Case study · Apparel · Shopify
Attribution changed. We kept hitting GMV goals.
A Shopify apparel brand saw its channel numbers shift sharply year over year. Sales were real, but tracking had gaps. We explained what changed, built a view of performance the client could trust, and kept paid media, email and SMS on plan every month.
Paid media & retention lead · Feb to Sept
- Sales with no recorded session, Feb–May
- $2.76M
- Shopify, ad platforms, Triple Whale, Klaviyo, Hiro
- 5 sources
The situation
Shopify attribution changed drastically YoY
The client judged marketing mainly through Shopify, and trusted ad platform numbers very little. When Shopify's channel figures looked very different from the year before, the big question was whether marketing had slipped, or whether the way Shopify measured it had changed.
Cookie consent banners meant many orders arrived with no session or source recorded, so revenue piled up under "None". Bot traffic added noise to sessions and conversion rate. Between February and May, about $2.76M in sales came in with no recorded session at all.
The approach
What I did
01
Explain what changed
Walked the client through how cookie consent and missing sessions limit what Shopify can see, and why a drop in attributed channel revenue doesn't mean the same drop in real sales. That gave every performance conversation a fairer starting point.
02
Look at more than one source
Added Triple Whale alongside Shopify and ad platform reporting, and used Hiro Reporting to dig deeper into Klaviyo results. We compared them to see whether they told the same story, and never credited unknown revenue to a channel without evidence.
03
Run paid and retention on one plan
Built daily flash reporting on GMV, spend and pacing against goal with the analytics team. When revenue ran behind, we looked at ad spend, campaign timing, segments and extra email and SMS sends together.
04
Decide on the full picture
Before changing the plan, we weighed attributed results next to actual sales, spend, engagement and what campaigns had gone out.
The results
What changed
You don't need perfect attribution to hit your numbers. You need enough agreeing evidence to make good decisions, and the honesty not to over-claim credit.
- Monthly GMV goals met while tracking remained incomplete
- The client understood why Shopify's channel numbers changed year over year
- More confidence reading performance across several reporting sources
- A stronger basis for budget decisions, campaign changes and daily check-ins
- Next: Triple Whale ROAS as the main guide for forecasting and budgets, checked against Shopify sales, ad platforms, Klaviyo and Hiro
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Next step
Find the leak.
Fix the flow.
Keep the customer.
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