Order management system (OMS)
- What it does
- Pulls orders from every channel, prints shipping labels and keeps inventory and listings in sync.
- Use it when
- Order processing and stock syncing across channels take too much time.
Buyer's guide
Ecommerce analytics tools: how to choose.
What spreadsheets, order management systems and analytics tools each do, and where Laplace fits.
Doing it in spreadsheets vs. using Laplace.
Contribution profit needs revenue, ad spend, COGS, fees and shipping on one basis. Here is where the time goes.
| Task | Excel / Google Sheets | Laplace |
|---|---|---|
| Collecting data | Excel / Google SheetsLog in to every store and ad platform, export files and paste them in. | LaplaceConnect each account once and Laplace collects the data every day. |
| Matching products | Excel / Google SheetsFind and group product and variant names that differ by channel. | LaplaceMap each channel listing to one base product (SKU) once; it stays mapped. |
| COGS and fees | Excel / Google SheetsLook up cost tables in every sheet and fix them when costs change. | LaplaceEnter COGS and fees on the SKU once and they apply to every channel. |
| Ad spend by product | Excel / Google SheetsSplit spend by product by reading campaign names. | LaplaceLink ads to products through the product ID in the landing URL and see ROAS by product. |
| First vs. repeat purchases | Excel / Google SheetsEach store keeps its own customer list, so a customer who buys in three stores counts as three new customers. | LaplaceLaplace's in-house identity matching merges the same customer across stores and splits first and repeat purchases on that basis. |
| Cohorts and cross-sell | Excel / Google SheetsCohort tables and product-pair counts mean rebuilding raw orders customer by customer. | LaplaceCohort repeat rate and LTV, cross-purchase and customer segments are built from settings. |
| Updates | Excel / Google SheetsNumbers change only when someone rebuilds the sheet. | LaplaceUpdated daily, with alerts when a metric crosses your threshold. |
| Cost | Excel / Google SheetsLittle or no tool cost, but staff time every week. | LaplacePriced by monthly orders, from $49/mo (excl. tax). |
When spreadsheets are the better fit
- You sell on one or two channels with few orders, and a weekly update is enough.
- Your COGS and fee rules are still changing and you want to experiment with the formula.
- You can move later: Laplace connects to Google Sheets, so your cost sheet comes with you.
Order management systems and analytics tools do different jobs.
One processes orders, the other explains the numbers. Many sellers use both.
Ecommerce analytics tool
- e.g.
- Laplace
- What it does
- Brings revenue, ad spend and COGS onto one basis, then calculates contribution profit, ROAS and repeat rate on dashboards.
- Use it when
- You want to see every day which products, channels and ads actually make money.
Excel / Google Sheets
- What it does
- You process and calculate exported data yourself.
- Use it when
- You have few channels and are still testing how to calculate.
Keep your OMS for operations and use Laplace for analysis. Laplace reads order data from your storefronts and marketplaces directly.
Frequently asked questions, answered up front.
Still have questions? Contact us anytime — we will tailor the guidance to how you plan to adopt Laplace.
Start by checking that your stores and ad platforms are supported. Then check whether it maps SKU-level COGS to calculate contribution profit, whether pricing is based on orders or revenue, and whether a free trial lets you load your real data. Compare the features you will use daily too: alerts, custom dashboards and AI analysis.
An order management system handles operations: pulling orders from every channel, shipping labels and inventory. An analytics tool brings revenue, ad spend and COGS onto one basis and calculates contribution profit and ROAS on dashboards. They do different jobs, so many sellers use both.
With a few channels, yes. As stores and ad platforms grow, exporting files, matching product names across channels and splitting ad spend by product becomes daily work. Laplace automates the collection and matching, and it connects to Google Sheets so you can keep your cost sheet.
Yes. You get every paid feature free for up to 3 weeks with no credit card, and nothing is charged when the trial ends. Paid plans are priced by monthly orders and start at $49/mo (excl. tax).
A store's admin splits first and repeat purchases by its own accounts, so a customer who already bought in another store still shows up as a first purchase. Laplace's in-house identity matching algorithm cross-checks identifiers such as email, phone number, platform ID and address, merges the same customer across stores, and reclassifies first and repeat purchases on that basis. The same customer basis is used for cohort repeat rate, LTV, cross-purchase and segment analysis.
An ontology defines in advance how data such as orders, products, ads, customers and inventory relate to each other. Laplace maps variant names from each store to one base product, ad creatives to products and purchases from every channel to one customer, so dashboards and the AI Agent calculate on the same basis. It also works as data infrastructure that keeps scattered data in one place; with Analytics Pro it can feed consistent data to the BI tools you already use.
Growth includes a dedicated manager. On Pro and Enterprise, a dedicated team handles setup and onboarding. If you want to hand off data operations entirely, Analytics Pro has the Laplace team design and run collection, standardization and validation, so your in-house AX (AI transformation) team can focus on decisions. It starts with a short diagnostic call and continues with ongoing operations and regular reviews.