled so far, a churn of 4.5% (90 ÷ 2,000). Those three figures, from four systems, are what the CEO needs before nine o'clock.

## How Luca AI compares for a founder business overview {#compare}

Luca puts your store, marketplace, ad and accounting data in one morning view and answers questions about it in plain English. Its analysts can add a monthly written review naming the decisions worth the most. Luca AI is the only platform in this table that does all four.

Founder business overview features, from each platform's public documentation:

| Platform | Plain-English answers | Store, ads and accounting together | Daily business dashboard | Analyst-written monthly review |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| **Luca AI** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| **Shopify Sidekick and Analytics** | Yes ([answers with your store's own data](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/ai-powered-tools/sidekick/help-and-guidance)) | Not in docs | Yes ([overview dashboard of store metrics](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard/using-the-overview-dashboard)) | Not in docs |
| **Triple Whale** | Yes ([Moby takes plain-English prompts](https://triplewhale.readme.io/docs/sql-example-library-overview-and-best-practices)) | Not in docs | Yes ([Summary page and Dashboards](https://triplewhale.readme.io/docs/amazon-orders)) | Not in docs |
| **Lifetimely** | Yes ([Profit Agent questions in plain words](https://help.useamp.com/article/1420-profit-agent-klaviyo)) | Partly ([QuickBooks costs and expenses](https://help.useamp.com/article/1115-getting-started-with-quickbooks-online)) | Partly ([daily P&L report in Slack](https://help.useamp.com/article/1066-how-to-connect-slack-daily-p-l)) | Not in docs |
| **Daasity** | Yes ([AI Analyst in plain English](https://help.daasity.com/core-concepts/ai-analyst)) | Not in docs | Yes ([Daily Flash vs Plan dashboard](https://help.daasity.com/core-concepts/custom-data-and-enrichment/revenue-plan-forecast)) | Not in docs |
| **Northbeam** | Partly ([through an external AI assistant](https://docs.northbeam.io/docs/get-started/capabilities)) | Not in docs | Yes ([Overview Home Page dashboards](https://docs.northbeam.io/docs/overview-page)) | Not in docs |

*Yes: documented and built in. Partly: documented with a limit, shown in brackets. Not in docs: not found in the vendor's public documentation.*

### Why Luca AI is the stronger choice for a founder business overview {#compare-stronger}

- **Your books are in the morning view.** Luca reads Xero or QuickBooks next to Shopify, Amazon and ads. Daasity's docs describe a [Daily Flash vs Plan dashboard](https://help.daasity.com/core-concepts/custom-data-and-enrichment/revenue-plan-forecast) for sales against plan. See [Daasity alternatives compared](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/daasity-alternatives).
- **A review written by people.** Luca's analysts prepare a monthly written review that names decisions with money attached. Lifetimely sends a [daily P&L report to Slack](https://help.useamp.com/article/1066-how-to-connect-slack-daily-p-l). See [Lifetimely alternatives compared](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/lifetimely-alternatives).
- **Answers instead of queries.** Luca replies with the figure, a chart and next steps. Triple Whale's guide says Moby can suggest [the right tables, filters, and metrics](https://triplewhale.readme.io/docs/sql-example-library-overview-and-best-practices) to start a query. See [Triple Whale alternatives compared](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/triple-whale-alternatives).
- **More than the store.** Luca adds ads, Amazon and the ledger to your store data. Shopify's overview dashboard gives [a summary of your store's performance metrics](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/reports-and-analytics/shopify-reports/overview-dashboard/using-the-overview-dashboard). See [Shopify reporting explained](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/shopify-reporting).

*Competitor details checked against each vendor's public documentation on 29 October 2026. Features and plans change, so confirm with the vendor before you decide.*

## Limits and things to know {#limits}

- **Overnight, not live.** Every source refreshes once a day, overnight. A morning view shows the business up to the last refresh, not this minute.
- **Built around your brand.** The Luca team builds your Numbers dashboard around your business, and you add custom dashboards and metrics on top.
- **A review written by people.** Luca's analysts write the monthly review. The daily insight, the priority brief and the alerts come from Luca itself.
- **Some sources go through the team.** Meta uses guided partner access, and Recharge, Klaviyo, WooCommerce and Magento are set up by the Luca team.
- **Read-only.** Luca recommends what to do; you make every change in Shopify, the ad platforms or your books.
- **Web and Slack.** Luca runs in the browser, with Slack on the Leadership plan and above. There is no native mobile app; Luca works in the mobile browser and can be saved to the home screen.

## Common questions {#common-questions}

#### Can AI give me one view of my whole ecommerce business? {#faq-one-view}

Yes. Luca brings Shopify, Amazon, Meta, Google, Xero and the rest into one private warehouse for your brand. You see it in the control centre and on a Numbers dashboard, and can ask about it in plain English.

#### Do I have to build dashboards or reports? {#faq-no-dashboards}

No. You ask in plain English, with no dashboards to build and no SQL. The Luca team builds your Numbers dashboard for you, and you can add custom dashboards and metrics if you want them.

#### When is the data updated? {#faq-when-updated}

Every source refreshes automatically once a day, overnight. Numbers refreshes every morning, so the view is ready when you start.

#### Does it work with the Shopify, Meta, Google, Klaviyo and Xero I already use? {#faq-my-tools}

Yes. Shopify, Google and Xero connect self-serve. Meta connects through guided partner access with the Luca team, and the team sets up Klaviyo for you.

#### What does it see that Shopify's own assistant can't? {#faq-beyond-the-store}

A store's assistant answers from store data. Luca also reads your ad accounts, analytics, payments and accounting, so one answer can cover sales, spend and costs together.

#### Why not export a CSV into a general chatbot? {#faq-chatbot}

A CSV is a snapshot you rebuild every time. Luca refreshes every source overnight, calculates your KPIs itself and links each figure to its table. Luca's article on [why chatbots struggle with store data](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/chatgpt-for-ecommerce-data-analysis) explains the gap.

#### How do I know a number is right? {#faq-trust-the-number}

Luca shows its working. Each figure in a reply links to the data table it came from, and chat shows its reasoning steps and sources. Daily checks also compare Luca's data with Shopify, Amazon and QuickBooks to catch gaps and duplicates.

#### Will Luca change anything in my store or ad accounts? {#faq-read-only}

No. Luca reads every connected system and writes to none of them. It recommends, and every decision stays with you.

#### Is my data kept separate from other brands? {#faq-data-separate}

Yes. Each customer's data lives in its own separate dataset, with checks on every query. Your data is stored in the UK/EU and is never used to train AI models.

#### What if my data is messy on day one? {#faq-messy-data}

That's normal. The Luca team maps your data during onboarding, and daily checks catch gaps, duplicates and stale tables.

#### Can I try it on my own data? {#faq-trial}

Yes. You can try Luca on your own data. Plan details are on the [Luca AI pricing page](https://ask-luca.com/pricing).

#### What should a founder check every morning? {#faq-what-to-check}

Most founders start with net sales across channels, ad spend and MER, contribution after ads, and cash. Subscription brands add active subscribers and churn. You can ask Luca about each of these in plain English, and its priority brief and alerts point you to whatever moved.

#### Can I see subscription churn in the morning view? {#faq-subscription-churn}

Yes, once Recharge is connected. The Luca team sets Recharge up, and Luca reads subscriptions, skips, cancellations and their reasons. From those it works out active subscribers, monthly and 90-day churn and recurring revenue.

#### Why does my ad platform's ROAS differ from MER? {#faq-roas-vs-mer}

ROAS divides the revenue one platform credits to itself by that platform's spend. MER divides total revenue by total marketing spend, so it can't count twice an order that two platforms both claimed.

## Further reading {#further-reading}

- [Marketing efficiency ratio](https://www.shopify.com/blog/marketing-efficiency-ratio): how MER is worked out, and what Shopify's survey found merchants track.
- [Contribution margin vs gross margin](https://www.shopify.com/blog/contribution-margin-vs-gross-margin): which costs each margin takes off, with the formulas.
- [Cash basis vs accrual basis accounting](https://www.shopify.com/blog/cash-basis-vs-accrual-basis): why profit and cash land on different days.
- [Shopify Black Friday Cyber Monday 2025 results](https://www.shopify.com/news/bfcm-data-2025): the size of last year's peak weekend.
- [ONS retail sales bulletin](https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/latest): the latest UK figures for online and total retail sales.

## Related {#related}

- [How AI can actually help you run an e-commerce business](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/how-ai-can-actually-help-you-run-your-e-commerce-business): where AI earns its place beyond a chatbot.
- [What an AI co-founder for e-commerce is](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/what-is-an-ai-co-founder-for-e-commerce): the category Luca belongs to.
- [Meet Luca](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/meet-luca-ai): why a founder needs a co-founder that reads the numbers.
- [How Luca works](https://ask-luca.com/how-it-works): connect, refresh overnight and ask.
- [E-commerce management software ranked](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/ecommerce-management-software): why unified tools can still leave decisions fragmented.
- [AI solutions for e-commerce](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/best-ai-solutions-for-ecommerce): the wider market of AI tools for online brands.
- [Customer cohort analysis](https://ask-luca.com/blogs/customer-cohort-analysis): how to read retention curves for a subscription brand.
- [How to use an AI agent to analyse your store](https://ask-luca.com/product-docs/use-cases/ai-agents-for-ecommerce): which analysis jobs an agent takes on, and which decisions stay with your team.

*Updated 29 October 2026: added a subscription view, what the morning numbers measure, how to check them, the 2026 peak dates, the manual method with a worked example, three more questions and further reading. Later the same day, added the control centre, the priority brief and daily insight, alerts, the business health snapshot, weekly digests and board packs, benchmarks, real ROAS and POAS, lifetime value by channel, custom dashboards and metrics, memory, Open Banking, TikTok Ads and data residency.*