Connect a Shopify store

On Shopify, Referly Atlas does not need a script in your theme code. The Referly app registers a web pixel on your store, a theme app embed loads the tracker on your storefront, and Shopify sends Atlas each order as it is paid. The wizard step is titled Connect your Shopify store and says what it does: orders, carts and checkouts come straight from Shopify, in three steps, in order. This guide walks through those steps, the verification at the end, and what to think about if you already run Shopify’s own Facebook & Instagram or Google & YouTube apps.

​

Before you start

You will need:

• Your Shopify store domain, the one that ends in .myshopify.com. Find it in your Shopify admin address.
• Permission to install apps on the store, so you can approve the Referly app when Shopify asks.
• An Atlas store set up to step 2 of the wizard. On Step 1: Your website, enter your storefront address and pick the Shopify tile (Atlas usually detects it for you).

If you already use the Referly app for your affiliate program, it is the same app. Stores that were connected before Atlas existed need to approve the app once more so it can register the pixel; the store’s Overview shows a Shopify connection required banner with a Connect now button when that is the case.

​

Step 1: Install the Referly app

The first block of the step is Install the Referly Shopify app. Its subtitle tells you what to expect: approve the app in your Shopify admin, then come back here. Until the app is installed, the next two blocks are greyed out with the note Install the app first.

​

Step 2: Turn on the app embed

The embed loads the tracker on your storefront, which is what records page views, product views and carts before the checkout. Shopify never turns app embeds on by itself, so this is a step you do in your theme.

1. Select Open theme editor. Your current theme opens in Shopify’s editor.
2. In the theme editor, click the App embeds icon in the left sidebar.
3. Switch Referly Affiliate Tracker on.
4. Click Save.

Back in the wizard, select Mark as completed if the block has not ticked itself yet. Atlas ticks it on its own as soon as it sees the embed on a page load of your store, and Step 4 below checks for it too.

​

Step 3: Turn on the Atlas pixel

The third block, Turn on the Atlas pixel, registers Atlas’s web pixel on your store. Before you press the button, set Type of checkout: Then select Turn on Atlas pixel. A toast confirms Atlas pixel is on, the subtitle changes to The Atlas pixel is on, and the button becomes Turn on again, which you can use any time to push the settings to Shopify once more. If Shopify did not accept every setting, Atlas says so and asks you to open the theme editor and check the embed.

​

Step 4: Verify the connection

As soon as the pixel is on, a Test the connection block appears under it. Enter your storefront address (your custom domain if you have one) and select Verify. Password-protected stores cannot be checked, so remove the password or test on a store that is open. Atlas looks at your storefront for the embed and reports one of these: Under the field, a second line reports events: Events received. Last event 2 minutes ago. once the pixel has sent something, No events yet. Visit your site, then verify again. when it has not, or Events start when you finish setup and the store goes live. while the store is still a draft. Last checked shows when you last ran it. Select Continue to move on to the ad platforms step, then Finish. The toast Store is live. Tracking is on. confirms the store is live (if your plan is active; otherwise it waits for one). You can rerun the same checks any time with Test connection.

​

What the app sets up for you

Once the three blocks are done, the Referly app has put these in place on your store:

• A web pixel that records page views, product views, collection views, searches, adds to cart, checkouts started and checkouts completed. A checkout completed in the browser is provisional until Shopify confirms the paid order.
• The theme app embed that loads the tracker on your storefront, so visits get a visitor cookie and the ad click that brought them.
• Order notifications from Shopify to Atlas: paid orders for a native checkout, created orders for an external checkout. These are what Atlas sends to your pixels as purchases, with refunds netted off.
• Customer notifications, used for sign ups (classic customer accounts) and newsletter leads. These need Shopify’s protected customer data access to be approved for the app.

In Store settings, under Tracking and connection, the tiles show the result: App embed, Web pixel, Last pixel event, Last order webhook and Destinations. Nothing else needs pasting into your theme, and you never add ad platform tags for Atlas: those are server-side pixels you add in Atlas. The one exception is Google Ads, which fires in the browser through a Shopify custom pixel: see the Google Ads guide.

​

Shopify’s own pixels and Atlas

Many Shopify stores already send events through the Facebook & Instagram app or the Google & YouTube app. Atlas is built to sit next to them. Meta. Atlas reuses the event id Shopify generates for each event, the same id Shopify’s Facebook & Instagram app sends from the browser. When Meta receives the browser event and the server event from Atlas with the same id, it keeps one. You have two options:

• Leave customer data sharing on in the Facebook & Instagram app and let Meta deduplicate. You keep Shopify’s browser signal and gain Atlas’s server-side one.
• Turn off customer data sharing in the Facebook & Instagram app so Atlas is the single source. Cleaner reporting, one fewer thing to compare.

Both work. Pick the one you prefer, and read Avoid double counting before you decide. Google Ads. Atlas fires Google Ads conversions in the browser through a custom pixel it asks you to add in Shopify (Settings, then Customer events). Do not also send these conversions from Google’s own tag or the Google & YouTube app, or they count twice. Every other platform (TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest and so on) receives server-side events from Atlas only. If you also run that platform’s own Shopify app or pixel, Avoid double counting explains what to keep.

​

Troubleshooting

​

Related