We’ve a built a loyal following for our Shopify to Segment connection, and this month we’ve rolled out the next version, v2, with new events and enhanced functionality.

As Shopify and Segment both continue to see unprecedented growth, Littledata is here to ensure accurate data at every ecommerce touchpoint. We’ve seen a surge in DTC and CPG brands on Shopify Plus that rely on Segment to coordinate customer data across marketing, product, and analytics tools. We have continued to develop our Segment integration to fit all of these use cases.

About Segment v1

Last year, we worked with Segment to create a robust Shopify source for Segment users. The aim was to make everyone’s job easier, from CTOs to ecommerce managers.

Littledata’s Segment connection v1:

• Captures all customer touchpoints on your store, both pre and post checkout
• Sends data to any of Segment’s hundreds of destinations
• Works seamlessly with Google Analytics
• Uses a combination of client-side and server-side tracking to capture browsing activity, orders and refunds
• Sends user fields for calculating customer lifetime value

What’s new in Segment v2

Since we launched the first Shopify app for Segment in May 2019, we have continued to make improvements based on user feedback and new use cases.

The latest version of our Shopify source for Segment offers several updates and enhancements, including support for email marketing around order fulfilment events; tracking for a range of new order and payment events, including POS orders and order cancellations; and alias calls to support additional analytics destinations such as Mixpanel and Kissmetrics.

Fulfilment status

Many of our customers use Segment events to trigger transactional emails on platforms like Klaviyo and Iterable. One key email that stores want to customize is the ‘Your order has shipped‘ fulfilment email, and so we now trigger a Fulfilment Update event when the fulfilment status of an order changes.

This event includes status, tracking_numbers and tracking_urls (where the shipping integration allows), so the transactional email can include actionable details for the end user.

These events can also be used in analytics destinations to look at fulfilment trends by product, or see how marketing campaigns around shipping match real-world delivery times.

Support for email marketing

Email marketing destinations such as Klaviyo, Iterable, and Hubspot, cannot use an anonymous identifier — so our Segment connection now sends an email property with all events (when it is known), usually from checkout step 2 onwards. Where the email is captured on landing pages (e.g. popup forms) we also send this with the Product Viewed and Product Added events, to make it easier for you to run retargeting and engagement campaigns.

Support for Kissmetrics & Mixpanel destinations

To support seamless customer tracking in analytics destinations such as Mixpanel, Vero and Kissmetrics, Segment requires an extra alias call. Littledata ensures the pre-checkout anonymousId is added as an alias of the userId (used from checkout step 2 onwards).

Learn more in our developer docs.

Customer account creation

On Shopify, every checkout (even as a guest) creates a customer record. This was already passed on to Segment with an Identify call and a Customer Created event. However, it is useful to know when this customer creates a password and creates a verified account with the store. For example, some brands use this event to trigger welcome emails or offer discounts.

With Segment v2, we now send a Customer Enabled event when the user has confirmed their email address and created a Shopify customer account, with verified_email set as true.

Payment of draft orders

Some stores (especially B2B brands and wholesalers) create draft orders which are later paid. From November 2020, Littledata’s Segment connection triggers an Order Completed event whenever these draft orders are paid, linking them back to the user session when they were created.

POS orders

Previously POS (point-of-sale) orders were excluded from Order Completed, as this polluted the revenue attribution in Google Analytics or other Segment destinations.

However, as Shopify POS and other POS orders have become more popular, we now send a separate POS Order Placed event, so you can track the POS orders and choose whether to add them to your web orders.

Payment failure

After a customer goes through your checkout and completes an order, there is still a chance the payment fails, usually due to fraud checks.

A new Payment Failure event allows you to track these failures, and see if they are more associated with particular marketing campaigns, geographies, products, or other factors.

Order cancellations

If the admin has cancelled an order, perhaps due to the product being unavailable, an Order Cancelled event is now triggered (including the cancel_reason). This is useful for both tracking/analysis and re-engagement campaigns.

Product properties

Last, but certainly not least, we’ve expanded the range of product properties sent with every product for better segmentation. Details such as shopify_variant_id, category and brand are sent with all client-side events and most server-side events.

For more information, read our developer docs or schedule a demo today with an analytics expert.