Orson: what it can and can't do
Orson is the AI business partner inside Marginful. These are short, honest answers about what it can do today, what it won't do, and how it treats your data.
What Orson is
What is Orson?
Orson is the AI business partner inside Marginful, a bit like a personal CFO for your store. You ask in plain words and it answers from your own store figures, with the numbers behind each answer.
How is Orson different from a chatbot?
A general chatbot guesses from what it has read. Orson looks up your figures with Marginful's own calculations, such as profit, product and campaign results, and then explains what it found. It answers about your business, not the whole internet.
Which plans include Orson?
Orson is included on every paid plan, from Starter at $ 29 a month. The Free plan shows your profit overview without Orson.
What Orson can do
Can Orson explain why my profit changed?
Yes. Orson compares the period you ask about with the one before and shows which lines moved your profit, such as sales, product costs, ad spend, shipping or refunds. It gives you the size of each driver, not just a summary.
Can Orson show where my money goes?
Yes. Orson can break down your costs by line, including product costs, fees, shipping and logistics, ad spend and your own expenses. That makes it easy to spot which costs grew.
Can Orson compare my ads by profit?
Yes. Orson looks at campaigns by the profit they bring after product and other costs, not only by revenue. That shows which ads really pay for themselves.
Can Orson help with products and stock?
Yes. Orson can show which products earn the most and least profit and which items risk running out or are not selling. You decide what to reorder or change.
Does Orson forecast?
Yes. Orson can show the forecast Marginful calculates for your store and run what-if scenarios. Forecasts are estimates with a range, not promises.
Does Orson prepare a weekly briefing?
Yes. Every Monday Orson prepares a short briefing on the Advisor page from your computed store figures, saying what changed and what to look at first. Every number in it is checked against those figures before it is used.
Can Orson check a price change?
Yes. Orson can simulate a price change and show its likely effect on profit before you make it. The simulation never changes anything in your store.
What Orson won't do
Does Orson change anything in my store?
No. Orson reads your synced data and explains it; it does not edit products, prices, orders or settings in your store. When it suggests a change, you decide and make it yourself.
Can Orson place orders or move money?
No. Orson cannot place orders with suppliers, buy ads, pay bills or move money. It can suggest a reorder amount or a budget, and you act on it yourself.
Does Orson act on its own?
No. Orson answers when you ask, and once a week it prepares a briefing that is also sent to your team by e-mail. It recommends; you decide.
Where its numbers come from
Where do Orson's numbers come from?
Every figure comes from Marginful's own calculations on your synced store data and the costs you set up. The AI explains those figures; it does not calculate them itself.
Can Orson make up numbers?
Orson is built to answer only from the figures Marginful returns, and the weekly briefing is checked so that every number matches them. Like any AI it can still word something badly, so check important figures on the matching report before you act.
What if some of my data is missing?
If product costs or connections are missing, your profit figures are less complete. Marginful shows what is missing so you can add it, and Orson's answers use the same figures.
Privacy and your data
What does Orson send to the AI provider?
Only your question and the figures needed to answer it are sent to Anthropic's Claude: store, product, campaign and order figures, order numbers and, for questions about customers, up to ten customers' display names with their order totals. Marginful does not store your conversations. The full list is in our privacy policy.
Is my data used to train AI models?
No. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, data sent through its API is not used to train its models; Anthropic keeps it only for a limited period for abuse monitoring. Marginful does not use your store data or chats to train models either.
Do my supplier invoices go to the AI provider?
Usually not. Most invoices are read by Marginful's own reader on our servers without AI. Only an invoice our reader cannot read confidently may be passed to AI as a second reader.
Where is my data stored?
Your store data is kept in Marginful's own database with our hosting provider, not with the AI provider. The privacy policy lists who processes data and how long it is kept.
Who on my team can use Orson?
Everyone you invite to your workspace can ask Orson, whatever their role, from Owner to Read only. Their role still decides what they can change, and you can remove people at any time.
Limits and cost
Will Orson ever cost extra?
No. Orson is included in your plan price, with no charge per question and no surprise fees. Your plan only changes if you change it, or if you turn on automatic plan fit.
What do I get on the Free plan?
The Free plan gives you the profit overview for 1 store and up to 50 orders a month, without Orson. Paid plans add Orson and every other feature.
Using your own AI
Can I use Marginful with my own AI, like Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes. On paid plans you can connect Claude, ChatGPT and other assistants to Marginful through a secure, read-only connection (MCP). They then use the same profit calculations Orson uses.
Can my own AI change anything in my store?
No. The connection is read-only: your assistant can look up figures and run price simulations, but it cannot change your store, orders or settings.
Languages and help
Which languages does Orson speak?
Orson answers in your app language, and Marginful comes in 12 languages. These questions and answers are in English for now.
Can I talk to a person?
Yes. E-mail us from the contact section on our website and a person will get back to you. Orson is there for quick answers, not instead of us.