Glossary

If you encounter a term in the dashboard or KB that isn't obvious, the definition is here.

Anonymous visitor

A visitor we've seen browse but haven't linked to a Shopify customer. The default state for every visitor we've never seen identified. See Visitors, sessions, and identification.

Attribution

The story we tell about which marketing touch deserves credit for a conversion. Different models tell different stories about the same data. See How attribution works.

Attribution model

A rule for distributing conversion credit across the sessions in a visitor's journey. v1.0 has three: first-touch, last-touch, linear. See Attribution models.

Campaign

The utm_campaign value attached to a session's source URL. Used for fine-grained attribution within a channel. See Channels and sources.

Channel

A bucket for sessions based on how the visitor arrived. v1.0 has seven: Direct, Organic Search, Paid Search, Paid Social, Email, Social, Referral. See Channels and sources.

A query parameter that ad platforms append to clicks. gclid (Google Ads), fbclid (Meta), msclkid (Microsoft Ads), ttclid (TikTok). FTS uses these as a strong signal for paid channel classification.

Conversion

A Shopify order that's been linked to a visitor journey. The order itself comes from Shopify; the linkage is what makes it a conversion in attribution terms. See Conversions and orders.

Direct

The channel for sessions with no detectable source — visitor typed the URL, used a bookmark, or arrived via a context the browser hides from us.

A cookie scoped to your store's domain (set by JavaScript running on your store). Not blocked by ITP's third-party cookie rules. FTS sets two first-party cookies: visitor ID and session ID.

First-touch

The attribution model that gives 100% credit to the visitor's first session. Useful for evaluating top-of-funnel acquisition channels.

Grace period

The 7-day window after trial expiry (or after a payment failure, post-WS3) during which an account is read-only but recoverable. After grace, data enters a 30-day retention window before permanent deletion. See Trial mechanics.

Identified visitor

A visitor whose cookie has been linked to a Shopify customer ID, typically via checkout or login. All prior anonymous sessions on the same cookie merge under the customer's profile retroactively. See Visitors, sessions, and identification.

Identification stitching

The process of merging a visitor's anonymous sessions into their identified profile when identification happens. See Identification stitching.

Journey

The complete chronological sequence of sessions for a single visitor, regardless of conversion outcome. Every visitor has a journey. See Multi-touch journeys.

Last-touch

The attribution model that gives 100% credit to the visitor's most recent session before conversion. Useful for evaluating bottom-of-funnel performance.

Linear

The attribution model that gives equal credit to every session in the visitor's journey. Useful for understanding multi-channel mixes.

Lookback window

The maximum age a session can be (relative to a conversion) and still receive attribution credit. v1.0 default is 30 days, fixed. See Lookback windows.

Medium

The utm_medium value, or the inferred type of touch — cpc, email, organic, social, referral, none.

Pixel

The JavaScript file (intentiq.js) that runs on every page of your storefront. It captures page views, sessions, and conversion events. See The pixel.

Pulse

The home dashboard in Follow The Spend. Shows live revenue, channel mix, conversion counts, and trend charts. See Pulse Dashboard overview.

Script Tag

Shopify's API for adding a JavaScript file to every storefront page. FTS uses this to install the pixel during OAuth, with no manual theme edits.

Session

A continuous browsing visit. Starts when a visitor lands and ends after either 30 minutes of inactivity or midnight in the store's timezone, whichever comes first. See Visitors, sessions, and identification.

Site

A single Shopify store connected to FTS. v1.0 enforces 1 site per user account. The internal database table is named sites. Multi-site / agency support is post-v1.

Soft cap

The order-limit policy on each plan. Going over the limit doesn't gate or delete data; it triggers an upgrade nudge. See Plans and pricing.

Source

The utm_source value, or the inferred origin of a session — google, facebook, klaviyo, etc.

Sub-processor

A third-party service involved in delivering FTS. v1.0 sub-processors: Railway (hosting), Cloudflare (CDN/DNS), Clerk (auth), with Razorpay/Resend/Sentry/BetterStack landing in WS3 and WS7. See Sub-processors.

UTM parameters

Query-string parameters used to tag marketing links: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content. The strongest signal for channel attribution. See Channels and sources.

Visitor

A single browser-cookie-pair on a single device — the unit of measurement for traffic. Different from a "customer" (which is a Shopify-side concept). See Visitors, sessions, and identification.

Visitor ID

The opaque string we generate on first visit and store in a first-party cookie, e.g. v_4f2a8c91.... Persists for up to 1 year by default; ITP shortens it to 7 days on Safari.

Web Pixel API

Shopify's sandboxed runtime for receiving checkout events server-side. The basis of FTS's upcoming server-side tracking, which solves the Buy It Now / Shop Pay attribution gap. See Server-side tracking.