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The promise on the signup page is “looking at audit findings on your own store inside a few minutes.” This page is the end-to-end walkthrough for that promise. You will sign up, connect your commerce platform, watch the first audit run, and review your first findings on the Kanban board - all without writing a line of code or configuring a rule.

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Before you begin

Vortex IQ runs entirely in your browser. You do not need to install anything. Check that you have:
  • A modern browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari 16+, Brave, or Arc)
  • Your store admin credentials for your commerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, or Adobe Commerce)
  • A work email address
Pop-up blockers can interrupt the OAuth connector flow. Allow pop-ups for app.vortexiq.ai before you start to avoid a silent failure mid-step.

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Step 1: Sign up

Choose the account type that matches how you work. Both types use the same six modules; the difference is workspace structure and billing.
A merchant account is for brand owners and in-house ecommerce teams running one storefront.
1

Go to the signup page

Navigate to app.vortexiq.ai and click Get started.
2

Choose your account type

Select Merchant when prompted. This creates one workspace scoped to a single storefront.
3

Sign in with Google or a magic link

You have two options:
  • Continue with Google — one click, your email is verified immediately by Google.
  • Magic link — enter your work email, receive a single-use link, click it to verify and enter your workspace.
If the magic link does not arrive, check spam and promotional folders. The sender domain is vortexiq.ai.
4

Sign in with Google or a magic link

You have two options:
  • Continue with Google - one click, your email is verified immediately by Google.
  • Magic link - enter your work email, receive a single-use link, click it to verify and enter your workspace.
If the magic link does not arrive, check spam and promotional folders. The sender domain is vortexiq.ai.
5

Enter your company name

This becomes your workspace name. It is editable later from Settings, Account.

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Step 2: Tell Vortex IQ what you care about

The first onboarding screen is Tell us your interests. Tick the areas that match your role: Select as many as you like, or click Select all to tick every box at once. This seeds which agents and reports get surfaced first on your Nerve Centre. You can change it later from Settings.

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Step 3: Connect your first source

This is the highest-value step - the moment you wire your store, Vortex IQ begins building the connector graph.
1

Click the Shopify tile

On the onboarding connector screen, click Shopify.
2

Enter your store URL

Type your .myshopify.com store URL — for example, acmeoutdoors.myshopify.com.
3

Enter your store URL

Type your .myshopify.com store URL - for example, acmeoutdoors.myshopify.com.
4

Click Connect

A pop-up opens at your Shopify admin. Sign in with your Shopify credentials, or your existing Shopify session takes you straight to the consent screen.
5

Review and approve the read scopes

Vortex IQ requests read access to: products, orders, customers, inventory, and analytics. No write scopes are requested at the connector step — write scopes are only requested when you deploy an Action that needs them.
6

Review and approve the read scopes

Vortex IQ requests read access to: products, orders, customers, inventory, and analytics. No write scopes are requested at the connector step - write scopes are only requested when you deploy an Action that needs them.
7

Click Install app

Shopify uses “install app” language for OAuth grants. Click it. The pop-up closes and you land back in Vortex IQ with a green Connected badge on the Shopify tile.
If the OAuth pop-up does not open, your browser’s pop-up blocker is likely blocking it. Allow pop-ups for app.vortexiq.ai, then click Connect again.

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Step 4: Watch the first data pull

The moment your connector lands in the connected state, Vortex IQ starts pulling data. You can see the pull progress on the Settings, Connected Sources page: products imported, orders imported, customers imported, inventory snapshotted. For Shopify and BigCommerce, the initial pull typically takes 5 to 15 minutes for a mid-size store. You do not need to wait - the Nerve Centre tab for your connected platform appears immediately and starts populating cards as data arrives, and the Store Audit kicks off automatically in parallel.

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Step 5: Review your first findings

Open Actions in the sidebar, then go to Store Audit, then Latest Findings. The Store Audit runs a 50+ check sweep across SEO, AI search readiness, Core Web Vitals performance, checkout conversion, inventory, and catalogue health. Findings begin landing on the Kanban board in real time while the audit is still running. A typical first-run findings list looks like this: Click any finding to open the detail panel: what it is, why it matters, the recommended fix, and the Run Action button to ship the fix.

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Step 6: Run your first query on Ask Viq

Ask Viq is the conversational layer of Vortex IQ. Open Ask Viq in the sidebar.
1

Select a Profile

Use the Profile dropdown at the top of the Ask Viq panel. A Profile is a saved set of connectors (for example, Marketing profile = GA4 + Google Ads + Klaviyo + Shopify). If you have just connected your first source, a default profile is available. Select it.
2

Type your first question

Ask something grounded in your connected data — for example:
  • “How did revenue compare last week versus the week before?”
  • “Which products had the biggest drop in conversion this month?”
  • “What is the top reason customers are abandoning checkout right now?”
Ask Viq reads the live connector graph — the same data the Nerve Centre and Vortex Mind use — so answers are specific to your store, not generic LLM responses.
3

Type your first question

Ask something grounded in your connected data - for example:
  • “How did revenue compare last week versus the week before?”
  • “Which products had the biggest drop in conversion this month?”
  • “What is the top reason customers are abandoning checkout right now?”
Ask Viq reads the live connector graph - the same data the Nerve Centre and Vortex Mind use - so answers are specific to your store, not generic LLM responses.
4

Review the charted answer

Ask Viq returns a charted answer with the data source cited. If the answer references a Vortex Mind finding or a Vortex Memory document, those citations appear inline.

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Step 7: Ship your first fix

Go back to Actions, Kanban. Pick the easiest Critical finding - typically a missing meta description or a redirect cleanup - and click Run Action. Depending on the finding type, the Action either:
  • Generates the fix automatically and queues it for your approval (for example, AI-generated meta descriptions).
  • Fires through Vortex Apps to apply the fix on your store (for example, a redirect cleanup).
  • Opens a Bulk Content Edit grid where you review and confirm dozens of changes at once.
Approve the fix. Within seconds it ships to your store. You have closed the agentic loop: signal → diagnosis → action → shipped.

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Before your second session

A few minutes of setup now makes every future session faster.
  • Invite a teammate. Go to Settings, Account, Team Members, then Invite. They receive a magic link by email.
  • Set up an alert channel. Go to Settings, Alerts, Notification Channels. Add Slack or Microsoft Teams if your team lives there; the default is your work email.
  • Create a Profile in Ask Viq. Go to Settings, Profiles, Create Profile. Group the connectors that match your role so every Ask Viq session is pre-scoped.
  • Bookmark the workspace. Most merchants check the Nerve Centre daily. Bookmark app.vortexiq.ai for fast access.

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Common questions

Either the data pull is still in progress (wait a few minutes and refresh the Latest Findings view) or your store is genuinely in good shape, which is rare - most stores have at least 5 to 10 SEO findings. Check Settings, Connected Sources for the data pull status.
Check that the OAuth pop-up was not blocked by your browser. Re-run the connect flow. If it fails a second time, see the connector-specific troubleshooting on the connector’s documentation page or contact support.
Yes. The audit runs against whatever data is currently loaded. If the pull is still in progress, the audit re-runs automatically against the full dataset once the pull completes.
You move into the day-to-day operating rhythm: check the Nerve Centre in the morning, read the daily briefing in your inbox, and ship Actions through the day. The first session is the only one that feels like setup; from session two onward you are operating, not configuring.