Littledata named a category leader on G2

We're happy to share that G2 has named Littledata a category leader in the E-Commerce Analytics category. G2 is the world’s largest and most trusted software marketplace, and we were honored to be awarded G2's Winter 2023 Leader badge. In the Winter 2023 G2 Grid® Report for E-Commerce Analytics, Littledata emerged as a leader with notably high satisfaction ratings, including a 98% likelihood to recommend the software. Highlights from Littledata's G2 reviews: Littledata named a Leader in the E-Commerce Analytics category Top analytics connector for mid-market brands (typically on Shopify Plus or BigCommerce Enterprise) 5-star reviews across the board, from both data scientists and ecommerce managers Littledata users have a 98% Likelihood to Recommend the software As the only complete, automated server-side tracking for Shopify and BigCommerce stores, Littledata has continued to lead the pack since launching our first Shopify app in 2017. But we aren't letting success go to our heads. “We're not resting on our 5 star laurels,” says Edward Upton, Littledata CEO. “Littledata continues to invest to beat the ad blockers and future-proof your e-commerce data. As recent G2 reviewers have noted, we already offer full support for Google Analytics 4, the new version of Google Analytics, without the need for custom tagging or Google Tag Manager (GTM) setup.” Bianca Dihoiu, Head of Customer Success, notes that the customer success team supports Google Analytics just as much as it supports the Littledata platform: “Accurate data is something every business desires, but it can become tedious to implement and maintain numerous apps and tools in this ever changing ecosystem. Littledata’s automated tracking eliminates the hefty maintenance time and costs typically associated with advanced Google Analytics setups for Shopify sites. As brands start to trust their data again in Google Analytics, our team is here to help with any questions around the new platform and assistance in how to use it.” Littledata achieved the Leader award by receiving positive reviews, from verified users compared to similar products in the E-commerce Analytics category. For inclusion in the quarterly report a product must have received 10 or more reviews, and in 2022 Littledata received 12 independent reviews from verified buyers. "Rankings on G2 reports are based on data provided to us by real software buyers," said Sara Rossio, Chief Product Officer at G2. "Potential buyers know they can trust these insights when researching and selecting software because they’re rooted in vetted, verified, and authentic reviews."  Learn more about what real users have to say (or leave your own review of Littledata) on G2’s Littledata review page!  

by Ari
2022-12-20

Littledata closes growth funding round

Littledata is excited to announce a major funding round that will help us accelerate growth around the world. The round, which consists of a mix of debt and equity, provides significant runway for Littledata to continue expanding our ecommerce data platform and to keep hiring the best and the brightest in ecommerce analytics. New investors in the round include Tomas Slimas, the co-founder of Oberlo, which Shopify acquired in 2017. “Ecommerce business owners are dealing with an increasingly complex world of ad blockers and omnichannel user flows,” says Slimas. “Littledata helps them see where their revenue is really coming from.” [tip]Learn more about why leading DTC brands around the world trust Littledata for truly accurate analytics.[/tip] In addition to funding from angel investors, Littledata secured a revenue-based loan from Element Finance, a boutique growth finance firm with offices in San Antonio, Texas, and Dublin, Ireland. Element Finance Partner, John Gallagher, commented: “We were impressed with the business (co-founders) Edward and Ari have built, and they have a fantastic vision for moving the business forward.” “This new funding round is central to the next stage of our growth as an ecommerce data platform,” says Edward Upton, founder & CEO of Littledata. “Element Finance in particular had a genuine understanding of where we want to go, and we feel that they will back us all the way. The funding allows Littledata to accelerate on its mission to make it ridiculously easy for direct-to-consumer brands (using Shopify, BigCommerce, and more) to connect their data and understand performance.” The funding will allow Littledata to accelerate product development and marketing to enable more use cases and reach a wider range of brands. “As one of very few automated solutions for server-side tracking — and the only one I know of in the ecommerce space — Littledata has a unique market position,” says Littledata co-founder and CMO, Ari Messer. “This new funding mix allows us to double down on what’s working, while also exploring a wider range of tech partnerships and co-marketing opportunities. We’ve always helped brands get better data for analysis in tools like Google Analytics, but now we’re expanding to enable data for action in tools like Segment, Klaviyo and Facebook (Meta) Ads. It all comes back to our company value of being inspired by data internally and in what we can offer to customers and partners.” Learn more about Littledata by reading our 5-star reviews in the Shopify app store or browsing our partners and available integrations. PS. We're hiring :)

by Ari
2022-08-10

Google Veteran Margaret Sherer Joins Littledata Advisory Board

London, UK – May 26, 2022 – Littledata, an ecommerce data platform based in the UK, is expanding its advisory board with the addition of Margaret Sherer as Marketing Advisor. Sherer, who has held managerial positions at Google, Microsoft, and presently at MIRACL, is also founder and CEO of Cittadina Marketing, a full-service digital marketing agency based in London. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring on Margaret in a formal advisory capacity,” says Littledata co-founder and CMO Ari Messer. “She has a remarkable breadth of industry knowledge and shares our bias towards action. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish together as we accelerate Littledata’s growth with brands and marketing agencies around the world.” Littledata is building a formal advisory board in order to help align its growing team on strategic goals, including go-to-market plans for new technical integrations such as Facebook Conversions API and GA4, the newest version of Google Analytics. The startup supports modern direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands selling on Shopify, and recently launched on BigCommerce as well. “Modern marketing success derives from rich data first insights. Littledata’s ability to reclaim data that goes missing in the ecommerce connection infrastructure in order to return insights to companies is invaluable. As first-party data and user insights grow in importance, Littledata will be a key player to enabling smarter, faster growth,” says Sherer. “I’ve loved working with the team so far and look forward to our continued collaboration as an Advisor.” "As first-party data and user insights grow in importance, Littledata will be a key player to enabling smarter, faster growth" After 15+ years working in marketing for Google and Microsoft and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management, Sherer founded Cittadina Marketing in 2017 with the aim to create and execute beautiful marketing campaigns led by strategy and supported with insight. Cittadina has worked with fast-growth tech companies such as Temporall, PepperSq, MIRACL and eDesk, and established blue-chip organizations like Google. Sherer also advises a range of startups and sits on the Advisory boards for Surrey IDEA and Westminster Business School. Learn more about Margaret Sherer, Cittadina Marketing and Littledata.

by Ari
2022-05-26

How to scale your business faster using first-party data [Podcast]

Data matters now more than ever for ecommerce store owners. It forms the backbone of any strong decision-making process and gives an invaluable look at customers you can't find anywhere else. But data collection is changing, with new privacy regulations and major tracking changes through iOS 14 (and beyond) adding hurdles to gathering truly accurate data. The solution to maintaining good data? Server-side tracking. To shed more light on the topic, Littledata CEO Edward Upton appeared on two podcasts to show listeners the power that data has on stores' future prospects, why it's so critical to focus on, and how to make sure you're using good data to guide your store. Keeping your ecommerce data accurate in a first-party data world Ed appeared on the 2X eCommerce podcast to chat with host Kunle Campbell about the big changes facing ecommerce data managers today. They dive into new restrictions on third-party data and how data managers can use tools like the new Facebook Conversions API (FB CAPI) and server-side tracking apps like Littledata to maximize ROI through data-backed decision-making. The conversation is a must-listen for any ecommerce store owner or data manager, particularly those spending significantly on acquiring customers through ads. They dive into: What events you should be tracking to get to know your customers betterHow you can still get the data you need without violating privacy lawsWhat the future of ecommerce tracking will look like, and how to prepare for it Hear the entire episode to get the guidance you need to make the right calls for your store. Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple PodcastsListen on Soundcloud How to use first-party data to improve loyalty and lifetime value Speaking with Flavilla Fongang from Tech Brains Talk, Ed shared how being able to analyze customer data correctly — using accurate metrics, of course — shows you the best paths to take for building both customer loyalty and lifetime value. Listen to the full conversation to hear how you can learn from your customers' behavior and make adjustments to your store design and promotion methods to drive more revenue and win more business. Listen on SpotifyListen on Apple Podcasts

by Greg
2021-12-08

Podcast: Turbocharge Your Growth With Trusted and Accurate Data

Before you make any big decisions for your Shopify store, you need to know if you're making them based on the best possible data. Having 100% confidence in your store's analytics leads to you making the right decisions to improve your store design, offerings, and promotion methods. It's also the backbone of a growth plan that will help you reach your store's revenue targets faster. In the 200th episode of the eCommerce Fastlane podcast, our CMO Ari Messer sat down with eCommerce Fastlane's Steve Hutt to talk about why there's a discrepancy between Google Analytics and other analytics sources, how that bad data can lead you down a wrong decision-making path, and what to do so you set your store up for growth instead. The episode also touches on: How to finally have 100% confidence in your data accuracyFirst-party, zero-party data, and why they're important to your storeHow to audit and fix Google Analytics to ensure accurate trackingHow to get accurate marketing attribution (including cross-domain and multi-currency)How to get accurate Facebook campaign tagging and campaign cost imported to Google Analytics Get a free analytics audit just for listening eCommerce Fastlane listeners can get a hands-on look at how to use Google Analytics, Segment, or any connected reporting tool to get more accurate data on their Shopify store. Get benchmarks for your store that help you analyze your place in the market, identify areas of improvement, and then plan a roadmap for building a better data stack that will supercharge your growth.

by Greg
2021-10-26

What's new in v2 of our Shopify source for Segment

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. [note]If you installed Littledata's Segment connection previously, please contact us to add the v2 events.[/note] 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 [subscribe] 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.

2020-11-04

Littledata acquires Facebook Feed and Pixel Perfect apps for Shopify

Littledata is pleased to announce the acquisition of two Shopify apps focused on Facebook advertising: Facebook Feed and Pixel Perfect. As customers increasingly turn to Facebook and Instagram for a seamless shopping experience, we're here to help stores give customers what they want: the right product at just the right time, no matter which marketing channel brought them in. Pixel Perfect automatically sets up an accurate Facebook Pixel for Shopify stores, along with numerous features to support dynamic product ads -- including a product catalog feed. If you're only looking to sync the Shopify product catalog, Facebook Feed is a smart product feed that supports unlimited products without timeouts or delays. Our expert analytics team is already providing customer support for both apps, and our product team is working to improve functionality for Facebook Pixel and Facebook catalog feeds, which are essential parts of running dynamic product ads across the Facebook network -- in other words, the keys to automated personalization. To quote Littledata's CEO, Edward Upton: "We believe stores investing tens of thousands in Facebook Ads need more reliable tools to target that spend. Littledata is able to improve upon the integration announced with Facebook and Instagram this week, and enable enterprise-scale stores to track their customer journey on Facebook." Shopify and Facebook Shopping Facebook and Shopify made major announcements recently about the many ways that customers find (and now purchase) products on Facebook and Instagram. They've emphasized that these new features will help small businesses succeed, and that's definitely a potential benefit. But let's be honest -- we all knew this was coming, COVID-19 or otherwise. There's just too much ad spend at stake. These updates and new features include: Facebook Shops: a new, complete storefront experience, integrated with Shopify (among other platforms, such as BigCommerce and Woo, Shopify is clearly the most significant: Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke was on the video call with Mark Zuckerberg) Instagram Checkout: a previously closed beta experience for direct shopping and checkout, now slowly rolling out for everyone At Littledata we're most excited about Instagram Shopping. It's not just a little experiment. Instagram's Vishal Shah told TechCrunch that almost 1 million stores are already signed up and ready to implement Instagram Checkout, so it's much more than its previous incarnation as a beta test with large brands like Zara and Adidas. Shopify is deprecating the Facebook Shop channel and will be pushing merchants to create these new Facebook shopping experiences (either ad campaigns or the full FB storefront). Stores that had product tagging set up through the Instagram channel before the announcement can already access Facebook Shops (the new feature -- different from the previous Facebook Shop channel, ahem...this is starting to get confusing). But like many Shopify announcements of the past, the overall timelines are unclear. And while they have improved the setup for their default Pixel implementation, we still see the same common issues like Product ID and revenue mismatches. Either way, these new features aren't necessarily a great fit for larger DTC brands by default -- they'll need something more reliable and customizable. That said, why not just go direct to the source? Facebook Dynamic Ads are already open to everyone, and they're a proven model for high-ROI retargeting and engagement. What do you need to run Dynamic Ads on Facebook for a Shopify store? Actually just a few things, which don't take long to set up if you haven't already: Facebook Business manager account Facebook Pixel (or SDK) on your site Product catalog feed That's where the new apps come in. Pixel Perfect Pixel Perfect is a popular Shopify app for automatically configuring a Facebook Pixel on your Shopify store. Facebook Pixel allows you to measure the impact of Facebook Ads on revenue, and calculate Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). It also allows you to build website custom audiences based on what users have seen or added to their shopping carts. Shopify has a native Facebook Pixel integration, but as noted it has numerous known issues, in areas such as product and revenue matching. Pixel Perfect fixes this automatically. Key benefits include: Send data to up to three Pixels (e.g. to use a backup pixel) Includes a matching catalog feed to serve Facebook Dynamic Ads 'Niche' product tags for building custom Facebook Audiences Order logs for comparative attribution Questions about Pixel Perfect features or how Shopify works with Facebook Ads? Read the Facebook Pixel Perfect FAQ in our help center. Facebook Feed If you're looking for a free product feed that works automatically with your Shopify product catalog, check out Facebook Feed. There are a number of Facebook catalog feed apps out there, but we were drawn to Facebook Feed because it is extensible and reliable. The app makes it easy to launch dynamic retargeting ads for Facebook users who engaged with your Shopify store. It works for product ads and catalog ads and it can support huge catalogs for Shopify Plus stores. Key benefits include: Up-to-date XML product catalog in the exact format recognized by Facebook Unlimited numbers of products and SKUs (no timeouts for large product sets!) Sync many products with Facebook and avoid pagination Compatible with Facebook page shops and Instagram Shopping Questions about setup or features? Read the Facebook Feed FAQ in our help center. What's next Littledata purchased Facebook Feed and Pixel Perfect from Tony Redfearn, an entrepreneur based in the UK. Tony is excited to see where we take the apps: "I am delighted to hand over the reigns to ensure success in this increasingly complex area. Littledata was the natural partner to take this tech to the next level!" As Littledata's Shopify customer base continues to grow, we are always looking at new connections and integrations. Our plan has always been to integrate Facebook Ads and Facebook Pixel more deeply into the Littledata ecosystem, and these popular apps turned out to be a great starting point. Our immediate plans are to improve both apps to make them even more powerful and extensible. Over time, we plan to fold this functionality into our core analytics app for Shopify merchants. For now, we are working closely with a broad range of merchants to understand their needs and how Facebook Pixel and Google Analytics can work in tandem for better ecommerce analytics, segmentation, remarketing and personalization. Audience building is one of our focuses, but we're also looking into the improved shopping experiences announced (ie Instagram Checkout), to see where events from our server-side Shopify tracking might best improve ROAS, AOV and customer LTV on these new channels and checkout experiences. Is there something you just can't wait to do with Shopify and Facebook? Let us know.  

by Ari
2020-05-27

What's new in our Shopify apps for Google Analytics and Segment

Littledata is always improving. Over the last 6 months, we’ve worked on numerous features to enhance the accuracy and availability of our ecommerce data analysis for Shopify merchants. Littledata's smart connections make it easy to get accurate data in Google Analytics or Segment. The changes below affect both of our Shopify apps (Segment and Google Analytics for Shopify), marking the biggest major update to our Shopify tracking script and server-side tracking since we released V8 last year. [tip]Check out our release notes for regular updates![/tip] Attribution for email marketing signups In order to provide enhanced email attribution, we've linked 'customer created' and 'customer updated' events back to the original source. Stores building a customer email list can now analyze where those email signups originally came from. By linking customer creation or update events on Shopify’s servers to the original campaign or referrer to the store, Littledata customers can now accurately track the source of email signups. Merchants can now also segment these signup events by whether or not the customer opted into marketing. Checkout steps Tracking checkout steps is essential for ecommerce analytics, but Shopify's native tracking is incomplete and inaccurate. Littledata's Shopify connections solve checkout tracking issues automatically. With recent updates, we’ve made the tracking of checkout steps even more reliable, coping with situations where a user is already logged in, or abandons the cart and then returns later. [note]Did you know by sending the data to Google Analytics, you can easily track your Shopify payments gateway during checkout?[/note] With the help of the full Enhanced Ecommerce specification, you can: track exactly which products follow in each step calculate the value of opportunities to improve each step [subscribe] ReCharge connection, recharged As subscription ecommerce sites continue to scale, they need even more detailed data about the user journey, especially lifecycle events. [tip]Do you trust your subscription tracking in Shopify? Learn how to get accurate tracking for repeat orders[/tip] With our new ReCharge v2 connection, subscription stores can now track the full subscription lifecycle including: subscription updates cancellations failed payments product edits customer profile / information edits [note]See the full slate of ecommerce events you can now track with ReCharge v2[/note] Geolocation of server-side events Stores need accurate information on the location of their customers to retarget campaigns around top-performing regions or cities. The extra events above, plus all the standard order data, are sent from our servers in Virginia, US. But, of course, in your analytics, you want to see them linked to the customers' real location. We now have a belt-and-braces solution for correctly geolocating customer events, passing on the browser's IP address where known, or else sending the shipping address (default customer address) to Google Analytics as a 'Geographical Criteria ID'. CartHook and Bold Cashier We've always supported other checkouts for Shopify, as we know some stores need flexibility with payment, upsell and recurring billing options. And for the most popular checkout solutions, we're always looking at ways to provide advanced tracking automatically. So in the past 6 months Littledata has launched more robust integrations with CartHook and Bold Cashier. New Google Optimize connection Google Optimize is a powerful A/B testing and personalization platform used within and beyond ecommerce. [note]Connect your Shopify store to Google Optimize to test your product pages, store content and messaging with 100% accuracy.[/note] Now, we have an out-of-the-box setup for Shopify, including an anti-flicker snippet. And coming soon... In Q1 2020, we're working on connections for Iterable's email marketing platform, plus a more consistent way of handling Segment's anonymous ID for stores which don't use Google Analytics. Is there something you're eager to see in Littledata? We're always happy to hear feature suggestions — get in touch with our team today!

2020-01-21

Try the top-rated Google Analytics app for Shopify stores

Get a 30-day free trial of Littledata for Google Analytics or Segment