Ecommerce KPIs: the definition each team needs to agree on
Nine ecommerce KPIs, each with its formula and the choice that moves the number: gross or net, shipping, tax, cancellations and attribution window.
8 min read
#semantic-layer
31 articles
What an MCP gateway does (and what it can't fix)
An MCP gateway centralizes auth, call logging and rate limits for AI agents. It can't decide what a metric means. That lives in the semantic layer.
7 min read
MCP vs API: what changes when an AI agent is the client
MCP doesn't replace your API; most MCP servers call one. What changes is who writes the call: a developer at build time, or a model at runtime.
6 min read
Snowflake MCP server: what the agent sees and what still needs a semantic layer
The Snowflake-managed MCP server exposes only the tools you declare. Answer quality still depends on a semantic view your team writes and maintains.
8 min read
Windsor.ai alternatives for ecommerce data teams in 2026
Windsor.ai starts at $19 a month but caches data for about three weeks. Nine alternatives scored on seven criteria, with when to stay put.
9 min read
15 best AI tools for data analysis for ecommerce in 2026
A ranking of 15 AI tools for data analysis on criteria C1 to C7. Ten of the 14 competitors need a data warehouse you have already built.
9 min read
14 best CDPs and alternatives for ecommerce in 2026
13 CDPs and Precisian scored on seven data criteria. None of the 13 documents versioned, customer-approved metrics. Activation is where CDPs win.
9 min read
10 best ETL tools for marketing data in 2026
Nine ETL tools and Precisian scored on seven criteria. None of the nine documents versioned, customer-approved metrics; most leave modeling to you.
8 min read
Triple Whale alternatives: when Precisian fits, and when it doesn't
For a US Shopify brand, Triple Whale is usually the right call. Precisian serves e-commerce in Brazil, so it's the alternative only if you operate there.
8 min read
Triple Whale alternatives: 15 marketing attribution and analytics tools for 2026
15 Triple Whale alternatives ranked on seven criteria: data isolation, versioned metrics, MCP access, sources, who runs the data, and data ownership.
9 min read
Data governance for ecommerce teams: the minimum that actually works
Data governance records who decides what about each dataset. For ecommerce, the useful minimum is five records: owner, definition, access, retention, change.
6 min read
What goes in a marketing data dictionary (and why your AI needs one)
A data dictionary records each metric's name, definition, source, owner, formula and exclusions. A 4 KB definitions file lifted AI accuracy 17 to 23 points.
7 min read
ChatGPT and Claude for marketing data analysis: what they get right and what they make up
ChatGPT data analysis is safe for exploring a spreadsheet and unsafe for deciding with it: the math is right, the revenue definition is a guess.
8 min read
Composable CDP vs data lake: which one an ecommerce brand needs first
A composable CDP activates customer profiles that live in your warehouse. A data lake keeps every source for analysis. One sends, the other explains.
7 min read
Data lake vs data warehouse vs lakehouse for ecommerce and marketing data
A lake keeps raw data, a warehouse keeps modeled data, a lakehouse puts transactions on open files. None of them defines net revenue.
8 min read
Why text-to-SQL fails on marketing data, even when the query runs
The query that runs is the worst case of text-to-SQL: the wrong revenue column, the wrong window or a fan-out join returns a clean number and no error.
9 min read
MER vs ROAS: measuring ad efficiency on revenue you actually booked
MER divides total booked revenue by total marketing spend; ROAS divides platform-attributed revenue by one platform's spend. Formulas and limits.
6 min read
Shopify's MCP servers are built for shopping, not for revenue questions
Shopify's official MCP servers act for buyers, customers and developers. None answers a merchant's margin-by-channel question; community servers fill that gap.
8 min read
Supermetrics alternatives when the consumer is an AI agent, not a spreadsheet
Windsor.ai, Funnel and Improvado all ship MCP servers now. Choose a Supermetrics alternative by who defines the metric, not by connector count.
7 min read
Connect Google Ads, Meta and GA4 to one AI and you get three revenue numbers
Google Ads counts purchases 30 days after a click; Meta, 7 days after a click or 1 after a view. Plug all three MCPs into Claude and one order counts twice.
8 min read
Answer lineage: auditing what an AI agent actually read
The chat transcript records what was said, not what was true. Lineage links an answer to the definition and data behind it.
6 min read
Semantic layer vs data warehouse: they don't compete
One stores and computes; the other defines what is being computed. There is no NOT NULL for semantics.
7 min read
MCP server vs BI tool: which question is each one for?
A dashboard answers the question already asked; an MCP server answers the one nobody anticipated. Both read the same definition.
7 min read
Why Shopify and GA4 revenue never match
Adobe says it plainly: the two should not match in almost every case. GA4 excludes tax and shipping; Shopify includes both.
8 min read
MCP for e-commerce analytics: expose questions, not tables
The spec makes tools model-controlled and tool annotations untrusted. Your tool surface is the security boundary.
7 min read
What is a trusted data layer for AI agents?
Access, definition, freshness and provenance, decided before the question. Connection is solved; trust is what nobody shipped.
7 min read
Marketing and finance never close the same revenue number
Both numbers are right. The accounting standard recognises revenue on transfer of control; marketing measures at checkout.
8 min read
What is a data contract, and what does it enforce?
A data contract declares shape, guarantees and meaning. On Snowflake, BigQuery and Redshift, a declared primary key is enforced by nobody.
6 min read
Query cost guardrails: what an AI agent can do to your warehouse bill
An AI agent can scan your whole warehouse without breaking a rule. Adding a LIMIT does not reduce what you are billed on non-clustered tables.
8 min read
What is a semantic layer? A field-by-field definition
A semantic layer is where your metric definitions live in a form a machine reads before it computes. Not a tool: a set of written decisions.
7 min read
Metric hallucination: why your AI reports a different number than your dashboard
Metric hallucination is AI computing correctly on a definition nobody wrote down. Supplying the definition raised accuracy from 45.5% to 67.7%.
7 min read