Shopify slideshow analytics: which slide gets seen

Shopify slideshow analytics answer which slide of your hero visitors actually see, and which one orders followed. Store Decode counts, for each slide, the sessions that viewed it, its clicks, and the orders whose last product click within 7 days was on it. You need no tracking code on the slides: the app finds them in your homepage’s sections by itself.

Type it in Find

• Does the hero get seen?

Type it in Find on Home or Explore and Store Decode opens the view with your numbers.

Where to find it

1. Open Explore and pick Homepage.
2. Choose Mobile or Desktop in the card header. Each device has its own numbers, so read phones and computers apart.
3. Select the slideshow on the page map or in the sections table.
4. Read the slides in the panel beside the map. Its columns are Views, Clicks/100 and Orders, the orders after a click on each slide. Under 300 sessions the clicks column reads Clicks, a count.

The section’s own row gives the slideshow as a whole: its Views, its clicks per 100 views and its orders after a click. Typing “Which homepage sections come before the most orders?” in Find opens the same map coloured by orders; select the slideshow there to see each slide.

What the numbers mean

A slideshow shows one slide at a time, so each slide is seen by a different number of visitors. Store Decode treats each slide’s image as a creative: a slide, tile or banner image inside a section. It counts a session as having viewed a slide when that slide was on screen, and credits a click to the slide holding the clicked image.

Orders after a click works as it does for a section. When a visitor’s last click on a product link before an order, within 7 days, was on a slide, that slide gets the order. It is always read as “last click, 7 days”, and it says where the last click was, not what led to the order. Shopify homepage sections clicked before an order explains the rule.

Cards number slides by how many sessions viewed them, not by their place in the slideshow. “Slide 1” is the most viewed, which is usually but not always the first slide. Under 300 sessions, a slide’s clicks show as a count, never per 100 views.

When a card appears

Two observations look at slideshows, both over the last 14 days with all devices counted together:

• The second slide is rarely seen. The card appears when the second most viewed slide is seen by under 25% of the slideshow’s views. It needs 300 slideshow views.
• Two slides do differently. The card compares the two most viewed slides when their clicks per 100 views differ by more than chance would explain. It also fires when one has at least twice the other’s sales after a click per 1,000 views, with 3 orders on each. It needs 500 views of the smaller one.

In the sample store

Tidewell Home is an invented sample store, and every number here is made up. The table is its Hero slideshow on phones. Its shares are of all 4,100 mobile homepage sessions; the slide 2 rule below counts only the sessions that viewed Slide 1.

Sample store, Hero slideshow, Mobile · 7 days · n=4,100	Sessions that viewed it	Share of the 4,100 sessions	Orders after a click
Slide 1	3,772	92%	9
Slide 2	851	21%	6
Slide 3	641	16%	22

Slide 1 was viewed by 3,772 of 4,100 mobile sessions, and 9 orders followed a click on it. Slide 3 was viewed by only 641, yet 22 orders followed a click on it. Together the three slides hold the hero’s 37 orders after a click, from 804 clicks, or 21.3 clicks per 100 views (Mobile · 7 days · n=4,100).

Slide 2 was viewed in 851 of the 3,772 sessions that viewed Slide 1, which is 23%: under the 25% line. The sample’s card, built from that mobile week (the app reads 14 days on all devices), reads “Slide 2 in Hero slideshow is seen by 23% of the slider’s viewers.”

You could

The card’s own option is to move the message forward:

You could: put the slide 2 message on slide 1, then compare clicks per 100 views for the two weeks after.

For the sample, the message worth a closer look is Slide 3’s: few sessions viewed it and many orders followed it. Orders after a click say where the last click was, so a small group that waited for the third slide does not show the slide persuaded anyone. If you change the order, mark the card done and Store Decode reports the before and after at 7 and 14 days. Compare each slide’s sessions that viewed it and its orders after a click too.

Common questions

How do I track which slide in my Shopify slideshow gets clicked?

Install Store Decode and switch on its app embed; nothing is added to the slides. Clicks are credited to the slide that holds the clicked image, and the slideshow’s panel in Explore lists them. Install Store Decode covers the setup.

How many visitors see the second slide?

Each slide’s sessions that viewed it answer that, by device. In the sample store, 851 of 4,100 mobile sessions viewed Slide 2, against 3,772 for Slide 1.

Should I use a slideshow on my homepage at all?

Store Decode does not decide that for you. It shows how many sessions see each slide and what followed a click on each. If most never see past the first slide, the numbers say so, and you can weigh that against what the other slides carry.

Why is Slide 1 not my first slide?

Cards name slides by how many sessions viewed them, so the slide seen most is Slide 1. The slide that shows first on the page is often, but not always, the one seen most.

Related

• Above the fold on Shopify mobile: what a phone shows first shows where the hero sits on the first screen.
• The page map: a section heatmap of your Shopify homepage covers the map you select the slideshow on.

See the hero on the sample store’s map