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updatedAt: 2025-02-18T10:47:36.000Z
agentTools:
  projectIndex: https://triplewhale.readme.io/llms.txt
---

# Why Do Shopify Sessions Not Match Triple Whale Web Analytics?

# Summary

You may notice that **Shopify** shows a different number of sessions (and session-based metrics) than **Triple Whale Web Analytics**. The primary reason is that **Shopify uses a cookie-based model** and resets sessions at 30 minutes of inactivity or midnight UTC, while **Triple Whale** starts a session any time a visitor arrives from a Direct, Referral, or UTM source and ends it 30 minutes after the last page view.

# Why This Happens

* **Shopify’s Cookie-Based Logic**
  * A visitor is tracked with device cookies.
  * Sessions end 30 minutes after inactivity **or** at midnight UTC.
  * The same visitor can accumulate multiple sessions if they return after inactivity or cross midnight.

* **Triple Whale’s Source-Based Approach**
  * A new session begins whenever a visitor arrives from a Direct, Referral, or UTM source.
  * The session ends 30 minutes after the last page view. Midnight has no effect on Triple Whale sessions.
  * Visitors revisiting without a new source remain in the same session unless 30 minutes pass with no page views.

# Example Scenario

1. **Shopify**
   * A user browses your store at 11:50 PM for 15 minutes, leaves at 12:05 AM, then returns at 12:10 AM.
   * Shopify sees **two sessions**: one before midnight, and another after midnight (since midnight forces a new session).

2. **Triple Whale**
   * If the user doesn’t switch to a new source or exceed 30 minutes of inactivity, Triple Whale counts it as **a single session** spanning the user’s entire visit (the midnight time boundary is irrelevant).

# How This Affects Reporting

* **Session Counts May Vary**
  * Because Shopify resets sessions at midnight or after 30 minutes idle, it might record more or fewer sessions than Triple Whale’s source-based approach.
  * You’ll often see different totals for “sessions” in each platform.

* **Derived Metrics Ripple**
  * **Bounce rate** in Triple Whale may differ if Shopify splits short visits into multiple sessions or lumps them together differently.
  * **Average session duration** can be impacted if Shopify ends sessions at midnight, while Triple Whale continues them until 30 minutes of inactivity.
  * **Conversion rate** (orders ÷ sessions) might not align because the session denominator is defined differently in each platform.

# How to Interpret the Data Correctly

* **Focus on Trends in Each Platform**\
  Track how Shopify’s session metrics change over time within Shopify, and how Triple Whale’s session metrics evolve within Triple Whale, rather than forcing them to match.

* **Recognize Cookie vs. Source Definition**
  * Shopify uses cookies and midnight resets.
  * Triple Whale uses a strict 30-minute window after the last page view, ignoring midnight.

* **Also Note Changes in Triple Whale’s Sessions Definition**\
  If you’re comparing older Triple Whale data to current data, be aware that it previously counted page views with UTMs differently.

By understanding **Shopify’s cookie-driven session resets** and **Triple Whale’s source-driven session logic**, you can better interpret why the two platforms’ session-based metrics—such as **conversion rate, bounce rate, and average session duration**—may not align exactly.