Install Store Decode and switch on the app embed

You install Store Decode in two steps, and neither needs code. First, install the app from the Shopify App Store. Then press Activate in theme editor in the app and click Save in your theme editor. The app sets up everything else by itself, and Activity shows your own visit within about a minute.

Step 1: install the app

1. Open the Store Decode listing on the Shopify App Store and click Install.
2. Shopify shows the permissions the app asks for. Store Decode asks to read your products and orders, to create its web pixel and to read the events that pixel reports. It also sets up an app proxy: a path on your store’s own address that its script sends data through. What Store Decode collects lists every field.
3. Approve, and Store Decode opens inside your Shopify admin, on Home.

The app is free, with every feature, so there is no plan to choose and no card to add.

Step 2: switch on the app embed

Shopify does not let an app switch itself on in your theme. You do it once, with one click and a save:

1. On Home, find the setup checklist and its Storefront script row.
2. Press Activate in theme editor. Your theme editor opens on App embeds, with Store Decode already selected.
3. Check that the Store Decode toggle is on, then click Save at the top of the editor.

That is the whole setup. The button opens the editor of your published theme, the one visitors see. App embeds are switched on per theme, so if you publish a different theme later, switch Store Decode on in that theme too. While the embed is off, Settings shows the same Activate in theme editor button under Tracking.

What the app sets up by itself

You never paste anything into your theme’s code. The app embed adds Store Decode’s script to your storefront pages, and Shopify hosts it. The script is a few KB and loads without blocking your page; Does Store Decode slow down a Shopify store? explains how.

Store Decode also does two things without asking you:

• It creates its Order tracking pixel, a Shopify web pixel that reports cart adds, checkouts and orders. The checklist marks it Installed.
• It writes its own settings into your store, such as the key that tells its data apart from other stores’. You never see or edit them.

How to check it worked

The checklist on Home has three rows: Order tracking pixel, Storefront script and First data received. Until a visit arrives, Home checks every 30 seconds for 10 minutes while the page is open. Then it asks you to reload. When the first page view comes in, Home reloads itself and the card reads Store Decode is collecting.

To see a visit of your own arrive, use Activity:

1. Open Activity and press Start a check. Your store opens in a new tab, with a link tagged for your visit.
2. Visit a collection and a product, add the product to your cart, and go on to checkout.
3. Back on Activity, each step under Your check is marked Seen as it arrives.

A few things keep your own visit from showing. In a browser where Don’t count my visits is on, the script sends nothing (Shopify’s pixel still reports its cart adds and orders), so use a private window. If your store shows a cookie banner, allow analytics in it before you start. And allow a minute: the script sends about 30 seconds after a page opens.

The last step, Placed an order, is optional: place an order only on a development store. Your check visit is counted in your store’s numbers, as any visit is.

What you will see next

Your visit shows on Activity within about a minute. The section map on Explore fills in after the first homepage visits. Percentages and observations start once your homepage has 300 sessions on a device. Your first hour and first week sets out what appears when.

If nothing arrives after a few minutes, Store Decode not working? goes through each cause in turn. The glossary explains a session, a page view and the other words the app uses.

See Store Decode’s numbers on a sample store