How server-side tracking works

How Littledata's Shopify app enables server-side tracking

Client-side (browser) tracking

During the automatic installation process, Littledata adds a data layer and tracking script to all the store pages.

• A LittledataLayer window-scope Javascript object is added on all pages, which you can also use with Google Tag Manager (GTM).

• A minified tracking script, loaded via Littledata's app embed in your Shopify theme

• The marketing platform's own tracking library is then loaded on each page

• Cookie identifiers are passed to Littledata's servers to ensure consistent user journey tracking

• Fully compatible with Online Store 2.0

Server-side tracking

During the setup, Littledata also adds a set of webhooks to your Shopify store. This means that each time a user takes action our servers can relay that event to the marketing platform, ensuring 100% accuracy. There are many advantages to this approach:

• Smaller script in the browser = faster page load

• No scripts are loaded on the sensitive and secure checkout pages

• Complete event capture for checkout flow, including sales, post-purchase upsells and refunds/returns

• Avoids missed tracking or double tracking of the order status page

• Accurate marketing attribution (sessions stitched together) across all checkout types

• Persistent identity for users

• Data security and spam reduction: only authorised servers can feed into your data stream

Why server-side tracking

1. In situations where the native tracking script might be blocked by ad blockers or iOS / Safari restrictions, Littledata can still pass through events to the marketing platform's server.

2. Events can be enriched with extra product and customer data we sync with Shopify

3. Events can be customized before being relayed to the marketing platform

Destinations that support server-side tracking

All our major destinations support server-side tracking, including:

• Google Analytics

• Google Ads

• Meta Ads

• TikTok Ads

• Pinterest

• Klaviyo

• Attentive

Supported identifiers

Our advanced tracking script automatically fetches and passes to Littledata servers the following identifiers:

Identifier	Description
_ga	Google Analytics client ID
_ga_<Measurement ID>	Google Analytics session ID
_gcl_aw	Google Ads click identifier
_gcl_ag	Google Ads gbraid
_gcl_gb	Google Ads wbraid
_epik	Pinterest click ID
_ttp	Tiktok client ID
ttclid	TikTok click ID
fbp	Meta client ID
fbc	Meta click ID
ajs_anonymous_id	Segment anonymous ID