Shopify Markets FAQ

Settings

1. What happens when the Markets module is enabled?
   When you enable the Markets module, Littledata fetches all active Shopify markets, enables per-market configuration for market-aware destinations (such as GA4 and Meta), and seeds each active market with factory-default settings. At the same time, Littledata creates a special internal market called Unassigned markets.

2. What happens when the Markets module is disabled?
   When you disable the Markets module, per-market settings stop being used and each destination reverts to its initial settings snapshot (the configuration it had before Markets was enabled). The destination continues to use whatever is currently set as the default destination ID. Any market-specific settings (including Unassigned markets) are not applied and are effectively forgotten.

3. What happens when Markets is re-enabled?
   Re-enabling Markets resets per-market configuration. All markets are seeded again using factory-default settings, including previously existing Shopify markets, newly discovered Shopify markets, and Unassigned markets. Any prior per-market configuration is not restored. Destinations switch back into market-aware mode using these newly seeded settings.

4. Are per-market settings copied from global settings when Markets is enabled?
   No. Markets are seeded using factory defaults rather than being cloned from global settings.

5. Can customers change market_handle?
   Yes. It is derived from the Shopify market name by default, but it can be customized by the user in Littledata.

How Markets work

1. Where does Littledata get market information from?
   Littledata reads market data directly from Shopify using the Shopify Admin API and Shopify webhooks. Shopify remains the source of truth for which markets exist and whether each market is active, draft, or deleted.

2. Does Littledata create or manage Shopify markets?
   No. Littledata only reads market data from Shopify and never creates, edits, or deletes Shopify markets. Alongside your Shopify Markets, Littledata also creates a special internal market called Unassigned markets. This market lives only within Littledata - it is an internal market and is not reflected in your Shopify markets list.

3. How are new markets handled?
   When Shopify adds a new active market, Littledata detects it automatically via the Shopify Admin API and webhooks, seeds it with factory-default settings, and seeds it with the currently set default ID. Draft or disabled markets are stored but are not shown as active.

4. What if the tracking script fails to fetch markets?
   In that case, events are routed to Unassigned markets. This prevents event loss during temporary failures. However, this is an unlikely scenario.

5. Why does Littledata send both market_handle and market_id?
   market_handle is human-readable and useful for reporting and filtering, while market_id is the canonical Shopify identifier and is stable over time. They serve different purposes, so they should be sent together.

Unassigned Markets

1. What is Unassigned markets?
   Unassigned markets is an internal Littledata-only market used as a fallback when a Shopify market cannot be determined for an event. It does not exist in Shopify, it appears under every market-aware destination, and it has its own settings like any other market.

2. Why does Unassigned markets exist?
   It exists to prevent data loss when market attribution is not possible and to provide explicit routing rules for events where the market is unknown.

3. When do events become unassigned?
   Events can become unassigned whenever Littledata cannot resolve a Shopify market. Common examples include draft orders, POS orders, orders created in Shopify Admin, third-party channel orders (such as Amazon), imported data, tracking script failures, or situations where Shopify context is missing.

4. What happens to unassigned events?
   Unassigned events are routed using the Unassigned markets configuration and are still sent to destinations. They are not dropped and they are not silently assigned to another market.

5. Does Unassigned markets follow the same lifecycle as other markets?
   Yes. It is created when Markets is enabled and reactivated when Markets is re-enabled.

6. What values are used for Unassigned markets?
   For unassigned events, Littledata uses fixed system values: market_id = 0 and market_handle = unassigned_market.

7. Can unassigned events be disabled separately?
   Yes. Because Unassigned markets behaves like a normal market, it has its own per-destination configuration and can be disabled independently per destination.

8. Can Unassigned markets be removed?
   No. It is system-defined and is always present when Markets is enabled.