Customer journey
See how the Customer journey timeline shows up to 4 affiliate link clicks per referral, helping you track affiliate performance and optimize campaigns.
Conversion
On the Referral details page, you'll notice a Conversion section that shows basic information like the Shopify Order ID, Conversion date, and Tracking type.
A View details button will appear in the Conversion section for referrals tracked by:
Affiliate link
Coupon
Connected product
Connected customer
When you click the View details button, a Customer journey pop-up window will appear. This pop-up provides a timeline of the customer’s journey, with detailed information about about how they found and navigated to your store before converting.
Customer journey popup
The information displayed in the Customer journey popup depends on how the customer reached your store.
If the customer clicked an affiliate link at any point before converting, the popup shows a click-by-click timeline with details available up to 4 affiliate link clicks (the first two and the last two). Each click includes:
Landing page: The URL the customer landed on when they clicked the affiliate link.
Referring page: The page the customer came from before clicking.
Source: The traffic source (e.g., Facebook, Google, Direct).
Affiliate: The affiliate who referred the customer.
UTM parameters: UTM tracking values, if any.
ClickID: A unique ID for that click event.
If the customer converted through a Coupon, Connected product, or Connected customer without clicking an affiliate link, the popup shows a session-by-session timeline sourced from Shopify's traffic data, with details available up to 4 sessions (the first two and the last two). Each session includes:
Landing page: The URL the customer first visited in that session.
Referring page: The page they came from.
Source: The traffic source provided by Shopify (e.g., Google, Facebook). Displays Direct if no source is detected.
UTM parameters: UTM tracking values, if any.
The Customer journey shows details for up to 4 sessions and the conversion.
When traffic source data is unavailable
In some cases, the View details button may appear but be grayed out (disabled):
"Traffic source not available": Shopify does not have traffic data for this order. This can happen for orders placed in person (POS), draft orders, or when the customer's browser blocked tracking. No action is needed.
"Traffic source temporarily not available": An error occurred while retrieving traffic data. Our team has been notified and is investigating. The button will update automatically once the issue is resolved.
Notes:
If the referral has only one session or click before checkout, the system will display that as the Last session or Last click, followed by the Conversion details.
The Conversion section within the pop-up contains the final details about the order, including the order ID, tracking type, and traffic source at the moment of purchase.
End journey: The journey ends when the customer successfully checks out. If a customer accesses a new affiliate link after checkout, a new journey begins.
How to use the feature effectively
Monitor affiliate performance: Track which affiliates are driving conversions, whether through direct link clicks or indirect touchpoints like coupons and connected products.
Analyze the customer journey: Trace a customer's full path to conversion — from their first visit to the final purchase — to understand which sources and channels are most effective.
Compare click vs. session data: For referrals where a customer used a coupon or connected product, session-level data from Shopify gives you visibility into their traffic source even without a direct affiliate link click.
Optimize affiliate marketing: Use the detailed journey data to fine-tune your affiliate marketing strategies and identify your highest-performing channels.
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