Shopify by Littledata Source

After the installation process:

• A minified tracking script is loaded through Littledata's app embed in your Shopify theme.
• Segment's Analytics.js 2.0 library loads on all pages, except for the checkout.
• All pages include a LittledataLayer data layer.
• Device-mode e-commerce events can send to all Segment destinations.
• Segment's anonymous ID and Google Analytics' client ID passes to Littledata's servers to ensure consistent user journey tracking

During the Segment connection setup, Littledata also adds a set of webhooks to your Shopify store. When a customer interacts with your store these changes are relayed server-side from Shopify to Littledata to Segment. The advantages to this approach are:

• 100% event capture for adds to cart, checkout steps, sales and refunds/returns
• Customer data (for example, email) securely relayed server-side
• No extra scripts on the sensitive and secure checkout pages
• Accurate marketing attribution, even when customers use ad-blockers or cookie opt-outs
• Supports cloud-mode destinations such as Facebook Conversions API

Here's an architecture diagram that shows how the Littledata app mediates data flow between Shopify and Segment.

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To install Shopify by Littledata, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Shopify store account and go to the Shopify app store listing for Twilio Segment by Littledata.

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2. Click Install to add the app and choose a Littledata subscription suitable for your store's volume of monthly orders. All plans include a 30-day free trial.

3. From the Littledata dashboard, click Add destination, then find the Segment destination and click Connect.

4. Choose your tracking preferences, then click Continue. The recommended settings are already selected.

5. In your Segment workspace, go to Sources and search for Shopify (by Littledata). Add the source, then return to Littledata, tick I have completed all the steps, and click Continue.

6. Add the Segment write key for the source that is going to send data. To find it, go to Connections > Sources in your Segment workspace, select your source, open Settings, then select API Keys.

7. Littledata's tracking script and webhooks are automatically applied to the store and the installation is complete. You can now send data from Shopify to hundreds of Segment destinations.

Using a headless or Shopify Hydrogen setup? Follow the setup steps for headless Shopify tracking instead.

Below is a table of events that Shopify by Littledata sends to Segment through the analytics.js library. These events will show up as tables in your warehouse, and as regular events in your other Destinations supporting device-mode.

Session Started is triggered on a user's first visit in a browser session. It is only sent again for the same user after the browser is closed; opening more tabs of your store will not trigger an extra session start.

This event is less reliable than the de-duplicated Order Completed event sent from the Littledata servers, but you can use it in device-mode destinations to trigger a conversion. The payment_method and shipping_method properties are not available with this event.

You can opt out of device-mode pageviews or events from the data pipeline settings in the Littledata app.

The source also respects GDPR-compliant cookie consent through Shopify's cookie banner, or popular consent management platforms such as OneTrust, Clym, Consentmo and Pandectes.

Littledata is also compatible with Segment Consent Management, stamping the user's consent category preferences on tracked events.

Below is a table of events that Shopify by Littledata sends to Segment from Littledata's servers. These events appear as tables in your warehouse, and as regular events in your other Destinations that support cloud-mode. They include the anonymousId that links them to the device-mode events where the event was part of a previous user session, or associated with a userId that was previously linked with an anonymousId. See Littledata's troubleshooting guide on attribution for more details.

The Order Completed event may be delayed by up to 40 seconds to wait for tags applied after the order was created.

In the Littledata application you can choose which of the following fields you want to send as the userId for known customers:

• Shopify customer ID (default) - 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 (for example, email marketing like Bronto or Marketo), but not their Shopify customer ID. Littledata uses an unsalted MD5 hash (`createHash` method) to match your other sources.
• 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.
• Shopify customer metafield - If you have your own customer identifier, and can add it to the Shopify customer record as a metafield, you can send this to Segment.
• 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.

For Unify and Engage, Littledata also sends shopify_customer_id as an externalID for advanced matching.

For every event where there is an identifiable Shopify customer (from both the device-mode and cloud-mode) Littledata also sends an Identify call to build a customer profile in Unify and trigger updates in CRM systems connected to Segment. This happens when the customer logs into the storefront, on the last step of the checkout, with the order, and also after purchase with any customer update in Shopify admin.

The following traits are included with an Identify call:

All events (device-mode and cloud-mode) contain the Google Analytics clientId field where known. This allows the Google Analytics destination to be configured in cloud-mode only, so all client side events are relayed through Segment's servers - reducing the scripts needed on your website.

Email marketing platforms such as Klaviyo, Iterable and Hubspot require an email property with any server-side event in order to associate events with a customer (they cannot use an anonymousId). Littledata adds that email property whenever an email address is set in the user traits() object (in device-mode) or from the Shopify customer record (in cloud-mode). Iterable can also receive cookie values with the Order Completed event.

Littledata also supports a direct integration for Klaviyo with enhanced identity resolution for abandonment retargeting.

To support seamless customer tracking the Mixpanel, Vero and KISSMetrics destinations, Littledata ensures the pre-checkout anonymousId is added as an alias of the userId (used from checkout step 2 onwards).

All recurring orders in the Shopify checkout, from any subscription app, are tracked as Order Completed events.

Additional subscription lifecycle events through Littledata's ReCharge connection are available in cloud-mode destinations.

These events include the following properties in addition to the standard event properties:

The list below outlines the properties included in most events. For a detailed schema showing exactly which properties are sent with which events, contact the Littledata Support team.

Each item in the products array, or Product Viewed and Product Added events, will have the following properties

All events sent to Segment include the Shopify Market handle by default (see market_handle and market_id in the event properties above). Because Segment acts as a hub for your marketing stack, this flows through to every connected destination - whether that's a data warehouse, an email platform like Klaviyo or Braze, or an analytics tool like Mixpanel.

You can segment audiences, filter reports, and trigger market-specific flows across your entire stack without any additional data enrichment. This requires Shopify Markets to be active in your store, but does not require any per-market destination configuration within Littledata.

Littledata's Event Editor is a no-code interface for shaping how Littledata sends Shopify events to Segment. You can enable or disable individual events, edit field mappings, filter events with trigger conditions, clone one Shopify event into multiple destination events, and enrich events with additional data from Shopify metafields.