New and Returning Visitors

This article discusses visitor targeting, which is available on Advanced and Pro plans only.

Visitor targeting

All tests in Shoplift can be segmented to all visitors, new visitors, or returning devices.

New visitors

When a test is segmented to new visitors, only visitors who have not been to your website since Shoplift has been installed will be shown the test.

Returning visitors

When a test is segmented to returning visitors, only visitors who have been to your website since Shoplift has been installed will be shown the test.

How Shoplift tracks new and returning visitors

The moment you install Shoplift, we begin identifying visitors on your store with our tracking script. Initially, all visitors are deemed "new".

Over time, as Shoplift sees visitors return to your site, we identify them as returning visitors. This pool of returning visitors becomes more accurate and reliable over time.

Why do I have to wait 7 days to use visitor targeting?

You may notice that when you install Shoplift for the first time, we gate new and returning visitor targeting behind a 7-day window. This is to ensure that our tracking script has a sufficient sample size of new and returning visitors prior to enabling tests to be segmented on these attributes.

As with other analytics and reporting tools, the longer that the script is on your website, the better it becomes at identifying who is a new or returning visitor long-term.