Is Cogsy better than Lumina?

For the customer profile Cogsy is built for — a £1–5M Shopify-only DTC brand — yes, Cogsy is a clean, well-priced fit. Lumina would be overkill at that scale. For a £5M+ multi-channel brand with outsourced manufacturing and cash-flow-aware POs, Lumina is the better fit because it's built for that customer shape. The two products are aimed at adjacent rather than overlapping segments.

When do brands typically outgrow Cogsy?

Three common moments. (1) When Amazon or retail revenue becomes more than ~20% of total. Cogsy's Shopify-tuned model starts mis-forecasting. (2) When supplier complexity grows — multiple Asia-based suppliers, deposit+balance PO structures, 3PL inbound coordination. The PO workflow doesn't carry the weight. (3) When cash flow starts driving PO timing — i.e. 'we'd like to order, but can we afford to right now' becomes a regular conversation. Cogsy doesn't have the cash-flow surface to support that decision.

Can I switch from Cogsy to Lumina without losing data?

Yes. Cogsy stores most of the data you actually need elsewhere — Shopify (sales history, products), QuickBooks (accounting), your spreadsheets (replenishment policy, supplier specs). Lumina pulls directly from those source systems on setup, so the migration is really about re-connecting source-of-truth data rather than exporting from Cogsy. Most teams are live on Lumina within a week.

Does Lumina need me to be off Shopify? Off Cogsy first?

No to both. Lumina connects to Shopify directly (you keep it). Lumina also runs fine in parallel with Cogsy during a switch — many teams keep Cogsy live for a few weeks and only turn it off once Lumina is mirroring their workflow comfortably. There's no forced migration cliff.

What does Cogsy cost vs Lumina?

Cogsy plans typically start around $129/month and scale with revenue and add-on modules. Lumina starts at £59/user/month with modular add-ons. The pricing is in similar territory at the low end; the meaningful difference is what comes with the spend — Lumina includes guided onboarding, multi-channel forecasting, and cash-flow modelling that Cogsy's plans don't reach.

Can Lumina handle multiple Shopify stores, Amazon, and retail?

Yes — that's the default assumption, not an add-on. We aggregate demand across Shopify stores, Amazon marketplaces, retailer EDI / sell-through, and B2B orders into a single forecast and replenishment view. This is the most common reason brands migrate from Cogsy to Lumina.

Lumina vs Cogsy: Multi-Channel Planning vs Shopify-First DTC

Cogsy fits the smaller, simpler version of your business. Lumina fits the one you're growing into.

There's no single moment a brand outgrows Cogsy — but the pattern is consistent. The first signs are forecasts that don't pick up on Amazon or retail demand, POs that don't reflect supplier-payment timing, and a planner who's reverted to spreadsheets for anything important. Cogsy is well-designed for the £2–5M Shopify-only DTC shape; the design choices that make it approachable are the same ones that limit it as the brand multiplies channels, SKUs, and supplier complexity. Lumina is built for the next shape — multi-channel forecasting, automated POs with cash-flow awareness, and direct integrations beyond Shopify.

"Cogsy got us off spreadsheets. We outgrew it by the time we hit Amazon."

— Founder, DTC apparel brand at (anonymous, customer interview)

When to pick which

Pick Lumina if

You're a £5M+ brand selling across Shopify, Amazon, and retail.

Revenue between £5M and £30M, growing materially YoY.
Sales aren't Shopify-only any more — Amazon, retail, B2B, or wholesale are real.
Supplier payment timing and cash position are starting to drive PO decisions.
You have outsourced manufacturers, multiple 3PLs, or complex lead times.
You need a planner-grade tool, not a founder-friendly mini app.

Pick Cogsy if

You're a £1–5M Shopify-only DTC brand getting off spreadsheets.

Single Shopify store, occasional wholesale, no real Amazon presence.
Small team — founder or ops lead is the planner part-time.
Supply chain is one or two suppliers, predictable lead times.
Budget is modest and self-serve onboarding is a feature, not a constraint.
Replenishment policy is 'eyeball it weekly,' not 'optimise against cash.'

Lumina vs Cogsy: feature comparison

Feature	Lumina Recommended	Cogsy
Built for Who the product is genuinely designed around	Scaling consumer brands £5–30M, multi-channel	Shopify-first DTC brands £1–5M with small teams
Demand forecasting	AI forecasting across SKU, channel, and region	Baseline forecasting tuned for Shopify-only sales data
Multi-channel coverage (Amazon, retail, B2B)	Native — built for omnichannel from day one	Shopify-first; weaker outside it
Replenishment & PO logic	Lead-time + MOQ + supplier-payment aware	PO suggestions with lighter rules; manual finishing typically
Cash flow & supplier payments	Built in — supplier ledger + cash impact view	Not in scope; lives in accounting / a spreadsheet
Outsourced-manufacturing & 3PL workflows	Designed around them — supplier ledgers, 3PL exports	Limited; designed for simpler supply chains
Scenario planning	Pressure-test POs against demand or supply changes	Not in scope
Time to live	~1 week guided onboarding	1–2 weeks self-serve
Integrations	Shopify, Amazon, Unleashed, Cin7, Xero, 3PL exports	Shopify, ShipStation, basic accounting
Pricing approach	From £59/user/mo + modular add-ons; published	From ~$129/mo; published; scales with revenue
Best customer profile	Planner / ops lead at a £5–30M multi-channel brand	Founder / ops lead at a £1–5M Shopify-only brand

Yes Partial No

Forecasting: multi-channel AI vs Shopify-tuned baseline

Cogsy's forecasting is intentionally simple — baseline projections using Shopify sales history with optional manual overrides. For a Shopify-only brand under £5M, this is enough. Replenishment cycles are predictable, demand is concentrated in one channel, and a planner can sanity-check the numbers in five minutes. It struggles where multi-channel brands actually live. Amazon demand moves on its own clock, often driven by Buy Box dynamics and Prime Day windows. Retail sell-through has weekly cadence and replenishment-bound demand smoothing. Promo cycles cross channels but don't always run in sync. Lumina's AI model trains across all of this — channel-level demand, returns, promo calendars, retailer EDI — and produces a forecast that reflects the multi-channel reality rather than a Shopify-only projection of it.

Lumina forecasting wins

AI model trained on Shopify, Amazon, and retail data together
Handles cross-channel promo cycles and returns spikes
Forecast updates propagate to replenishment and cash flow automatically

Where Cogsy forecasting is fine

Single Shopify store with stable monthly cadence
Small SKU count where intuition can sanity-check the forecast
Brands where forecast accuracy isn't the binding constraint yet

Replenishment & supplier ops: cash-aware vs Shopify-style

Cogsy suggests replenishment based on stock-on-hand and projected demand. It doesn't natively know about supplier payment timing, the deposit + balance structure most overseas suppliers use, or 3PL inbound capacity. Brands routinely produce a PO list in Cogsy and then re-stage it against a cash-flow spreadsheet before sending — the very integration they bought a tool to avoid. Lumina ties replenishment to a supplier ledger and a cash flow view. You can see what's on order, what each PO costs, when deposits and balances fall due, when stock lands, and what your cash position looks like across the next 60–90 days — in one place. For brands where cash decides PO timing as much as stock-on-hand does, that single connected view changes how planning meetings run.

Channels: multi-channel by default vs Shopify-first by design

This is the single biggest practical difference. Cogsy is unambiguously a Shopify-first product — its data model, integrations, and UI all assume Shopify is the primary (often only) revenue source. The moment Amazon or retail becomes more than a side channel, the gaps show up: incomplete forecasting, fragmented stock visibility, and replenishment that doesn't reflect where demand is actually coming from. Lumina is multi-channel by default. Shopify is one connector among several — Amazon, retailer EDI / sell-through, B2B order systems, and 3PL exports all sit in the same view. For brands that have grown past Shopify-only, this stops being a feature and starts being a structural requirement.

Implementation & price: comparable speed, different depth

Both products go live fast — Cogsy in 1–2 weeks self-serve, Lumina in roughly a week with guided onboarding. The real difference is what you get for the onboarding investment. Cogsy's onboarding mostly connects Shopify and configures basic forecasting; Lumina's onboarding sets up forecasting, replenishment policy, supplier ledger, and cash flow modelling. Pricing is in the same neighbourhood at the low end. Cogsy starts around $129/month; Lumina starts at £59/user/month. For a small team, the dollar spend on either is modest. For a planner who'd otherwise spend two days a week in spreadsheets, the higher-depth tool repays its cost difference within the first month — provided the brand is large enough that the depth is being used.

Customer fit: the £1–5M brand vs the £5–30M brand

Cogsy and Lumina aren't really competing for the same customer. Cogsy fits a £1–5M Shopify-only DTC brand with a small team and a simple supply chain — and fits it well. Lumina fits the same brand once it has grown past that shape: more channels, more SKUs, outsourced manufacturing, cash-flow planning as a real concern. If you recognise yourself in the smaller profile, Cogsy is the right answer right now. Re-evaluate when channel mix shifts or supplier ops get complex. If you recognise yourself in the second profile, you've already outgrown Cogsy — even if the tool is still doing its baseline job, the planning meetings have probably migrated back to spreadsheets without anyone deciding to do it.

Lumina vs Cogsy: which inventory tool keeps working as you scale?