What Are Sessions on Shopify? Shopify Analytics Explained

On Shopify, a "session" refers to a single visit to your online store by a user. A session begins when someone lands on your shop and ends after 30 minutes of inactivity or when they leave. Shopify uses sessions to track how many times your store is visited, regardless of whether the same person visits multiple times. This metric helps you understand your store’s traffic, customer behavior, and overall performance.

Sessions are different from visitors: if someone visits your store twice in one day (with a break in between), that counts as two sessions but only one unique visitor. Monitoring sessions helps you evaluate the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, identify traffic trends, and make informed business decisions.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Access Shopify Admin: Log in to your Shopify admin dashboard.
2. Go to Analytics: Click on "Analytics" in the left-hand menu.
3. View Reports: Select "Dashboards" or "Reports" to see your store’s analytics overview.
4. Find Sessions Data: Look for the "Sessions" metric, typically shown on the main analytics dashboard or in the "Sessions over time" report.
5. Analyze Details: Click on the sessions data to view details such as traffic sources, locations, devices, and trends over time.
6. Compare with Other Metrics: Use sessions alongside other analytics (like visitors, conversion rate, and sales) to get a complete picture of store performance.

Before You Start

• Make sure you have access to your Shopify admin dashboard.
• Note that sessions data may have a slight delay in updating.
• Be aware that sessions are tracked using cookies; users who clear cookies or use different devices will be counted as separate sessions.

Alternatives to This Action

• To track deeper customer behavior, use third-party analytics tools like Google Analytics for more advanced insights.
• Review "Unique Visitors" or "Pageviews" metrics for different perspectives on your store’s traffic.

FAQs

Q: How are sessions different from visitors on Shopify?

Sessions count every visit to your store, even if the same person visits multiple times. Visitors track unique individuals, so multiple visits by the same person count as one visitor but multiple sessions.

Q: Why are sessions important for my Shopify store?

Sessions help you measure traffic, understand marketing performance, and identify trends in customer behavior. Tracking sessions can guide your marketing and business decisions.

Q: Where can I find sessions data in Shopify?

You can find sessions data in your Shopify admin under Analytics. The main dashboard and reports show sessions over time, traffic sources, and other key metrics.

Q: Do sessions include bots or only real visitors?

Shopify filters out most known bots and only counts sessions from real visitors. However, some automated traffic may still be included if it’s not recognized as a bot.