# Arlo — homepage URL: https://meetarlo.ai/ Arlo, the AI marketing analyst for Shopify founders. We read your store and ad data, then send one ranked weekly action list. 14 days free. --- # Arlo vs Triple Whale URL: https://meetarlo.ai/compare/triple-whale Arlo vs Triple Whale Triple Whale is the attribution stack. Arlo is the Monday morning read. Triple Whale is the attribution stack for brands running $100k+ a month across Meta, Google, TikTok, Klaviyo, and a subscription tool. It's built for the media buyer or growth lead sitting inside the dashboard every day. Arlo is a different job. We read your Shopify data and write you a short Monday morning brief on what actually changed, with the two or three things to fix, defend, or double down on next. Side by side: - Core job: Arlo — Decide what to do Monday | Triple Whale — Know which ad drove the sale - Format: Arlo — Weekly strategic brief | Triple Whale — Dashboard + attribution platform - Built for: Arlo — Founder-led DTC brands | Triple Whale — Scales to $100k+/mo multi-channel brands - Time to first value: Arlo — Minutes | Triple Whale — Two to three weeks to trust the numbers - Integrations needed: Arlo — Shopify and Meta Ads | Triple Whale — 60+ sources (Meta, Google, TikTok, Klaviyo, Recharge, Amazon) - Attribution approach: Arlo — Strategic read on Shopify data | Triple Whale — Triple Pixel + Sonar CAPI + Total Impact multi-touch - Learning curve: Arlo — None (it's a brief) | Triple Whale — Steep; attribution trust curve takes weeks - Pricing: Arlo — Flat subscription | Triple Whale — Free tier; Starter $179/mo; Advanced $259/mo; Custom from $539/mo (GMV-tiered) - Output: Arlo — Ranked weekly actions with reasoning | Triple Whale — Dashboards, custom SQL, agent-driven alerts - Cadence: Arlo — Weekly, delivered to your inbox | Triple Whale — On-demand dashboard + real-time alerts - Triple Whale is the attribution stack for brands running $100k+ a month across Meta, Google, TikTok, and Klaviyo. Triple Pixel captures first-party identity, Sonar pushes enriched events back to the ad platforms server-side, and the Moby Agents suggest budget reallocations and creative briefs. We are the founder's weekly read sitting on top. - Triple Whale's sweet spot is the media buyer or growth lead running multi-channel paid spend every day. That person opens the dashboard, trusts the attribution model, and makes the calls. We built Arlo for founders who do not have that person yet, or who have that person but still need the weekly strategic read for themselves. - Triple Whale's attribution, by its own design, more closely ties back to what Meta and Google report. That is useful when you want the ad platforms to be right. We read your Shopify data after the fact and write you a founder-to-founder pulse on what actually changed in revenue, margin, new customers, and retention, ranked and reasoned. - If your media buyer already runs Triple Whale every day, keep it. We sit on top as the founder's Monday layer so you stop opening 12 tabs to find out whether last week was actually good. If you are not there yet, start with Arlo alone and add Triple Whale when you have a full-time media buyer to put inside it. Use Triple Whale if - You run $100k+ per month on paid across Meta, Google, TikTok, and retention tools like Klaviyo or Recharge. - You have a media buyer, growth lead, or data person who lives inside the dashboard. - You need a first-party attribution stack (Triple Pixel + Sonar + Total Impact) that the ad platforms can consume server-side. - You want Moby Agents to suggest budget reallocations, creative briefs, and lifecycle triggers inside one tool. Use Arlo if - You're the founder doing the CMO job yourself, or you have a growth team but still need the read for yourself. - You want a weekly brief you read, not another dashboard to open. - You want to start on Shopify alone and layer complexity only when the business actually needs it. - You want ranked actions with reasoning, not 60 dashboards with 300 metrics. A $10M brand running $150k a month on paid has a real case for both. Triple Whale owns daily attribution. Arlo owns the Monday strategic read. Different jobs, different cadences, same Shopify data. Here is what a week using both actually looks like. Most brands under $3M don't need both. Start with Arlo, add Triple Whale when you have a full-time media buyer. Brands $3M to $10M can go either way depending on whether that media buyer exists yet. Above $10M with real paid volume, both earn their spot for different people on the team. Is Arlo a good Triple Whale alternative? For the attribution job, no. Triple Whale exists to tell your media buyer which ad drove the sale, and the honest alternatives for that job are other attribution stacks. Plenty of founders searching for a Triple Whale alternative are actually shopping for something simpler, though: a clear read on what changed in the business and what to do next, without living in another dashboard. That second job is the one Arlo does, as a ranked weekly brief written from your Shopify data. Q: When is Arlo the right alternative to Triple Whale? A: Before the media buyer exists. Under about $3M, most brands don't yet have a person whose day job is attribution, and a dashboard without its operator mostly produces guilt. At that stage Arlo is the better first buy, because the weekly brief does the interpreting for you. Once you hire a full-time media buyer running real multi-channel spend, add Triple Whale for that person and keep the brief for yourself. Q: Do I have to choose between Arlo and Triple Whale? A: No, and past a certain size you shouldn't. They read the same Shopify data for different people: Triple Whale for the media buyer's daily attribution calls, Arlo for the founder's Monday decisions. The choice is only real when budget forces it, and then the deciding question is whether anyone on your team actually works inside a dashboard every day. FAQ: Q: Is Arlo a replacement for Triple Whale? A: No. Triple Whale is a dashboard and a revenue-attribution stack (Triple Pixel, Sonar server-side CAPI, Total Impact multi-touch, Moby Agents) for brands running $100k+ a month across multiple channels with a media buyer or growth lead inside it every day. Arlo is a weekly strategic brief for the founder. If you have both roles, run both tools. Q: How is Arlo different from Triple Whale's Moby Agents? A: Moby Agents live inside the Triple Whale dashboard and execute analytical workflows (budget reallocation, creative briefs, lifecycle triggers) when triggered. Arlo is a written strategic brief that arrives in your inbox every Monday whether you ask or not. Moby is inside-the-tool action. Arlo is founder-layer direction. Cadence is the product. Q: My brand spends $100k+ a month on paid. Do I still need Arlo? A: Probably yes. Triple Whale will tell your media buyer which ad got credit for the sale. Arlo will tell you, as the founder, whether your whole business is growing, defending, or quietly breaking, and rank the two or three things to act on this week. Attribution and strategy are different jobs. Q: What does Arlo cost compared to Triple Whale? A: Arlo is a flat subscription, same price whether you do $500k or $50M. Triple Whale prices on GMV: Free tier, $179/mo Starter (up to $2M GMV), $259/mo Advanced ($2M to $5M+), and Custom from $539/mo for $20M+ brands. Triple Whale's pricing scales with your store. Ours does not. Q: Arlo only reads Shopify. Isn't that a limit vs Triple Whale's 60+ integrations? A: It's a choice. Shopify-only today means three-minute setup, no pixel to install, no CAPI to wire up, and sharper output because we work from one source of truth. Triple Whale's 60+ integrations are what you need if your job is attribution across every channel. Ours is not. We layer on top. --- # Arlo vs Lebesgue URL: https://meetarlo.ai/compare/lebesgue Arlo vs Lebesgue Lebesgue shows you the dashboard. Arlo writes the read. Lebesgue is an attribution-and-benchmarking dashboard with an AI Next-Steps list bolted on top. Arlo is the 20-minute weekly CMO that writes a strategic brief for your Monday morning. If you want a tool you open and scan, Lebesgue has more surface area. If you want a brief that reads the data for you and tells you what to act on, that's what we built. Side by side: - Format: Arlo — Weekly strategic brief | Lebesgue — Dashboard + Next-Steps list - Built for: Arlo — Founder-led DTC brands | Lebesgue — Shopify brands wanting benchmarks - Time to first value: Arlo — Minutes | Lebesgue — Days (pixel add-on + setup) - Integrations needed: Arlo — Shopify only | Lebesgue — 8+ sources; $99 pixel add-on - Learning curve: Arlo — None (it's a brief) | Lebesgue — Dashboard literacy + benchmark reading - Pricing: Arlo — Flat subscription | Lebesgue — $59 to $79/mo core + $99 pixel add-on - Output: Arlo — Ranked weekly actions | Lebesgue — Charts + Next-Steps list + benchmarks - Cadence: Arlo — Weekly, delivered | Lebesgue — On-demand dashboard - Lebesgue is a dashboard with an AI Next-Steps list on the side. We are a written weekly strategic read delivered to you, not a tool you have to open and scan. - Lebesgue pricing is $59 to $79 per month, with a $99 pixel add-on for full attribution. Arlo is a flat subscription and reads your Shopify data directly, no pixel required. - Lebesgue benchmarks your brand against a market panel of other Shopify stores. That comparison data is genuinely useful, and we don't replace it. We replace the part where you had to figure out what to do with the numbers. - Lebesgue's Next-Steps feature is a short bulleted list sitting next to the dashboard. Our whole product is the written read, structured as ranked actions with context, not just bullets. - If you're a founder who opens dashboards weekly and reads charts fluently, Lebesgue might be the right fit. If you want a brief you read in 20 minutes instead, we built that. - Lebesgue is Shopify analytics with a shelf of AI features. We are Shopify strategic interpretation, written for the founder who reads, not operates. Use Lebesgue if - You want peer benchmarking against other Shopify stores in your vertical. - You're comfortable reading dashboards and interpreting attribution charts. - You want a cheap entry-level analytics stack and you'll stitch strategy together yourself. Use Arlo if - You want the read, not the dashboard. - You want someone to rank your actions by impact, not just list them. - You value your 20 minutes on Monday more than you value another tab to open. FAQ: Q: Is Arlo a replacement for Lebesgue? A: For most founders, yes. If you chose Lebesgue for peer benchmarking specifically, you may want to keep it. For everyone who opened Lebesgue hoping it would tell them what to do, Arlo is a more direct answer to that job. Q: Does Arlo benchmark my brand against other Shopify stores like Lebesgue does? A: Not today. Benchmarking is on our roadmap; it's not live. If peer comparison is the only reason you pay Lebesgue, keep Lebesgue for now. Q: What's the difference between Lebesgue's Next-Steps list and Arlo's weekly brief? A: Next-Steps is a short bulleted list inside a dashboard. Arlo is a full written brief delivered weekly: what changed, what it means, what to do, ranked by impact. One is a feature, the other is the product. Q: Does Arlo require a pixel or extra data source the way Lebesgue does? A: No. Arlo reads your Shopify data directly. No pixel add-on, no extra integration to install for the weekly brief. Q: What does Arlo cost compared to Lebesgue? A: Arlo is a flat subscription. Lebesgue's core plans are $59 to $79 per month, and the pixel add-on is an additional $99 per month. Price is one input; what you get for it is the other. Q: How do I switch from Lebesgue to Arlo? A: Install Arlo from the Shopify App Store and your first weekly brief generates from your existing Shopify data within minutes. There is no migration step, because we read Shopify directly rather than a pixel or an imported dataset. Most founders run one or two overlapping weeks to compare the brief against their Lebesgue dashboard before canceling anything. Q: Can I run Arlo and Lebesgue together while I decide? A: Yes, and that's the sensible way to switch. Our 14-day free trial covers two full briefs. Keep Lebesgue running, read both Monday reads, and keep whichever one actually changed what you did that week. Q: Will I lose historical data if I leave Lebesgue? A: Your store history lives in Shopify, not in Lebesgue. Arlo reads up to 24 months of Shopify data lookback, so the weekly brief has context from day one. Anything specific to Lebesgue's own models, like their market benchmark comparisons, stays with them. Q: Does Arlo cover ad accounts the way Lebesgue does? A: Lebesgue pulls Meta and Google ad accounts, plus its paid pixel for attribution. Today Arlo reads your Shopify data. If channel-level ad diagnostics inside one tool is your hard requirement, Lebesgue covers more sources; our job is the weekly strategic read on the store itself, and broader source coverage is on our roadmap. Q: Who is Lebesgue actually right for? A: Brands that want peer benchmarks and are comfortable driving a dashboard. Lebesgue packs a lot of surface area for the price, and if you have a growth person who lives in analytics tabs, it can be a fine fit. Arlo is for the founder who wants the reading done for them. --- # Arlo vs Polar Analytics URL: https://meetarlo.ai/compare/polar-analytics Arlo vs Polar Analytics Polar is the premium dashboard stack. Arlo is the founder's weekly read. Polar Analytics is a premium data stack built for brands with a real data team. Arlo is a weekly brief for the founder who is still the growth team. If you have three analysts and a CFO asking for cohort slices, Polar is probably the right answer. If you're a founder doing the CMO job yourself and you want a Monday morning read instead of a data warehouse, we built that. Side by side: - Format: Arlo — Weekly strategic brief | Polar Analytics — Enterprise analytics platform - Built for: Arlo — Founder-led DTC brands | Polar Analytics — Data teams at $20M+ brands - Time to first value: Arlo — Minutes | Polar Analytics — Weeks (setup + model config) - Integrations needed: Arlo — Shopify only | Polar Analytics — 45+ sources available - Learning curve: Arlo — None (it's a brief) | Polar Analytics — Steep; data-team workflow - Pricing: Arlo — Flat subscription | Polar Analytics — From ~$720/mo (under $5M GMV), scales with GMV - Output: Arlo — Ranked weekly actions | Polar Analytics — Dashboards + custom cohort slicing - Cadence: Arlo — Weekly, delivered | Polar Analytics — On-demand dashboard - Polar Analytics is built for the brand that has a dedicated data or growth team reading dashboards full-time. We are built for the founder doing the growth job themselves and needing a 20-minute Monday morning read. - Polar's Core plan starts around $720 per month at the smallest GMV bracket and steps up with your annual GMV from there. Arlo is a flat subscription that does not climb with your GMV or your integration count. - Polar gives you 45+ integrations, custom cohort modelling, multi-touch attribution, and a Snowflake-backed warehouse. We give you a written weekly brief based on your Shopify data, ranked by what to act on. - Polar is an analytics platform. Arlo is strategic interpretation on top of analytics. These are different jobs. Most brands under $5M don't yet need what Polar sells. - If you're under $5M in GMV and you're the person reading and acting on the numbers, we replace the job Polar is probably overkill for. If you're at $20M+ with a data team, keep Polar, and Arlo isn't our wedge for you yet. - Polar is enterprise-grade Shopify data infrastructure. We are a founder-grade Shopify strategic brief. Pick the one that matches the job you have on Monday morning. Use Polar Analytics if - You have a dedicated data or analytics team. - You're at $20M+ in GMV with multi-channel attribution needs. - You need custom cohort models and a warehouse-backed reporting layer. Use Arlo if - You're the founder still doing the growth analyst job yourself. - You want a weekly read, not another platform to learn. - Your price sensitivity starts well below $700 per month. Is Arlo a good Polar Analytics alternative? For a founder-led brand under about $5M in GMV, yes, with one honest caveat: Arlo does not rebuild Polar's warehouse and 45+ integrations at a lower price. What it replaces is the reason most founders open an analytics tool at all, which is finding out what changed and what to do about it. You get that as a written weekly brief at $47 a month, next to a Core plan that starts around $720. Q: Why do founders look for a Polar Analytics alternative? A: Usually price and weight together. Polar's Core plan starts around $720 a month at the smallest GMV bracket and steps up as you grow, which is a platform budget, and platforms assume someone has time to sit in them. Founders without a data team often find they use a fraction of what they pay for. The alternative paths are a lighter dashboard, or skipping the dashboard job entirely and buying the conclusions instead. Q: Is there a Polar Analytics alternative for brands that do have a data team? A: Not us, honestly. If your analysts need warehouse-backed, multi-source reporting, your real comparison set is other data platforms, and Polar holds up well in it. Arlo becomes the right answer when the reader of the numbers is the founder rather than a data team, which is the stage most stores under $5M are actually in. Q: Can I try Arlo before leaving Polar Analytics? A: Yes, and you don't have to cancel anything to do it. Arlo installs from the Shopify App Store with a 14-day free trial, so you can read two weekly briefs next to your Polar dashboards and see which one your Monday actually uses. FAQ: Q: Is Arlo a replacement for Polar Analytics? A: For founders under about $5M in GMV without a dedicated data team, yes. Above that, Polar solves a job that becomes more specific: warehouse-backed multi-source analytics. We are a written weekly strategic read, which is a different product. Q: Can I use Arlo if I already pay for Polar Analytics? A: You could, but we probably aren't your best spend if you already have Polar. Most brands pay for one or the other based on whether they have a data team. Q: Does Arlo connect to 45+ sources like Polar does? A: Not today. We connect to Shopify. That's by design: the weekly brief reads your store data and writes the decision. Broader integration surface is on our longer-term roadmap. Q: What does Arlo cost compared to Polar Analytics? A: Arlo is $47 per month flat. Polar's Core plan starts at $720 to $750 per month at the smallest GMV bracket and climbs with your annual GMV. We are intentionally priced for founders who don't yet have a data budget line item. Q: How much does Polar Analytics cost in 2026? A: Polar prices by annual GMV. Under $5M GMV the Core plan runs $720 to $750 per month, then each bracket steps up: about $1,020 per month at $5M to $7.5M, $1,380 at $7.5M to $10M, and past $17,000 per month at the largest published bracket. Annual terms are discounted. All brackets include unlimited users and history. Q: Does Polar Analytics have a free trial? A: Not a self-service one. Polar's sales motion is demo-led: you book a demo or explore their public demo app with sample data. Arlo installs from the Shopify App Store with a 14-day free trial, so you can read two real briefs before paying anything. Q: Is Polar Analytics worth it for a smaller Shopify store? A: Under $5M GMV without a data team, $720 or more per month buys more platform than most founder-led brands can use. If the job is knowing what to do each week, Arlo covers it for $47. If you later hire a data team and need warehouse-backed multi-source analytics, Polar is a natural upgrade at that stage. --- # Arlo vs Lifetimely URL: https://meetarlo.ai/compare/lifetimely Arlo vs Lifetimely Lifetimely tells you what every customer is worth. Arlo tells you what to do this week. Lifetimely is a cohort and P&L analytics app built around customer lifetime value and unit economics. Arlo is a weekly strategic brief that tells you what matters this week. They answer different questions: Lifetimely answers what a customer is worth over time, and we answer what you should do on Monday. Most brands benefit from both. Side by side: - Format: Arlo — Weekly strategic brief | Lifetimely — Cohort + P&L analytics app - Built for: Arlo — Founder-led DTC brands | Lifetimely — Finance-literate operators and CFOs - Time to first value: Arlo — Minutes | Lifetimely — Days (cohort data accrues over time) - Integrations needed: Arlo — Shopify only | Lifetimely — Shopify + Amazon - Learning curve: Arlo — None (it's a brief) | Lifetimely — Cohort-table + P&L literacy required - Pricing: Arlo — Flat subscription | Lifetimely — Free to 50 orders/mo; $79 to $999/mo by order volume - Output: Arlo — Ranked weekly actions | Lifetimely — Cohort tables, LTV curves, P&L - Cadence: Arlo — Weekly, delivered | Lifetimely — On-demand dashboard - Lifetimely owns the unit-economics job. If you want to know what a customer is worth at month 12, what your cohort retention looks like, or what your true P&L is after fees and shipping, Lifetimely is the right answer. - Arlo owns the weekly decision job. We read your Shopify data and write a ranked strategic brief: what changed this week, what it means, what to do. That is a different product from a cohort table. - Lifetimely has a free plan up to 50 orders a month, then paid tiers from $79 to $999 per month that climb with order volume. Arlo is a flat subscription. You will notice the difference as your volume grows. - Lifetimely is a read-and-interpret tool. You open it, you scan it, you translate numbers into actions. We do that translation for you every week and deliver a written read. - Most $2M to $20M brands legitimately need both: a cohort/P&L truth layer (Lifetimely) and a weekly strategic brief (Arlo). The jobs don't overlap. - If you can afford exactly one, and you don't yet have unit economics discipline, start with Lifetimely so you have the truth layer. If your unit economics are solid and you need the weekly decision layer instead, start with us. Use Lifetimely if - You need cohort retention curves and LTV by segment. - Your operator or CFO is building unit-economics models against it. - You sell on Amazon alongside Shopify and need P&L across both. Use Arlo if - You want a weekly strategic read, not a cohort table. - You want someone to rank your actions by impact this week. - You value your 20 minutes on Monday more than a dashboard session. A $5M brand with real cohort discipline has a clean case for both. Most $2M to $20M brands run both. Lifetimely gives you the unit-economics truth layer. Arlo gives you the weekly decision layer. Different jobs, zero functional overlap, both useful. Under $2M, if you can only afford one, start with Lifetimely if you don't yet have unit-economics discipline, or Arlo if your unit economics are solid and you need the weekly decision layer. From $2M to $20M, both earn their spot for different jobs. Above $20M the question isn't whether to run both, it's who owns each inside the team. Is Arlo a good Lifetimely alternative? It depends on which job you hired Lifetimely for. If you mostly opened it to see how the store was doing and what deserved attention, Arlo covers that job with a written weekly brief instead of a dashboard, and our price stays flat as your order volume grows. If what you need is cohort LTV curves and true P&L, Arlo is not a like-for-like replacement. That job still belongs to a dedicated unit-economics tool, and most brands that need it run one next to us. Q: Why are founders searching for Lifetimely alternatives in 2026? A: Lifetimely is now part of AMP, and its plans sit inside AMP's product family. Acquisitions make people re-check what they are paying for. Some brands will stay and be happy, and some are discovering that the job they actually used Lifetimely for was a weekly read on the business, which is the job we built Arlo to do. Q: What should I look for in an alternative to Lifetimely? A: Name the job first. If it is cohort retention, LTV by segment, and P&L accuracy, compare tools in Lifetimely's own category and check how pricing steps with order volume. If it is knowing what changed and what to do about it each week, that is a different product, and it is ours: a ranked Monday brief written from your Shopify data at a flat price. Q: How hard is it to switch from Lifetimely to Arlo? A: There is nothing to migrate. Arlo installs from the Shopify App Store and reads your store data directly, with no dashboard to configure. The 14-day free trial covers two full briefs, so you can judge the output on your own store before your next Lifetimely renewal. FAQ: Q: Is Arlo a replacement for Lifetimely? A: No. Lifetimely owns unit economics: cohort retention, LTV, P&L. Arlo owns the weekly strategic brief. These are different jobs and most brands benefit from running both. Q: Does Arlo show cohort retention or LTV curves? A: Not today. We may reference cohort-level signals in the weekly brief where relevant, but cohort analysis as a primary output is Lifetimely's job, not ours. Q: Can I use Arlo if I already pay for Lifetimely? A: Yes. Most brands at $2M+ benefit from both. Lifetimely tells you the truth about unit economics; we tell you what to do this week with that truth. Q: What does Arlo cost compared to Lifetimely? A: Arlo is $47 per month flat. Lifetimely is free up to 50 orders a month, then $79 to $999 per month depending on order volume, plus a $75 per month Amazon add-on if you need it. If you grow, Lifetimely's price steps up and ours doesn't. Q: How much does Lifetimely cost in 2026? A: Lifetimely prices by monthly order volume: free up to 50 orders, then S at $79, M at $149, L at $299, XL at $499, XXL at $749, and Unlimited at $999 per month. Every paid tier has the same features and a 14-day trial; only the order cap changes. Amazon P&L is a $75 per month add-on. Q: Does Lifetimely have a free plan? A: Yes. Up to 50 orders a month you get the P&L dashboard, LTV analytics, benchmarks, and reports at no cost. The AI Profit Agent is reserved for paid plans, and 50 orders a month is below the volume of most brands comparing these tools. --- # Arlo vs Shopify Analytics URL: https://meetarlo.ai/compare/shopify-analytics Arlo + Shopify Analytics Arlo tells you what to do this week. Shopify Analytics is where you go when you want to dig deeper. Shopify Analytics is free and it is already on. Arlo sits on top as your weekly decision layer. Different jobs, zero overlap. - Shopify Analytics is the full truth of your store. Every product, every session, every channel, every day. It never leaves the stack. - Arlo is the weekly strategic read on top of that truth. Ranked, delivered, 20 minutes. - Use Arlo to know what to do. Use Shopify Analytics when you want to dig deeper into one specific thing. The jobs don't overlap. - If you were going to upgrade to Shopify Advanced at $399 per month just for custom reports, consider Arlo first. Same price tier, opposite job. What Shopify Analytics does well: - Ships native inside Shopify. Zero setup, zero extra cost, and it's already on. - Live View during launches, drops, and flash sales. Watch sessions, cart-to-checkout ratios, and orders land minute by minute. It's the right tool when something is happening right now. - Product-level detail on demand. Sessions by landing page, sales by SKU, sell-through rate by variant, discount code performance. Any product, any date range. - Sessions by source and campaign via UTMs. The revenue-of-record view when Meta and TikTok ad dashboards disagree with each other. Where Shopify Analytics stops: - Every number is a primitive. Orders, sessions, conversion rate, repeat rate are all honest, but the work of turning 40 primitives into 'what should I do on Monday' is still yours. - Cohort retention, LTV by acquisition channel, and blended CAC are the unit economics most founders actually want. Shopify Analytics requires the $399 per month Advanced plan, a third tool, or a spreadsheet to get them. - Nothing is ranked. The dashboard treats every metric as equally important, and you're on your own to decide which one shifted this week in a way that matters. - No weekly cadence. It's a dashboard that waits for you to open it. In a week you ship a new product, run a promo, and answer 200 DMs, most founders don't. Where Arlo picks up: - We read every number in your Shopify data and do the interpretation Shopify Analytics leaves to you. By Monday morning you know what changed last week, why, and the two or three ranked actions for this week. - The brief is the decision. It's not a preview, not a starting point, and not a draft to confirm before you act. 20 minutes of reading replaces the Monday dashboard scan. - When you want to go deeper on a specific lever Arlo flagged, Shopify Analytics has the product-level and channel-level detail waiting. Arlo tells you the lever; the dashboard shows you exactly how it moved. - Flat subscription. No $399 per month Advanced plan upgrade required to get a strategic read out of your own data. FAQ: Q: Is Shopify Analytics good enough on its own? A: For raw reporting, often yes. Every order, session, and conversion number is already there, and it's free with your plan. What it never does is rank what changed or tell you what to do about it. If you have the time and fluency to do that interpretation every week, native reports can carry you a long way. Q: Is Arlo a replacement for Shopify Analytics? A: No. Shopify Analytics is the record of what happened, and it never leaves your stack. Arlo is the weekly interpretation layer on top: we read the same data and write the Monday brief with what changed, why it matters, and the ranked actions for the week. Q: Do I need Shopify's $399 per month Advanced plan to get better reports? A: Advanced unlocks custom report building, but it doesn't interpret anything. You still do the reading. If the goal is decisions rather than more report surface, a $47 per month brief that ranks your week is the cheaper path. If the goal is granular custom reporting for an operator, Advanced is the native answer. Q: What does Arlo add that Shopify Analytics doesn't have? A: Interpretation, ranking, and cadence. Shopify Analytics shows you forty honest numbers and leaves the meaning to you. Arlo reads those numbers weekly and writes what changed, why, and the two or three actions worth taking, ranked by dollar impact, delivered every Monday. Q: Can Arlo see data that isn't in Shopify? A: Today we read your Shopify data: sales, traffic, customers, and products. Ad-platform and email-platform internals live outside Shopify Analytics too, so neither tool is your Meta dashboard. Broader source coverage is on our roadmap. Q: What does Arlo cost next to Shopify Analytics? A: Shopify Analytics is free with your Shopify plan. Arlo is $47 per month flat with a 14-day free trial. The comparison that matters is against upgrading to Advanced at $399 per month for more reports you still have to interpret yourself. --- # Arlo vs Shopify Sidekick URL: https://meetarlo.ai/compare/shopify-sidekick Arlo + Shopify Sidekick Arlo tells you what to do this week. Sidekick helps you do it. Shopify Sidekick is Shopify's native AI assistant inside the admin. It executes tasks and answers questions on demand. Arlo is a weekly written strategic brief that tells you what to act on. Arlo decides; Sidekick executes. - Sidekick is the best possible executor inside the Shopify admin. It creates products, builds segments, drafts email sequences, and writes product copy on request. - Arlo is the weekly strategic read that tells you what to execute in the first place. Ranked, delivered, 20 minutes. - Use Arlo to decide what to do. Use Sidekick to actually do it. Different jobs, zero overlap. - Both ship with Shopify. Sidekick is free on every plan. Arlo sits on top as your Monday morning read. What Shopify Sidekick does well: - Lives in the Shopify admin as a chat icon. Zero install, zero extra login, free on every plan including Basic. - Executes admin tasks on request. Create and edit products, build discount codes, spin up customer segments, draft email campaigns, tag orders, duplicate listings. Sidekick does the work while you describe it in natural language. - Writes content on demand. Blog drafts, product descriptions in a chosen tone (expert, supportive, playful, persuasive), email subject lines, FAQ pages. Useful when you need a passable first draft in 30 seconds. - Answers specific data questions with citations. 'How were sales last weekend,' 'which product converted best this month,' 'what is my repeat customer rate.' Links to the underlying report so you can verify or drill in. Where Shopify Sidekick stops: - Sidekick is reactive. It answers what you ask and does what you tell it. If you don't know what to ask or what to do this week, it won't tell you. - No cadence. Every session starts from zero. There's no written record you can forward to a partner, save in a doc, or reread in two weeks. - No ranking. Ask 'how's the store doing' and Sidekick gives you a paragraph of numbers. It does not rank the two or three things to act on this week by impact, because that isn't the shape of the product. - Cannot see data outside Shopify. Ad spend in Meta or TikTok, email performance in Klaviyo, customer survey responses, anything not in your admin is invisible to Sidekick. Where Arlo picks up: - We read your Shopify data on a weekly cadence and write you a strategic brief. A document you can skim, forward, save, and reread, not a chat thread that evaporates when you close the tab. - We rank the actions for the week by impact. You don't have to know what to ask. That's the job. - We interpret what moved and why. Sidekick tells you sales were up 12%. Arlo tells you sales were up because your email flow finally hit the repeat-buyer segment, and ranks doubling down on that segment as this week's top action. - Sidekick is the best possible executor of the actions Arlo surfaces. We tell you what to do; Sidekick helps you actually get it done inside the admin. FAQ: Q: Is Arlo the same kind of tool as Shopify Sidekick? A: No. Sidekick is a chat assistant inside the admin that answers questions and executes tasks you describe. Arlo is a weekly written brief that decides what deserves your attention in the first place. One reacts to your prompts; the other does the thinking on a schedule. Q: Is Shopify Sidekick free? A: Yes. Sidekick ships with every Shopify plan, including Basic, as part of the admin. There is nothing to install and nothing extra to pay for. Q: Can Sidekick tell me what to focus on each week? A: Not really. You can ask how the store is doing and get numbers back with citations, but Sidekick doesn't rank actions by impact or arrive on a cadence. It answers what you ask; it doesn't decide what you should be asking. Q: Do I need both Arlo and Sidekick? A: They pair well. Arlo's Monday brief decides the week's two or three actions. Sidekick is the fastest way to execute them inside the admin: building the segment, drafting the emails, editing the products. Deciding and executing are different jobs. Q: Does Arlo replace Sidekick? A: No, and Sidekick doesn't replace Arlo. Founders who try to use Sidekick for strategy end up prompting it every Monday and reassembling the answers by hand. That assembly and ranking work is exactly what we automate. Q: Why pay $47 per month for Arlo when Sidekick is free? A: Because they don't do the same job. Sidekick executes what you already decided. Arlo does the deciding: it reads the week, ranks the actions, and writes the brief. If you already know exactly what to do every Monday, you don't need us. Most founders don't have that certainty. --- # Should I Kill This Ad URL: https://meetarlo.ai/should-i-kill-this-ad Free kill/wait/scale verdict on Facebook/Meta ads from spend, ROAS, AOV, margin, days running. FAQ: Q: When should I kill a Facebook ad? A: Kill it if your ROAS is less than half of your breakeven ROAS, or if your ROAS is zero after at least 100 dollars of spend over 3 or more days. Hold the spend if you are right at breakeven. Scale only when ROAS is 50 percent or more above breakeven. Q: What is breakeven ROAS for a Shopify ad? A: Breakeven ROAS is 1 divided by your gross margin. At a 50 percent margin you need a ROAS of 2.0x to break even. At a 33 percent margin you need 3.0x. Below your breakeven, every order is losing money. Q: How long should I let a Facebook ad run before judging it? A: At least 3 days, with at least 100 dollars of spend, ideally 1,000 or more impressions. Before that, day-to-day variance is too high for the ROAS reading to mean anything. Q: Is a 2x ROAS good on Facebook ads? A: It depends on your gross margin. At 50 percent margin, 2x is exactly breakeven. At 33 percent margin, 2x is 33 percent below breakeven and you should kill the ad. Always compare ROAS to your breakeven, not to a generic threshold. Q: Why is Meta Ads Manager not enough to decide whether to kill an ad? A: Meta shows your ROAS but not your breakeven ROAS, your dollar burn rate per day, or what you will lose over the next 30 days if nothing changes. All three require gross margin, which Meta does not know. Without those reads, you are guessing whether your ROAS is enough. Q: How do I know if I should scale a Facebook ad? A: Scale only if ROAS is at least 50 percent above your breakeven ROAS, after at least 3 days and 100 dollars of spend. Increase budget by 20 to 30 percent and re-check in 3 to 4 days. Scaling at breakeven or just above means you fund a marginal ad with no headroom. Q: What does it mean if my Facebook ad is bleeding money? A: Bleeding hard means your ROAS is less than half of your breakeven ROAS. At a 50 percent margin, that is any ROAS under 1.0x. Every day this runs costs you a measurable amount. Kill it. --- # Shopify Store Health Score URL: https://meetarlo.ai/shopify-store-health-score Free 20-Minute CMO Health Score across 8 store metrics with top-3 dollar-impact leaks. FAQ: Q: How do I know if my Shopify store is doing well? A: A single point-in-time score will not tell you. Healthy stores have CAC, MER, gross margin, repeat purchase rate, email revenue share, AOV, site conversion rate, and return rate that all sit at or above the vertical median for their category and revenue stage. Score yourself on all 8 to see where you actually sit, weighted by which metrics move the most profit. Q: What is a good MER for a Shopify store? A: It depends on your vertical and your gross margin. As a rough floor, a Shopify store at 50 percent gross margin needs a 2.0x MER to break even on ad spend overall. Apparel and beauty stores at the same revenue stage typically run between 2.5x and 3.5x; supplements run higher because of strong repeat behavior. The right read is your MER vs your vertical median, not against a generic threshold. Q: What is a healthy CAC for ecommerce? A: Healthy CAC is whatever leaves you with positive contribution after gross margin, returns, and shipping. The rule of thumb is CAC at or below 30 percent of first-order AOV times gross margin. A more reliable read is comparing your CAC against the vertical median for your category and revenue stage; the score weights it accordingly. Q: What is a good gross margin for a DTC brand? A: Apparel benchmarks around 60 to 70 percent. Beauty around 65 to 75 percent. Supplements around 55 to 70 percent. Food and beverage around 40 to 55 percent. Pet around 45 to 60 percent. Below those ranges, every other lever in the score compounds harder against you. Above those ranges, you have room to absorb a higher CAC or lower MER without bleeding. Q: What is a good site conversion rate for Shopify? A: Site-wide conversion rates of 1.5 to 3 percent are typical for ecommerce; over 3 percent is strong; under 1.5 percent points to product detail, checkout friction, or trust issues. The score benchmarks your rate against the vertical median for your specific category, because apparel converts differently than supplements. Q: What ecommerce metrics matter most for profitability? A: The 8 we score are the highest-leverage ones at most stages: gross margin, CAC, MER, AOV, repeat purchase rate, email revenue share, site conversion rate, and return rate. Gross margin and CAC carry the most weight because they compound through every order. Site conversion and repeat purchase rate matter most for stores doing real ad volume. Q: How often should I check my store's health metrics? A: A point-in-time score is most useful before you decide what to fix this quarter. Check it once a month if you are running paid ads, once a quarter if you are mostly organic. The score is designed to point you at the biggest leak; once you have it, fix that leak for 4 to 6 weeks before re-scoring. Q: Is this a Shopify store audit? A: Not in the SEO sense. Most Shopify store audits check site speed, broken links, and on-page SEO. This scores your marketing economics: CAC, MER, gross margin, AOV, repeat rate, email revenue share, conversion rate, and return rate against benchmarks for your vertical. If your traffic is fine but profit is not, this is the audit you actually need. Q: Does a weekly read make sense for a high-AOV store with few orders? A: Yes, with one adjustment: judge trends, not single weeks. A furniture or home-goods brand doing 15 orders a week has too little volume for any one week to be a verdict, but CAC drift, creative fatigue, and margin erosion still show up week over week before they show up in your quarter. The score compares you to your own vertical and revenue stage, so a 900 dollar AOV store is never benchmarked against a 28 dollar one. --- # Is My CAC Too High URL: https://meetarlo.ai/is-my-cac-too-high Free CAC checker against your margin and repeat profile. Get the verdict in 60 seconds plus the one lever most likely to fix it. FAQ: Q: What is a good CAC for a Shopify store? A: There is no single number. A good CAC is one that sits inside the ceiling your AOV, gross margin, and 90-day repeat rate can support. At 60 percent gross margin, an 80 dollar AOV, and a 25 percent 90-day repeat rate, your year-1 max allowable CAC is about 96 dollars. A 90 dollar CAC in that profile is healthy. A 140 dollar CAC is bleeding. Q: What is CAC payback period and how is it calculated? A: Months of revenue it takes a new customer to repay what you spent acquiring them. We compute it as 12 multiplied by the ratio of your CAC to your year-1 max allowable CAC. Under 10 months is healthy. Past 12 months and the math is upside down on year-1 economics. Q: What is a healthy CAC payback for an ecommerce brand? A: On year-1 economics, payback inside 10 months is healthy. 10 to 12 months is marginal. Past 12 months means every new customer is acquired at a year-1 loss against the year of revenue they bring. SaaS benchmarks (12 to 18 months) are not the right comparison for DTC because most ecommerce LTV concentrates in the first year. Q: How do I lower my CAC if it is too high? A: Three levers move the math. CAC down, by reallocating spend to your strongest channels and pausing the weakest. Gross margin up, by raising AOV, lowering COGS, or trimming free shipping. 90-day repeat rate up, by warming new customers with email and SMS flows in their first 30 days. The tool ranks which lever returns you to your ceiling with the smallest projected change. Q: Is my CAC too high if it is above the industry average? A: Industry-average CAC is directional, not a verdict. The verdict depends on your own margin and repeat profile. A 90 dollar CAC is bleeding for a brand with a 40 dollar AOV and 30 percent margin, and healthy for a brand with a 150 dollar AOV and 60 percent margin. Vertical median sits in the result for context; the math against your ceiling is the final answer. Q: Why does 90-day repeat rate matter for CAC? A: Repeat customers extend the revenue window that funds your CAC. A 10 percent 90-day repeat rate gives you 1.4 expected orders in year one. A 30 percent rate gives you 2.2. At the same AOV and margin, the higher-repeat brand can spend roughly 57 percent more on CAC and still hit the same payback. Repeat rate is leverage on the ceiling. Q: What CAC ratio is considered bleeding? A: A CAC ratio (CAC divided by year-1 max allowable CAC) of 1.0 to 1.3 is bleeding. 1.3 and above is bleeding hard. Below 1.0 is at or inside your ceiling, with progressively more headroom the lower the ratio. Q: Does this math work for high-AOV, low-frequency stores like furniture? A: Yes, and it matters more there. For furniture, home goods, and other big-ticket brands, most customers buy once in year one, so expected year-1 orders sit near 1 and your ceiling is close to AOV multiplied by gross margin. Payback has to come almost entirely from the first order. Enter your real 90-day repeat rate, even if it is 3 percent, and the verdict reflects that reality instead of a replenishment category's. --- # Payment Gateway Fees Explained for Shopify Merchants URL: https://meetarlo.ai/blog/payment-gateway-fees You can reconcile a Shopify payout on a quiet Tuesday and still feel your stomach drop. Sales looked fine, ads were under control, refunds weren't crazy, and then the payment line items show up and eat the month you thought you had. That's the trap with payment gateway fees . They don't behave like a checkout nuisance, they behave like a margin leak, and if you don't measure them properly, they compound faster than most founders expect. The reason this matters is simple. In 2024, the global average credit card processing fee was reported at about 2.4% per transaction , often plus a flat $0.30 fee, and industry summaries estimate businesses lose about 1% to 3% of annual revenue to payment processing fees alone ( ). In the U.S., merchants paid $187.20 billion in card processing fees in 2024, which works out to about $1.57 for every $100 accepted in card payments ( ). That's not overhead in the abstract, that's real contribution margin walking out the door. The right way to think about gateway pricing is blunt. A low-AOV Shopify brand can get hurt much more than a high-AOV store because the fixed fee sits heavier on small baskets, and the blended cost structure often hides that pain until payout review time. If you want a broader margin framework after this, Wojo Media's is a useful companion, but the core point here is harder and more actionable, gateway fees are a profit problem first . Table of Contents - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -