Observations: what Store Decode noticed in your numbers

An observation is a short card in Store Decode that states one thing your store’s numbers show about a section or a page. It carries the device, the window and the number of sessions behind it. When a sensible option exists, it follows “You could:” and ends with what to compare afterwards. Store Decode writes observations each night from your own data: Home shows up to three under Worth a look, and the Observations page lists them all.

Type it in Find

• What should I look at first?
• Anything worth a look?
• Product page observations

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

What a card tells you

A card has up to three parts. Here they are on one of the sample store’s cards (Tidewell Home, invented):

Part	On the sample’s dead-click card
What was observed	People clicked the image in Why Tidewell 231 times; it is not a link, button or other control.
Device, window and sample	Mobile · 7 days · n=4,100 (the sample’s mobile week)
The option	You could: make the image in Why Tidewell a link, then compare dead clicks the week after.

The first line states only what was measured, in at most 25 words, and never opens with an instruction. The option is one thing you could try, never an order, and it names the number to compare and when. Some cards have no option, because none fits the section; the numbers alone are still worth a look.

A short explanation says why the pattern may matter. Where a card compares two groups of visitors, it ends with a caveat: the comparison describes who did what and does not show cause.

Where to find them

On Home, the Worth a look card holds up to three observations, read-only, each with one link. All N observations → opens the full page.

The Observations page has four tabs, each with its count: All (new and done), New, Done and Dismissed. By page narrows the list to the homepage, collections or product pages. Each card prints its own device, period and sample size.

Cards also appear in two other places. The email report carries up to three of the latest. On Explore, expanding a section’s row shows its open observation and option.

Reading the cards

Observations come from a nightly run in your store’s time zone, after each day closes. It reads the last 7 or 14 days and checks twelve rules, such as dead clicks on one element of a homepage section, or product pages where most visitors see only the first image. A rule speaks only once its own minimum is met. Below that, it stays silent rather than guess.

The cards are ranked by how many sessions a week they concern, how large the pattern is, and the orders after a click involved. The highest-ranked appear on Home, up to three. Some nights there are none, and the empty state names what makes the first one appear.

What you can do with a card

• Mark as done when you change what the card is about; a new card says so in a line under its option. The card moves to Done, and Store Decode compares the same numbers for the 7 days before with the 7 and 14 days after, once both periods have enough sessions.
• Snooze 14 days hides the card for 14 days.
• Dismiss hides it for 90 days. A dismissed card can no longer be marked done.
• See the data in Explore opens the tab and the row the card is about.

A card about a homepage section can also open the theme editor on that section. It can open your live store too, with each section’s numbers drawn over it, through a signed link that lasts 15 minutes and records no visit.

Done keeps every card you marked done in the last 60 days, with its before and after numbers once they exist. The comparison is a date split of your own data, labelled as one; comparing before and after a change explains how to read it.

Try this

• Open New once a week and mark done what you changed. Two weeks later, read the report under Done.
• Use By page to read only your product page cards, beside the Product pages tab of Explore for the same window.

Common questions

Why do I have no observations yet?

Each rule waits for its own minimum, such as 300 sessions of the pages it reads or 30 dead clicks on one element. A new store, or a quiet week, may meet none. The empty state names the first thing that will appear, and Explore shows every number in the meantime. How Store Decode chooses an observation lists every rule and minimum.

How often do new observations appear?

Once a night, after your store’s day closes. A card stays until you act on it or a later night no longer finds the pattern.

Does Store Decode tell me what to change?

No. It tells you what it measured and, when one fits, offers one option after “You could:”. The option names what to compare afterwards, so you can judge it on your own numbers. Store Decode never predicts what a change will do.

Why did a card disappear?

Three reasons. You marked it done, snoozed it or dismissed it. Or you marked another card about the same section done in the last 60 days. No card about that section appears for 60 days, under any rule, so the app never suggests one change and then its opposite. Or it left Home in the last 14 days: it stays away unless its main number got at least 20% worse on the same device.

Will Store Decode email me when it finds something?

Not by itself. Nothing is sent on a schedule. The email report, with up to three observations, goes out only when you press Send now in Settings.

See a sample observation card on the home page.