Installing on Shopify
The OAuth install flow, step by step. Takes about 2 minutes end-to-end.
Follow The Spend installs through Shopify's standard OAuth flow. No theme edits, no code paste, no manual pixel setup. Two minutes, three clicks.
What you'll need
- Admin access to a Shopify store
- A Follow The Spend account (free 7-day trial, no card)
That's it.
The install flow
Sign up at followthespend.com
Head to followthespend.com and click Start free trial. Sign up with email + password (managed by Clerk). No card required.
Enter your Shopify store domain
After signup you'll land on the onboarding page. Enter your store's .myshopify.com domain (e.g. acme-store.myshopify.com). If you have a custom domain like acmestore.com, use the underlying .myshopify.com URL — that's the canonical Shopify identifier.
Click Connect Shopify.
Approve the OAuth permissions
You'll be redirected to your Shopify admin's app approval screen. Shopify will list the permissions FTS is requesting. The full list is documented at Shopify Permissions — in short: read access to orders, customers, products, and the ability to add a Script Tag to your storefront.
Click Install app.
Wait 5 seconds
Shopify redirects you back to FTS. Behind the scenes, four things happen automatically:
- Your store is created in our system as a "site"
- A Script Tag is added to your storefront — this is our pixel (
intentiq.js) - We subscribe to your order, refund, and customer webhooks
- Your 7-day trial subscription begins
You'll land on Pulse, your live dashboard.
Smoke-test the install
Open your store in an incognito window and browse a product. Within 30 seconds, the Live Visitors counter in the top-right of Pulse should tick up by one.
If it does, you're done. Tracking is live.
If it doesn't, see How to verify tracking is working correctly for the diagnostic walkthrough.
What just got installed on your store
Two things — both are reversible by uninstalling the app from your Shopify admin.
A Script Tag
Shopify's Script Tag API lets approved apps add a JavaScript file that loads on every storefront page. Ours is named intentiq.js and lives at cdn.followthespend.com/intentiq.js?sid=<your-pixel-id>. It's small (~6KB gzipped), async, and never blocks page render.
Reasoning behind the name: intentiq.js is a deliberately neutral filename so your customers can't immediately guess what tool you're running. We don't want our pixel name advertising who you use for analytics.
Webhook subscriptions
We subscribe to a small set of Shopify webhooks so that orders and refunds flow into FTS in real time:
orders/createorders/updatedorders/cancelledrefunds/createcustomers/create(used for identification)app/uninstalled(so we can clean up if you remove the app)
Plus the three privacy-compliance webhooks Shopify mandates (customers/data_request, customers/redact, shop/redact). See Privacy for what those do.
Reinstalling
If you ever uninstall and want to reconnect:
- The original Shopify approval screen will reappear (with whatever scopes the app currently requests)
- Approve, and we'll re-create the Script Tag and re-subscribe webhooks
- Your historical data is preserved — we never delete data on uninstall, only stop ingesting
If you reinstall within your active trial window, the trial timer doesn't reset (no double-trials). If your trial expired, you'll need to start a paid subscription to resume.
Common install issues
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Approval screen never loads | Pop-up blocker on the OAuth redirect | Disable pop-up blocker for followthespend.com and try again |
| "App already installed" | A previous install wasn't fully cleaned up | Email hello@followthespend.com — we'll resolve in under an hour |
| Pulse shows zero data after install | Either no traffic yet, or pixel didn't inject | See Verify tracking is working |
Where to go next
- Quickstart — the 10-minute tour after install
- Permissions explained — what each scope does and why
- Pulse Dashboard overview — the home screen tour