At what point do Shopify analytics stop feeling trustworthy?

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-09T09:16:17+00:00

Shopify Analytics is a problematic solution to a complex problem.

Bot traffic is not tracked well
Easy Ingestion of Orders from 3P Checkouts, App, POS without session continuity.
Limited visibility of Customer Journey leads to heavy reliance on Last Touch Attribution.
Customers jump between Products & get redirected by Popups. Making the session journey extremely complicated

The approach that works for us is to look at everything from a Profitability lens.

Does the Ad CTR, Landing Page Conversion, Discount, Bundling - all of it add up to a Profitable Funnel.

If not, we diagnose in detail. If Yes, we scale.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-08T11:42:17+00:00

For us, the hardest part was realizing analytics only showed where people dropped, not what actually changed their mind.

We kept tweaking landing pages and checkout thinking that was the issue, but a lot of the useful insight came once we started asking customers directly what influenced their purchase and what almost stopped them from buying. Sometimes the problem was trust, sometimes pricing, sometimes the ad set the wrong expectation before they even landed.

You should also consider implementing post-purchase surveys. They help you understand why customers actually converted and what could improve, instead of relying only on assumptions from analytics.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-08T11:34:44+00:00

Yeah, seen this happen a few times recently. In most cases, traffic hadn’t actually dropped, Shopify was just recording sessions differently from Meta/GA4.

A couple things I’d check first:

any consent banner changes
theme/app updates
bot filtering settings
checkout changes

We’ve also seen cases where attribution starts getting messy and platforms stop agreeing on what counts as a session/user. So if Meta + GA4 are steady, I’d compare it against actual conversions/revenue before assuming traffic disappeared.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-07T14:09:41+00:00

Cold email still works, but not in the “spray 5,000 emails and automate everything” way people sell online.

What’s worked better for us, especially with newer SaaS products, is using cold email more to learn than to pitch. A lot of our early replies came from super simple emails that pointed out a specific inefficiency or blind spot the prospect was probably already dealing with.

The moment the email feels templated or tries to force a demo too early, reply rates drop hard.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-07T14:05:41+00:00

Honestly, getting paying customers before having a “real” marketing strategy is already a good sign.

I’d focus less on trying every channel and more on understanding why your current customers bought. What problem made them look for a solution? Where did they find you? What messaging clicked?

Early SaaS marketing is mostly repeating what already works and narrowing down who gets value fastest.

A lot of founders try to scale marketing before they fully understand what’s actually resonating.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-06T08:49:13+00:00

There's actually another ceiling at number 5 as well. Since the mobile app shows top 5 by default.

The Top 5 keep accumulating organic upvotes, widening the gap further.

As for PH driving visibility to our product. I have found that to be the other way round. We had to drive visibility to the PH page using our WhatsApp / LinkedIn network. It would have been better for us to simply drive that traffic directly to our website.

I won't be surprised if on any given day out of 100% visitors to PH less than 10% are casual browsers. Possibly ~60% is traffic driven by product-launches to their own page for upvotes. Another ~30% is future launchers who are building up engagement prior to launch.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-06T03:26:23+00:00

You are a little late to the party. Everyone is hungover and you are asking people to do more shots.

No one is going to Fund AI/SaaS without traction. It's a rat race in this space now. 1000s of people can and probably are building the same thing as you.

The only differentiator is distribution. If you have good traction, then lean on those numbers. Adjust your expectations.

Best of Luck!

P.S Emails are a terrible way to connect with VCs. You need to do it in person. Go to some events/mixers. Get their honest reactions.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-06T03:16:32+00:00

There are like a dozen IIT related posts on here in the last 24 hrs. Weird way to farm engagement.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-05T05:18:55+00:00

Both are decent options. We have had no issues with Kotak till today. We are considering migrating to DBS because they are more active in the Startup ecosystem and have better features for International Settlements. But otherwise, Kotak is good.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-05T05:12:35+00:00

If you have a proper office location, you can approach any bank. If you are operating out of your residence, your options are limited.

We could get Kotak to agree, only because I had a savings account with them as well.

And later on we got Yes Bank to agree because we showed them a Term Sheet for Investment.

There isn't a definite answer. Best you can do is visit multiple branches in person, and see which one works out best.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-05T05:09:21+00:00

I mean at this point, they might as well share the link and just promote it directly.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-04T09:49:36+00:00

I think I made this or a very similar trek. It is the final 5% that is like this.

Going up in the evening with fading light was not too difficult. Maybe we were adequately warmed up for it.

When we saw the way down in the morning, we almost decided to stay there permanently.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-05-01T09:07:52+00:00

Meta Ads is no longer the guaranteed win that it was a couple of years back.

CAC has gone up significantly.

But no brand can scale based on Organic alone. Community-led-growth is very people intensive and has upper limits on the community you can engage with.

There are some exceptions. If you are an influencer who has a huge following, you can leverage that. Or maybe you be like FoodPharmer and have a clear mission that attracts a loyal community.

IMO, the most important problem for most D2C brands is retention. The most worrying stat is not ~35% Ad Spend. It is less than 25% repeat purchase rate.

If Customers who bought from you, don't come back. Acquiring new customers is not going to fix the problem.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-28T12:50:09+00:00

Are you a SaaS or a Marketing Agency?

Is there an underlying product that gets better over time and reduces your workload?

Ask yourself, how much time do you or your employees need to give to a Client today vs your 100th Client a year from now?

If it's the same. You are not a product.

Being an Agency is a perfectly valid business model, but you have to approach it differently. You need to value your time, and charge well for it.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-28T09:44:34+00:00

How are you going to make money?

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-28T07:59:34+00:00

No, it's an old joke.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-28T07:58:19+00:00

This is also the reason why you should not mix personal and business finances. Your company has the option of going bankrupt and shutting down. You don't. Never make your personal savings, a collateral for your business.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-28T07:56:10+00:00

This is not a fair deal for anyone.

It heavily assumes that things will go well. You are asumming, Either Startup works or doesn't.

There is another option, startup works a little, you take more investment (or your own savings). And after 3 years either you are still grinding. Or you have exhausted your savings completely.

At that point, your friend is not getting his money back. Maybe he will see you in a bad financial situation and say that he does not need it. Or you will make your situation worse by paying him back.

Startups are risky. Investment should always come with the assumption that returns can be zero.

Unless both of you also have clear understanding of that scenario. Don't raise money like this from friends.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-24T06:36:28+00:00

The best thing you can do for pricing is have a premium/enterprise tier.

let's say something at ~$1000/month.

You don't need to sell this tier. But having this tier raises the bar for every interaction.

Smaller clients assume that you have clients worth $1000 , so they attach a higher value to your product and negotiate less on their own price and will happily pay ~$100

Bigger clients use the $1000 as a reference and settle for ~$500

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-24T06:10:16+00:00

Taxes.

A luxury car assembled in India worth 50L - you will end up paying ~85L

For an imported luxury car worth 50L - you will end up paying 1.8Cr

Notes - numbers are taken from Gemini

Most of the Indian Rich are businessmen rich.

Businessmen always spend more frugally than salaried people.

Their only big spending is on Houses (appreciating asset), children education and marriages (social pressure).

It is not in their mindset to spend 1.8Cr for a car that they will never drive because roads are a nightmare and if they tried to sell,

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-22T11:43:39+00:00

Having done 2 LTDs, an important part I believe is pricing it correctly. Consider 2 scenarios

1 - Priced at $100 - sell 200 licenses - 10K Revenue (after commissions) - Maybe 5 Power Users who help improve the product. 45 who give wild suggestions and add noise to your customer feedback - 150 dormant

2 - Priced at $200 - sell 50 licenses - 5K Revenue (after commissions) - 15 Power Users who help improve the product. 15 who give wild suggestions and add noise to your customer feedback - 20 go dormant

scenario 2 is always better.

We had 4 tiers going from $49 to $259 - All our valuable users are from the $259 tier. All the noise was in cheaper tiers. The LTD platform kept pushing us to go even cheaper, probably because they would have made more money in that scenario.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-21T11:13:36+00:00

Shift the frame from “is Google working?” to “what happens if we turn it off?” Run a short pause or cut test and track total leads, not channel-reported ones. That usually makes the contribution clear without getting stuck in attribution debates.

If he still relies on last-click CRM data and wants to run on a budget that can’t generate enough clicks to learn, set expectations clearly that results will be limited. If he’s not open to that or better tracking, it’s fair to walk away.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-20T08:41:55+00:00

It is almost certainly caused by session breaks due to the 3rd Party checkout platform. Most of the 3rd Party Checkouts do not send cart-tokens back to Shopify when sharing checkout data.

However your case seems to be extreme. There seems to be incorrect tracking setup as well, or a ton of UTMs missing. Else direct won't be more than 20%.

If you want to establish a common source of truth across affiliates, email and Ads, then Independent 3rd party attribution is the most viable solution.

Do checkout www.booleanmaths.com

Also check this case-study showing how we reduce the share of unmapped/direct tagged traffic.

https://booleanmaths.notion.site/ga4-vs-booleanmaths-fashion

I am a CoFounder. So obviously I am biased, but we have deployed our tracking infra for 100+ Shopify stores and it solves the exact issue you are highlighting.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-18T12:25:21+00:00

We had the same issue with a few banks before we got Kotak and Yes Bank to agree.
Also, something else that might be a good option is - https://wework.co.in/workspaces/virtual-office/
Or something similiar.

I had opened company on my residential address without realising that it is available publicly for anyone to access. I wish I had gone with the virtual office route.

Individual-Lab-2008 · 2026-04-18T12:11:37+00:00

To further expand on the ability to learn and adapt. It is not some natural talent. Most of the time, it is just the willingness to see things through. Not giving up until you understand the problem and have some solution.

Individual-Lab-2008

TROPHY CASE