FAQ
Common questions about Arcanum Engine — commerce operating score, systems, industry packs, plans, email alerts, Slack, and how Engine compares to Flow, Zapier, and Klaviyo.
Arcanum Engine is a Commerce Systems Platform for Shopify merchants — not a blank workflow canvas. You get a command center with operating score, ranked opportunities, installable commerce systems and industry packs, and directional impact tracking. This page answers the questions merchants ask most often.
What is Arcanum Engine?
Engine runs inside Shopify Admin as an embedded app. Command center is your home — commerce operating score, system coverage, and opportunities with projected impact. Systems library lets you install stacked playbooks as commerce systems or industry packs. Results shows attributed impact and system activity.
What are commerce systems and playbooks?
Commerce systems are proven outcome bundles — each installs multiple playbooks together (for example Recover Lost Revenue includes VIP Recovery, Winback Engine, and Revenue Watch). Industry packs install several systems for a vertical. Individual playbooks are also available in the Systems library.
Full guide — systems, packs, playbooks, and uninstall
Starter email playbooks (Resend required):
- Inventory Guardian (Email) — low-stock email alerts
- Revenue Watch (Email) — weekly commerce digest by email
- Winback Engine (Email) — idle-delay abandoned checkout email alerts
Growth launch playbooks (Slack, Discord, or Teams):
- Winback Engine — abandoned checkout recovery after an idle delay
- Review Accelerator — post-fulfillment review reminders
- VIP Recovery — high-value order tagging and team alerts
- Inventory Guardian — low-stock Slack, Discord, or Teams alerts
- Revenue Watch — weekly commerce digest to Slack, Discord, or Teams
Starter also includes email variants for six expansion playbooks (Fulfillment SLA, Back-in-Stock, Refund Alert, Daily Ops Digest, Dormant Customer Winback, High-Risk Order). Growth adds Replenishment Reminder plus Browse and Cart Abandonment — browse/cart require storefront tracking.
On Growth you configure thresholds, channel labels, and optional Klaviyo events. Engine handles Shopify webhooks, scheduling, deduplication, and results logging.
Which plan do I need?
Starter ($29/mo after trial) includes three active playbook slots, fourteen email playbook variants via your Resend account, command center scores, and a seven-day trial. Growth unlocks the full catalog plus browse/cart storefront playbooks (ten active slots), ranked opportunities, Klaviyo connector events, commerce systems, industry packs, and Revenue Watch. Ops adds unlimited active playbooks and run replay from Results. If your Shopify subscription lapses, Engine pauses all automations until billing is restored in Settings. The install wizard Review step warns when you are on your last slot.
What do I need connected before installing?
- Starter — Resend API key, verified from address, and alert recipient inboxes in Settings (Test connection before install)
- Growth — Slack incoming webhook, Discord channel webhook, or Microsoft Teams incoming webhook for playbooks
- Growth (browse/cart) — healthy storefront tracking before installing browse or cart abandonment
- Growth optional — Klaviyo private API key for Winback Engine, VIP Recovery, and Review Accelerator when Klaviyo events are enabled
- Protected customer data — order and checkout webhooks require Partner Dashboard approval before VIP, abandon, and review playbooks fire on live orders
Hollow Reserve co-install
When Hollow Reserve is installed on the same store, Engine defers appointment lifecycle playbooks — Appointment No-Show Recovery, Review Accelerator, and Rebook Nudge — so Reserve journey stages and notifications are not duplicated. Playbook cards show a Reserve handles client lifecycle badge when dedupe applies.
Engine still runs store-wide commerce playbooks (abandoned checkout, VIP, inventory, digests). Pair Reserve for booking and client journeys; pair Engine for operating score and commerce automation.
Hollow Reserve Engine integration
When should I use Engine vs hire Arcanum for custom automation?
Choose Engine when Shopify-native ops alerts and commerce systems are enough — Starter merchants can go live the same day with email playbooks; Growth merchants with Slack, Discord, or Teams. Choose Arcanum consulting when you need ERP or CRM orchestration, custom APIs, multi-step AI workflows, or integrations Engine does not connect to.
How is Engine different from Shopify Flow?
Shopify Flow is Plus-only and limited to Shopify-native actions you design yourself. Arcanum Engine ships opinionated commerce systems for common jobs (abandon recovery, VIP routing, inventory, digests), includes email (Starter) and Slack/Discord/Teams/Klaviyo (Growth) connectors, adds operating score and opportunities, and works on any Shopify plan that supports apps.
How is Engine different from Klaviyo flows?
Klaviyo excels at email and SMS lifecycle marketing to shoppers and clients. Engine orchestrates Shopify admin actions (customer tags) and team ops notifications. On Growth, enable Send Klaviyo event on Winback Engine, VIP Recovery, or Review Accelerator — Klaviyo sends customer email from flows you build; Engine sends the trigger events. Hollow Reserve (Professional+) sends booking journey events separately. See the Klaviyo wiring guides for flow recipes.
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