I’m trying to figure out how the landing_site attribute works for Shopify orders. My client needs some detailed info about it.
From what I know, it’s supposed to show the first page a customer visits in the shop. But I’m not sure how long it stays the same.
Here’s what I’m wondering:
If someone comes to the shop through the home page, does landing_site become ‘/’?
What if they come back later through a product link with a ref parameter? Does it change to something like ‘/products/cool-shirt?ref=abc123’?
How long does this value stick around?
Can we reset it somehow?
If anyone has worked with this before, I’d really appreciate some help. It seems like info that could be useful for lots of app developers.
# Example code to fetch landing_site
order = ShopifyAPI::Order.find(123456)
landing_page = order.landing_site
puts "Customer first landed on: #{landing_page}"
I’ve dealt with Shopify’s landing_site attribute quite a bit in my projects. From my experience, it’s a bit more nuanced than you might expect.
The landing_site does indeed capture the first page a customer visits, but it’s tied to the visitor’s session, not their entire history with your store. It persists for the duration of that session, which typically lasts until the browser is closed or after a period of inactivity (usually around 30 minutes).
To answer your specific questions:
If a customer lands on the home page, the attribute will indeed be ‘/’. If they return in a new session via a product link, the value will update to reflect the new URL. The attribute sticks around for the duration of the session, and you cannot manually reset it—it naturally resets with each new session.
This behavior makes it useful for tracking campaign effectiveness and understanding customer journeys, though it should be used alongside other analytics tools for a complete picture.
Having worked extensively with Shopify’s order attributes, I can shed some light on the landing_site functionality. It’s important to note that this attribute is session-based, not user-based. The value is set when a visitor first arrives at your store and remains constant for that session.
Sessions typically last for the duration of the browser being open or until a period of inactivity (usually around 24 hours). Once a new session starts, the landing_site will update to reflect the new entry point.
One key point to remember is that this attribute doesn’t change within a single session, even if the customer navigates to different pages. It’s designed to capture the initial touchpoint, which can be valuable for understanding traffic sources and campaign effectiveness.
Unfortunately, there’s no built-in method to manually reset the landing_site. It’s managed automatically by Shopify’s system to maintain data integrity and consistency across sessions.
I’ve been working with Shopify for a while now, and the landing_site attribute has been a game-changer for understanding customer behavior. Here’s what I’ve learned:
The landing_site is all about the customer’s first touchpoint in their current session. It’s not just about where they land, but how they got there. For instance, if they click through from a Facebook ad, you’ll see the full URL with UTM parameters. This is gold for tracking campaign performance.
One thing to keep in mind: the landing_site value is pretty sticky. It won’t change even if the customer bounces around your store during that session. This can be both good and bad - good for understanding initial traffic sources, but not so great for tracking mid-session behavior.
In my experience, the session length varies. I’ve seen it last anywhere from a few hours to a full day. It really depends on Shopify’s current settings and the customer’s activity.
As for resetting it, I haven’t found a way to do it manually. It’s hands-off by design, which helps maintain data consistency across the platform.
I’ve implemented several Shopify projects, and the landing_site attribute has been crucial for understanding customer acquisition. It’s session-based, capturing the initial entry point when a visitor arrives at your store. This value remains constant throughout the session, which typically lasts until browser closure or extended inactivity.
The landing_site will be ‘/’ for homepage visits or the full URL for specific product pages, including any referral parameters. It’s particularly useful for tracking marketing campaign effectiveness.
One limitation to note is that you can’t manually reset this attribute. It’s designed to update automatically with each new session, maintaining data integrity. While this ensures consistent tracking, it means you’ll need to rely on other methods for capturing mid-session navigation changes.
For comprehensive customer journey analysis, I recommend combining landing_site data with other analytics tools to get a fuller picture of user behavior across multiple sessions.
hey alexj, i’ve messed with landing_site before. it’s pretty straightforward - it shows where the customer first landed in their current session. it’ll be ‘/’ for homepage, or the full url if they came through a product link. the value sticks around for the whole session (usually til browser closes). don’t think u can reset it manually tho - that’s all handled by shopify.