Running a successful online store requires attracting visitors who are interested in your products. Traffic acquisition reports in SHOPLINE provide valuable insights into where your customers are coming from, how they interact with your store, and ultimately, how well your marketing efforts are converting visitors into buyers.
This article will explain the different types of traffic acquisition reports available in SHOPLINE and how to interpret the data they provide. By understanding your traffic sources and customer behavior, you can make informed decisions to optimize your marketing strategies and boost your online store's performance.
You will see the most up-to-date data when you open a traffic acquisition report, which takes about 1 or 2 minutes. You can reopen or refresh the report to update data.
In This Article
Completed Checkouts vs Orders
The metrics of Completed checkout and Orders are positively related but they are not the same.
The first difference is, Completed checkout counts the number of visitors (sessions), while Orders counts the number of orders. If a visitor places multiple orders, the order count exceeds the sessions.
On the other hand, Completed checkout is attributed to the time when the session is created, while Orders is attributed to the time when the order is successfully created. For example, Visitor A visits the online store at 10:00 AM today and places orders at 1:00 PM, so there is 1 session at 10:00 AM and 1 order at 1:00 PM.
Bounce Rate
Bounce rate means differently in different situations.
For stores where success relies on visitors viewing multiple pages, a high bounce rate isn't ideal. Specifically, if your home page serves as an entry to other sections like product detail pages, collections, and checkout pages, but most visitors only view the homepage, you certainly want a low bounce rate.
On the other hand, For one-page stores or those with a streamlined checkout process, such as shopping cart permalinks, a high bounce rate is expected."
Common Metrics
The table below provides the common metrics in traffic acquisition reports:
| Metric | Definition |
| Sessions |
Sessions that enter your online store. This metric is specific to your online store channels. A visitor (unique visitor, UV) may have multiple visit actions (page view, PV). A visitor session ends after 30 minutes of inactivity. For example, Customer A visits your store through social media and then visits again a few days later. Although it is the same Customer A, the sessions will be 2. A session also ends If it spans across midnight in the time zone where the store is located or midnight in UTC. For example, if Customer A visits your store at 11:30 PM on January 1 and leaves at 00:20 AM on January 2, the visit on January 2 is regarded as a new session. When you view session metrics, there is 1 session for each of these two days. |
| Sessions of successful registration | The number of sessions where the visitors completed the registration. |
| Added to cart |
The number of sessions where the visitors clicked the Add to cart button. Note: Visitors who click the Buy Now or PayPal Express Checkout button are not counted for Added to cart sessions. |
| Reached checkout | The number of sessions where the visitors reached the checkout page. |
| Added customer info | If a visitor adds a valid email address or mobile number on the checkout page and clicks Next, this indicates that this visitor has successfully added the user information and is counted for Added customer info sessions based on the creation time. |
| Added shipping method | If a visitor selects a shipping method on the checkout page and clicks Next, this indicates that this visitor has successfully added the shipping method and is counted for Added shipping method sessions based on the creation time. |
| Added payment Info | If a visitor adds valid payment information (e.g., credit card/debit card/PayPal account) on the checkout page and clicks Check out or Submit order, this indicates that this visitor has successfully added the payment information and is counted for Added payment Info sessions based on the creation time. |
| Completed checkout | The number of sessions where the visitors successfully placed orders. |
| Conversion rate | Conversion rate = Completed checkout sessions/Sessions × 100%. |
| Bounce rate |
The percentage of visitors on your website who view only one page out of all the visitors. For example, a bounce rate of "16.8%" means that 16.8% of visitors to your store viewed only one page. |
Viewing Traffic Acquisition Reports
- From your SHOPLINE admin panel, go to Analytics > Reports.
- Select to view any of the following traffic acquisition reports:
- By date range
- By channel
- By country/region
- By device
- By search source
By Date Range
This report allows you to analyze trends in metrics like sessions, added to cart, reached checkout, completed checkout, etc., over a chosen period. In addition to hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly data, you can select an hour of a day, a day of a week, or a month of a year as the time unit to understand traffic patterns.
The time a visitor creates a session determines the time dimensions in this report. The common dimensions are as follows:
| Dimensions | Definition |
| Hour |
The hour when visitors created a session. For example, a visitor created a session at 10:30 AM on January 1, 2023, this visitor is attributed to 10:00 AM on January 1, 2023. |
| Day |
The date when visitors created a session. For example, a visitor creates a session at 10:30 AM on January 1, 2023, this visitor is attributed to January 1, 2023. |
| Week |
The Monday of the week when the visitor created the session. For example, a visitor creates a session at 10:30 AM on January 1, 2023, and the Monday in the week of January 1, 2023 falls on December 26, 2022, then this visitor is attributed to December 26, 2022. |
| Month |
The month when visitors created a session. For example, a visitor creates a session at 10:30 AM on January 1, 2023, this visitor is attributed to January 2023. |
| Quarter |
The quarter when visitors created a session, which helps aggregate metrics by quarter. For example, a visitor creates a session at 10:30 AM on January 1, 2023, this visitor is attributed to January 2023 (recorded based on the first month of each quarter, where January represents the first quarter, April represents the second quarter, July represents the third quarter, and October represents the fourth quarter). |
| Year |
The year when visitors created a session, which helps aggregate metrics by year. For example, a visitor created a session at 10:30 AM on January 1, 2023, this visitor is attributed to 2023. |
| An hour of a day |
The hour when visitors created a session, which helps view hourly data trends. Based on this dimension, you may find that sessions are mainly created around 10 AM over a certain period. |
| A day of a week |
The session creation date is converted to the day of the week. This dimension helps you view weekly data trends. Based on this dimension, you may find that sessions on Sundays are significantly higher than other days over a certain period. |
| A month of a year |
The session creation date is converted to the month. This dimension helps you view monthly data trends. Based on this dimension, you may find that sessions in December are significantly higher than other months over a certain period. |
By Channel
This report displays metrics like sessions, added to cart, reached checkout, and completed checkout within your chosen timeframe. You can view the referrer URL from which visitors originated, including platforms like Facebook, Google, TikTok, and Bing. You can use Manage filters to refine results by landing page type, landing page path, landing page URL, as well as location dimensions like country/region and province/state. You can also use Add filters to combine conditions. The common dimensions are as follows:
| Dimensions | Definition |
| Referrer source | The way in which visitors found your online store. Common referral sources include search engines, social media, and direct access. Since traffic referrer sources are sometimes impossible to determine, unknown sources may appear. |
| Referrer name | The specific name of the referrer source, such as Google or Facebook. |
By Country/Region
This report analyzes traffic based on the country/region of the visitor's IP address to help you learn traffic trends and conversion rates in different countries/regions.
By Device
This report displays the conversions of visitors using various login devices within your chosen timeframe. The common dimensions are as follows:
| Dimensions | Definition |
| Browser | The browser used by the visitor. |
| Browser version | The version of the browser used by the visitor. |
| Device type | The type of device used by the visitor, such as desktop or smartphone. |
| Operating system version | The operating system version of the visitor. |
| Operating system | The operating system used by the visitor, such as Windows or Mac OS X. |
By Search Source
This report displays the visitor data where the referrer source is Search by default. If your main focus is on the conversions of visitors from Google or Google Ads, you can quickly view this information in the report.
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