You might have seen the message below in your Shopify store settings about setting up the Google Channel app. What should you do when you see this message? Shopify offers a number of sales channels to make it easy to sell products on different online channels like Facebook and the Shop app. The Google sales channel is a bit different, since 1) it now also includes Google Analytics 4 (GA4) tracking, and 2) it is now managed directly by Google. Although we work with larger merchants at Littledata, who typically use external apps and agency partners to manage sales channels and analytics, we’ve been getting a lot of questions about the recent updates. Here’s a first look at what the Google Channel app does, and how that compares with other ways to set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4). What is the Google Channel app? Shopify launched the Google Channel app back in 2017 to provide an easier way for stores to sell on Google, using Google Ads and Google Shopping. It’s free to install, though of course you pay for the Ads ;) “Sync your products to Google Merchant Center, list products for free on Search, YouTube and more and even run paid Performance Max campaigns.” In the relaunch in March 2023 Shopify/Google added tracking for GA4, along with better support for Google PMax (Performance Max) campaigns. Shopify wants to offer you with a no-code install process for GA4, but adding the Google Channel won’t “avoid any data disruptions” for all stores. [subscribe] Why Shopify is moving GA4 tracking to the Google Channel Universal Analytics - the previous GA version - will stop collecting data on 1st July 2023, so Shopify was under pressure from customers to offer in-built GA4 tracking ahead of that deadline. GA4 is also Google’s preferred way of tracking conversions in Google Ads, and PMax campaigns need conversions (purchases) tracked to maximize Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). I also think Shopify wants to push support for GA4 onto Google by moving all of the Google connections out of their core platform and into a ‘third party’ app. What’s included in Google Channel tracking? The Google Channel app allows a store to pick a GA4 property and copies most of the ecommerce event tracking available from Shopify to Universal Analytics: Page views Product views (including product name and price) Add to cart Checkout started Purchase (Order completed) [note]Are you tracking conversions in GA4? Find out in 5 minutes with our free order checker app[/note] What are the limitations of Google Channel for tracking GA4? Firstly, the Google Channel is built to work with Google Ads. However, there’s many other reasons to use Google Analytics other than for Google Ads targeting: tracking all marketing channels, understanding on -site conversion, checkout conversion, product performance and more. Shopify hasn’t optimized the tracking for that. So there are some limitations with the events sent to GA: No tracking of product list views or clicks No checkout steps, beyond begin_checkout * No currency field on Product Detail views No reporting on product SKUs No tracking of coupons and discount codes No server-side tracking for accurate orders and revenue No Enhanced Conversions for cross-device tracking of Google Ads * Theoretically, an event is triggered when users add payment info, but we couldn’t get this to fire in multiple tests. See a full comparison with Littledata tracking. Secondly, the GA4 tracking is tightly coupled with the implementation of Google Shopping feed (which has some bugs, judging by the thirty 1-star reviews from the last month) so while you can just use the GA4 part of the Google Channel app, you run the risk of disrupting Google Analytics when you edit Google Ads settings. Thirdly, there are no settings to adjust the Google Channel tracking - so if you want only certain events tracked, or integrate with third-party apps, your hands are tied. "There are no settings to adjust the Google Channel tracking. So if you want only certain events tracked, or integrate with third-party apps, your hands are tied." Lastly, Shopify does not provide full support for GA4 tracking via the Google Channel app. The app is theoretically supported by Google, but Google only provides technical support if you pay $50k+ a year for Google Analytics 360. Other than that you’d need to pay a consultant to check the set up for you. What is the best way to set up GA4? You need to start getting data into GA4 by July this year - not just for analysis, but also for building audiences and retargeting your own customer base in Google Ads. So beyond this app, you have two options: 1. Add Google Tag Manager to your store theme Pros: Reliable page view tracking, simple to customize settings, free to run Cons: No tracking of the checkout steps (even for Plus stores), revenue in GA won’t match revenue in Shopify, lots of time (and developer cost) required to set up all the shopping behavior events 2. Use a proven, highly rated app like Littledata Pros: Reliable tracking of the whole customer journey in GA4, 100% match between orders and revenue in Shopify, no implementation effort, no developers needed, instant data quality; and Littledata is optimized for Shopify Plus, including headless tracking, Shop App tracking and multi-currency tracking in GA4 Cons: Ongoing app charge to maintain data quality [note]Are you tracking conversions in GA4? Find out in 5 minutes with our free order checker app[/note] Why server-side tracking? The basic limitation of the Google Channel is client-side tracking -- which means all the events to Google are sent from the end user’s browser. This isn’t a reliable way to attribute sales to marketing campaigns in an age when many browsers and ad blockers limit tracking. The world of web analytics has changed a lot since Shopify added GA via the Shopify store preferences back in 2014 - but Google Channel isn’t changing how the event data is actually tracked. In contrast, server-side tracking allows apps like Littledata to hook into what is happening on Shopify’s servers from the add to cart onwards. This means 100% of revenue can be tracked and the vast majority (~90%) of that can be linked to a pre-checkout user journey and marketing campaign. There’s many apps that promise to ‘fix’ marketing attribution (Rockerbox, Northbeam, etc), but the only way to get truly reliable tracking of orders and revenue is server-side tracking. What your store should do today While I understand that Shopify wants to provide an out-the-box integration with Google Analytics for smaller stores, this Google Channel won’t be suitable for any scaling brand spending heavily on online customer acquisition and retention. You DO need to start tracking in Google Analytics 4 ASAP! If your brand turns over less than $1M a year, and you don’t have the time to dive into marketing attribution and targeting, then the Google Channel may be enough right now. And that's great! But if you are doing $1M+, or need to dive into the details of what drives customers to purchase, then I don’t think the Google Channel will be robust enough for you. If you're ready to be truly data-driven this year, consider applying for a Littledata Plus plan so we can support you fully with higher SLAs and analytics training for your team. Shopify has reason to launch limited free apps (eg reviews, email and geolocation) to address the concern that their sticker price doesn’t reflect all the paid app add-ons you need to run a store. Yet professionals at growing brands know you need paid apps to guarantee quality and support. Littledata’s Google Analytics connection is no exception -- try it for free in the Shopify App store today!

Shopify tracking is our bread and butter here at Littledata, so we were excited to learn that Shopify has released a new Web Pixel extension API to help stores track key customer events via tracking ‘pixels’, and a Shopify pixels manager to manage these pixels. Together this is Shopify’s Web Pixel feature. There are a couple of things to clarify at the outset. Firstly, Shopify’s Web Pixel is not really a pixel at all, but a way of managing and triggering pixels across a merchant store. Most websites today use some type of Web Pixels to track customer behavior, but Shopify’s standardization and centralization of their own Web Pixel tools is a big deal for both merchants and the partners who work with them. The new Web Pixel signals a change in both how client-side events are tracked, and in how related technologies, such as Google Tag Manager (GTM) and Google Analytics, can access those events. I welcome the move to standardize the data layer for Shopify tracking, and remove some of the challenges for stores using GTM to trigger events. But I believe Web Pixel is being rushed out to fix a problem for tracking Shopify’s new checkout, and that there are a number of problems with tracking customer behavior in modern browsers that Web Pixel can’t solve. I welcome the move to standardize the data layer for Shopify tracking...but there are a number of problems with tracking customer behavior in modern browsers that Web Pixel can’t solve. In this post I look at what Web Pixel is, how it does (and doesn’t) change customer tracking for Shopify stores, and the benefits and challenges of different approaches to tracking. I explain why we think that Shopify Web Pixel currently misses the mark, and what we’re looking forward to as Web Pixel evolves. Let's dive in. Does Web Pixel change customer tracking for Shopify stores? Shopify merchants can track customer events in a variety of ways. Almost every Shopify merchant uses third party marketing platforms like Facebook Ads to drive traffic. And they all want to improve ROAS by sharing customer actions from the storefront and checkout (product views, checkout steps such as Add-to-Cart, etc.) back with those marketing platforms for retargeting and audience building. Historically, this has been done via a client-side browser tracking library: gtag for Google Ads and Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel for Facebook & Instagram Ads, the Pinterest Tag for Pinterest, etc. And there were three main ways stores could get these ‘pixels’ firing on the page: Via a Shopify app Triggered by Google Tag Manager (GTM) A developer adds the tag directly to the store theme In the case of 2 & 3, the challenge was both triggering the events at the correct time (e.g. listening for the click of ‘Add to cart’ button and sending the event before the page reloaded)  and having access to the right page, product and customer details at that time (e.g. product price, variant ID). What is Shopify Web Pixel? Shopify has seen stores struggle to implement tracking over the years, and wanted to make it easier for stores to track without Shopify directly supporting the data destinations. Shopify has been burnt trying to support third party platforms like Google Analytics and Facebook Ads (see the reviews for their Facebook Channel), and would prefer to push that support back to the third parties, or app developers that work with them. In comes Web Pixel. In Shopify’s own words, using the Shopify pixel manager allows: Access to a stream of customer events on your online store, including checkout events An additional layer of security for your online store and your customers, including greater control over the customer data that you share with third-party services Prevention of third party code running non-performing Javascript, or interfering with your online store and checkout Built in tools for privacy compliance Let's look at each benefit in detail, with my commentary. Access to a stream of customer events: this is solving the challenge of triggering the right event. This was always most difficult for the checkout, and will become impossible for Checkout 1 (see "Common problems tracking Shopify’s new checkout", below). However, Littledata already offers proven server-side tracking for any Shopify checkout, including headless builds. An additional layer of security. Yes, restricting access to the storefront by loading the pixels in a sandbox removes the risk of rogue scripts scraping personal data. But it makes it much harder to populate all the data fields that need to be shared with third parties. Littledata’s solution to do that product and customer enrichment server-side is both secure and comprehensive. Prevention of third party code running non-performing Javascript. I've previously written about the 'Wild West’ of stores using the Additional Scripts field. I'm all for removing this risk, but again there’s a trade-off between security and the richness of the data captured. Built in tools for privacy compliance. Shopify launched the customer privacy API back in 2020, but it hasn’t had much adoption among tracking apps. With Web Pixel, Shopify is making every pixel respect the customer cookie consent (as managed by a cookie banner app). This is great, but Littledata already respects customer privacy with complete cookie banner integrations. For stores and app developers I see the key benefit of Web Pixel is robustly triggering standard events and data context for common customer actions. Web Pixel removes the need to build a GTM data layer with an app like Elevar, or set up GTM to use this data layer in the tags. But this, too, is not without complications. What’s wrong with Web Pixel? There are several issues with Shopify's Web Pixel as it exists today. Firstly, it is not solving the key problem in modern web analytics: the increasing gap in client-side tracking due to ad blockers, browser restrictions on cookies and handling customers opting out of tracking. The solution to this is fully server-side tracking, which Littledata is launching in Q4. From a technical perspective, there’s a major limitation with how you could use the tracking library (e.g. gtag) within the Web Pixel callback. To send data to Google Analytics, you would need to load the gtag library on the parent page (either from the theme or a script-tag) and, after the library has loaded, pass the gtag function to the sandbox the Web Pixel runs. This removes most of the security benefits Shopify is touting (not loading additional scripts) and massively complicates setup of custom pixels. Shopify's Web Pixel doesn't solve the key problem in modern web analytics: the increasing gaps in client-side tracking. And then there are a number of gaps in the standard events currently tracked via Web Pixel. I know Shopify intends to patch some of these, but it’s not there yet: No context on the collection being viewed in collection_viewed events No product list impression events No product list click events No remove from cart event No shipping step on the checkout No waiting before page reloads to trigger add to cart events Very limited access to the browser window context (including page URL) for the pixel No post-purchase events (refunds, cancellations, fulfillments) Common problems tracking Shopify’s new checkout Shopify has long said it wants to lock down scripts running in the checkout to protect customer security and privacy. The latest version of the checkout (labelled "Checkout 1"), rolling out for Plus stores in Q4 2022, does this by allowing more checkout customization via API but removing customizations and scripts in checkout.liquid. So if you're a Plus store, and added a GTM container to the checkout.liquid file, these tags will stop working before December. You have three options to continue to track the checkout: Use Littledata’s server-side checkout tracking Use another app making use of the Web Pixel extension Build a custom pixel using Shopify pixel manager If you're not on Shopify Plus then only Littledata’s checkout tracking will work for you right now. Want to learn more? Find out the differences between client-side tracking and server-side tracking. Why is Shopify restricting scripts on the checkout? Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a powerful tool to manage marketing tags, but i’ve written before about how it provides a backdoor for malicious code to be injected into the checkout. For example, hackers can add a keystroke tracking script which relays credit card details as they are typed to the hacker’s server. Or in another hack we saw, the user was directed away from Shopify’s checkout to a similar-looking bogus checkout. Shopify has signaled that they see checkout as core to the ‘OS of ecommerce’ and they want to protect their brand from association with such scams. If that means blocking safe tags like Google Analytics or Google Ads, then that’s a worthwhile trade off for better security in their view. Should your store use the Shopify pixel manager? In short, no. We do not recommend using Shopify's pixel manager. At least not yet. The main use for adding Web Pixel right now is tracking the checkout, but Web Pixel is missing a key step of the checkout (shipping) and are difficult to implement via a custom pixel (for example, loading the tracking library or passing through that library to the sandbox). If you need to add back checkout tracking, or start tracking Google Analytics 4, you’d be far better using a proven analytics app for that. If you want to remove Google Tag Manager from your storefront for performance or security reasons that is understandable, but I’d suggest you wait until 2023 and some of the issues with Web Pixel have been ironed out. For now your options are: Make more use of server-side tracking, which will speed up your site Use Littledata’s GTM data layer to remove custom code that triggers events Web pixel should be useful next year for stores moving to Shopify Hydrogen. For headless Shopify stores we expect Web Pixel to make it easier to track pre-checkout events like page views, product views and add to carts - in addition to the server-side events Littledata tracks for headless stores. Some predictions for the future From our conversations with Shopify, I think the ability for apps to add script-tags to the Thank You page might be removed in 2023. That would make Web Pixel the only way to track purchase events on the Thank You page – but it wouldn’t impact purchases tracked server-side. I don’t think Shopify can or should deprecate script tags across the pre-checkout storefront, because there are lots of uses for additional JavaScript besides from tracking. I predict the impact on the tracking app ecosystem will be similar to when Shopify opened up subscriptions in the checkout in 2021 - a proliferation of apps offering generic functionality, and a race to the bottom in app pricing. I’d expect to see many more free tracking apps - for common platforms, like Facebook, and for niche ones like Roku and Verizon Media - because the technical complexity of launching client-side tracking is reduced. This is especially true for Google Analytics 4. Many brands are waiting for Shopify to release an official GA4 integration, but I don’t think this fits with Shopify’s strategy. They prefer to make it easy for app partners to connect to GA4, and leave these partners to help brands with Google Analytics queries. [tip]See what Shopify stores can do today to prepare for GA4[/tip] And yet I expect an increased demand and perceived value for apps that solve the real challenges of data accuracy and marketing attribution, through server-side tracking and other innovations. I know many brands willing to pay for quality data, and Web Pixel is not able to deliver that just now. [subscribe]

Over the last 6 months, we’ve continued to enhance Littledata’s Shopify source for Segment to work with any modern data stack. We have focused on providing a more comprehensive range of events and properties to sync with any destination in Segment, including email marketing tools, data warehouses, and Segment Personas. Our Segment connection uses a combination of client-side (browser) and server-side tracking to ensure 100% of your Shopify store data is sent to Segment. Littledata automatically integrates with Shopify and Shopify Plus sites to enable complete ecommerce analytics, including sales, marketing, customer, and product performance data. Recent updates include better matching with Personas, more consistent product properties, and more. Here are some highlights. Tracking plan for Segment Protocols We've written a full tracking plan and event schema, which is ready to upload into Protocols to prepare for robust data consistency in your data warehouse. Better matching with Segment Personas You can now choose which userId to use for Segment events from a standard list of common identifiers: Shopify customer ID - This is the default for new installs. Recommended if you have a simple Shopify setup with minimal integrations. Hashed email - The MD5 email hash is useful if you have other marketing platforms sending traffic where you know the email of the visitor (e.g. email marketing like Bronto or Marketo), but not their Shopify customer ID. Email - The email identifier is recommended when other platforms use the email and can’t hash it, and you are comfortable with the privacy implications. None (no identifier) - Choose “none” if user identity is already handled by your Segment implementation and you only need the extra events powered by Littledata's Shopify source. All user traits below are now being sent in the context.traits, and are synced with your CRM destinations every time the customer record in Shopify is updated. Trait Description Type createdAt The date customer record was created Date customerLifetimeValue The total spend of customer on the Shopify store Double default_address.street The customer’s default street address String default_address.city The customer’s city address String default_address.postalCode The customer’s ZIP / post code String default_address.state The customer’s state address String default_adress.country The customer’s country String description The customer notes String email The customer’s email address String firstName The customer’s first name String lastName The customer’s last name String marketingOptIn The marketing_opt_in field from Shopify customer String phone The customer’s phone number String purchaseCount The number of orders by this customer Integer state Whether the customer account is enabled (user has opted in) or disabled String tags The custom tags applied to the customer String userId Chosen user identifier, defaulting to Shopify Customer ID Double verified_email Whether the customer has verified their email Boolean Import historic Shopify orders into Segment For Enterprise Plus customers we can now import orders and refunds from before the date Littledata was connected to Segment. This allows you to build a complete customer record in destinations that support historic events, such as a data warehouse. If you are already a Littledata Plus customer, please contact your account manager to discuss setting up an order import. If you haven't yet tried Littledata or are still investigating solutions for you data stack, book a demo today with one of our data experts. [subscribe] Consistent product properties across all events We understand you need a consistent set of product properties with every ecommerce event to make analysis easier. For example, the product image URL is available within a Product Added event to make it easy to set up dynamic product retargeting campaigns. Previously, we only got the following properties from Shopify’s webhooks: shopify_product_idshopify_variant_idname (title)brand (vendor)sku And now we add these extra product properties for all events: variant (variants.title)image_url (from images.[0].src)cart_id (only with Product Added / Product Removed)urlcompare_at_price (variants.compare_at_price) Extra revenue properties We’ve added more reporting flexibility with how we send revenue data to Segment. Specifically, on Order Completed and all Checkout events, you will now see a subtotal = (product revenue including discounts). For the Order Completed event only, your store can opt in to an additional revenue property (product revenue excluding discounts, shipping and tax) via the Littledata application. Revenue is a reserved property in many Segment destinations. Opting in will override the total property sent to Google Analytics. Supporting the Iterable email destination Iterable is a cross-channel marketing platform that powers unified customer experiences and empowers you to create, optimize and measure every interaction across the entire customer journey. With this update, when an Iterable campaign leads to an Order Completed event the event properties will contain campaignId and templateId. To get these extra properties, you will need to edit the LittledataLayer setup to track the iterableEmailCampaignId and iterableTemplateId cookies. In addition we send an email field with all events linked to a user, so Iterable and other email marketing destinations can use the events. Supporting the Google Analytics destination in Cloud Mode In Cloud Mode, Segment will send event data to Segment’s cloud servers, and from there, we will translate and route that data to Google Analytics. This reduces the amount of third-party code on your site and you will be able to replay historical data in Google Analytics. We are happy to announce that you can now switch Google Analytics connection mode to Cloud Mode to relay events to GA from Segment's servers. This will increase page performance and provide greater control of the schema. More Subscription Event Properties On Subscription Created, Subscription Updated and Subscription Cancelled events we have added: statusproduct_id = shopify_product_idname = product_titlepricequantityskushopify_variant_idvariant = variant_titleorder_interval_frequencyorder_interval_unit On the Subscription Cancelled event only we have: cancellation_reasoncancellation_reason_comments And on the Charge Failed event we added:  error_type Change of product ID used in Segment events Previously, we used the product SKU for client-side events to be consistent with the GA destination. From this month, we have changed this to send the Shopify product ID as the product_id field in Segment for all events. Ability to send anonymized IP instead of full IP to Segment Segment’s AnalyticsJS library sends the whole IP address by default in Track and Page events. This is contrary to our GDPR recommendations, and we now set context.ip with the last octet (3 digits) anonymized. This still allows geolocation of the events, but ensures IP addresses are not accidentally captured in end locations.

Happy 2021! We are excited to announce that Littledata's Google Analytics app for Shopify stores is featured in a new Shopify App Store collection called Plan for what's next. As ecommerce continues to scale at lightning speed, planning for growth (and how to beat the rising tides of DTC competition) is on everyone's mind this year, so we couldn't be happier with the timing for this app store promotion. Google Analytics by Littledata is one of the top-reviewed apps in the app store. Benefits include: Complete sales trackingMarketing attributionAdvanced tracking for apps like ReCharge and CartHookCustom dimensions for tracking payment gateways and customer lifetime value (LTV)Own the data in Google Analytics The Shopify App Store ecosystem has grown quite a bit since we launched our first Shopify app there in 2017, and it's always nice to be promoted internally by Shopify to reach even more merchants that could benefit from complete ecommerce analytics. The app store has evolved, but it's still all about apps that work well together, whether you're selling by subscription or going headless. If you're serious about data-driven growth, it's time to give Littledata a try. Start a 30-day free trial today and say hello to accurate data. View the new collection in the Shopify App Store >>> Learn more On Shopify Plus? Running multiple country stores? Learn more about Littledata's plans and pricingExplore Littledata's connections with other popular Shopify apps, including ReCharge, Bold and CartHook (plus automatic integrations like Klaviyo)Read technical documentation on Littledata's GTM and Google Analytics data layer for Shopify stores

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.

Is mobile a better channel than your current data suggests? We recently caught up with Will from Underwaterpistol and Claudia from Klevu to chat about the state of mobile ecommerce. The average mobile conversion rate tends to be only 1-2% for Shopify stores. But that's just the beginning of the story. Optimizing for mobile is an ongoing process. There isn't just one solution. In addition to technical factors like page load speed (time to first paint, etc.), you have to consider the entire user journey and optimize the flow accordingly. This includes social presence, the details of browsing behavior (eg. on-site search, product list views), and checkout funnel tracking, which can be difficult to do manually for Shopify stores. That said, unless you get marketing attribution right in the first place, you might be beating a dead horse. [note]How do you compare? Check out our list of essential benchmarks for Shopify stores, including average order value (AOV) and bounce rate from mobile search.[/note] Multi-touch attribution models are useful, but it's important to fix basic tracking issues first (such as cross-domain tracking in the checkout flow), and even once you get that tracking set up correctly, it's essential to understand how users are behaving at each touchpoint, rather than just giving each touchpoint a certain percentage of credit for the conversion. This is especially true for Shopify stores and DTC brands where popular mobile channels such as Instagram and Pinterest are a strong draw. For example, if your best (highest LTV) customers are actually coming from Instagram Ads on mobile devices, and then purchasing on desktop once they get into your brand story on a deeper level, then maybe your mobile site should focus on visual brand stories with an email signup CTA, instead of discounts and cart abandonment campaigns aimed at direct ecommerce conversions. Thanks to Underwaterpistol (UWP) for putting together the video chat! UWP is one of our Shopify Plus agency partners at Littledata. Do you run a team of Shopify experts that would like to use Littledata to fix tracking for your clients? Learn more about our partner program.

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.  

In a month of grim news, we have some good news to share. Whoever you are, wherever you are, we think everyone deserves to make data-driven decisions We're excited to announce that we've extended Littledata's free trial from 14 days to 30 days. ? The 30-day free trial is available to any Shopify merchant on any plan -- Shopify Plus? Multi-country setup? Selling by subscription? We've got you covered. Successful brands use Littledata to know the real return on their advertising spend (ROAS), calculate customer lifetime value (LTV or CLV), get complete marketing attribution, and much more. So as companies around the world move online and need to make data-driven decisions quickly, we're here for you. With the free trial, you can: Fix your Shopify tracking automatically: With just a few clicks, you'll see accurate data in Segment or Google Analytics within 24 hours. No more data discrepancies between Shopify and GA! Set up any number of connections: Add connections to track CartHook funnels, ReCharge subscription ecommerce, Facebook Ads, Google Ads, and more, with our full range of connections and integrations. Get support from an analytics expert: We started as Google Analytics consultants and we're always here to help. Choose the plan that's right for you and your business, and get help with everything from data audits to custom setup, analytics training and GTM support. (And yes, we offer support during free trials!) Getting started with the trial You can get started here. After clicking Start Your Free Trial, you'll be brought to a sign up page to create your account. From there, just a few quick steps before accurate data starts flowing: Connect your Google Analytics account Connect Shopify to Google Analytics You're all set. Welcome to accurate Shopify tracking! If you have questions, get in touch with our team of Google Analytics consultants. We're here to help! Using Shopify and Segment? If you're looking for a way to send Shopify ecommerce data to your Segment workspace, you're in luck. Over the past year, we worked closely with Segment to create the ultimate tracking solution for Shopify stores. Our Segment connection is now available to all Shopify merchants, and we've extended the 30-day free trial to the Segment app for Shopify too. Connect Shopify to Segment with a free trial today. Selling by subscription? If you're selling products by subscription, you'll be pleased to know that the extended free trial includes unlimited access to our top-rated subscription ecommerce tracking tools. Use Littledata's ReCharge connection or Bold Subscriptions integration to fix your data today. Why wait? It's the most advanced solution on the market for Shopify stores that want to track recurring payments and subscription products -- yet remarkably simple to set up, and powerful from the get-go. Start your free trial today. Stay home. Stay calm. And say hello to accurate data! [subscribe]