Shopify Checkout Extensibility: What You Need to Know

Shopify Checkout Extensibility is a significant update from Shopify, expanding checkout customization capabilities that were previously exclusive to Shopify Plus customers to all plans. This change aims to enhance the flexibility, security, and functionality of the checkout process for all merchants on the Shopify platform.

Understanding the Warnings

With the rollout of Shopify Checkout Extensibility, merchants may encounter specific warnings that necessitate action to ensure their checkout processes and tracking systems remain functional.?

Understanding and addressing these warnings is crucial for a smooth transition.?

"Your Thank you and Order status pages must be replaced" Warning

Shopify displays this warning to indicate that your current Thank you and Order status pages are using incompatible apps. This warning is a prompt to upgrade to the new checkout extensibility features to avoid potential tracking issues. Specifically:

1. Replace Incompatible Apps: Transition from incompatible apps to using pixels in customer events and app blocks within the Editor.
2. Manual Transition Required: Failure to manually transition your scripts before upgrading may result in broken conversion tracking.

"Order status page additional scripts are deprecated" Warning

This warning signifies that the use of additional scripts on the Order status page will soon be obsolete. Specifically:

1. Continued Functionality Until August 28, 2025: Although deprecated, additional scripts will continue to function until this date.
2. Post-Upgrade Inaction: After upgrading, these scripts will no longer work, necessitating a transition to pixels in customer events.

If you want to learn more about these warnings you can read our detailed blog post!

Transitioning to Shopify Checkout Extensibility

Upgrading to Shopify Checkout Extensibility is a crucial step for merchants to maintain effective conversion tracking and utilize the new customization features. This section covers the importance of upgrading and the methods to manage the transition smoothly.

Importance of Upgrading

Upgrading to Shopify Checkout Extensibility is crucial to maintain effective conversion tracking and to utilize new customization features. The process involves shifting from deprecated script fields to the new Customer Events feature, which supports custom pixels for tracking checkout and order status events.

Managing the Transition

For those who find the transition process complex, solutions like Analyzify provide professional support to ensure a smooth upgrade. Analyzify version 3.3 supports the new checkout extensibility features and ensures that conversion tracking remains accurate and functional.

Analyzify’s Solutions for Shopify Checkout Extensibility

Analyzify offers comprehensive solutions for managing the transition to Shopify Checkout Extensibility effectively. Here’s how Analyzify supports this process:

Adaptation to Shopify Changes

Analyzify continuously updates its solutions to align with Shopify’s changes, ensuring accurate analytics and marketing integration within the Web Pixels environment.

Custom Pixels

Analyzify uses a custom pixels module to track various events:

1. Tracking Checkout Steps: This includes tracking the addition of shipping info, contact info, and payment info.
2. Thank You Page and Storefront Events: Custom scripts can be added to Customer Events to track these crucial stages.
3. Integration with Google Tag Manager (GTM): Analyzify transforms data from the sandbox environment and transfers it to the dataLayer, then sends relevant data to various destinations via GTM.

Professional Implementation and Support

Analyzify offers a professional implementation included in their one-time purchase price:

1. Regular Updates: Keeps your tracking codes and integrations up-to-date with Shopify's latest updates.
2. Debugging and Documentation: Provides easy debugging tools and comprehensive documentation to resolve issues efficiently.
3. Data Privacy Compliance: Ensures compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR using Shopify’s customer privacy API and consent management tools.

Checkout Event Tracking

Analyzify lets you track critical checkout events, such as:

• add_shipping_info
• add_contact_info
• add_payment_info

This tracking provides a clear view of the customer journey and ensures that all relevant data points are captured for analysis.

Benefits of Shopify Checkout Extensibility

Shopify Checkout Extensibility offers several advantages that enhance the overall checkout process. These benefits make it easier for merchants to customize, secure, and maintain a consistent branding experience.

Enhanced Customization

Shopify Checkout Extensibility is now available to all Shopify plans, allowing merchants to customize their checkout process with custom UI elements such as upsells, banners, and loyalty programs, previously limited to Shopify Plus users.

Improved Security

Operating within a sandbox environment, Shopify Checkout Extensibility minimizes risks associated with direct code insertions, enhancing the stability and security of the checkout process.

Consistent Branding

The Branding API enables advanced customization of the checkout’s appearance, helping merchants maintain a consistent brand experience throughout the checkout process.

Adaptation to Changes

Analyzify and similar solutions continuously update to align with Shopify’s changes, ensuring that analytics and marketing integrations remain accurate within the Web Pixels environment.

Seamless Integration

Checkout UI Extensions allow for the seamless addition of new functionalities directly into the checkout flow, adapting automatically to various checkout processes without disrupting the user experience.

Conversion Tracking with Shopify Checkout Extensibility

Effective conversion tracking with Shopify Checkout Extensibility is vital for understanding customer behavior and optimizing the checkout process. Shopify Checkout Extensibility introduces new methods for implementing and managing conversion tracking.

Use of Customer Events

Implementing custom web pixels through Customer Events allows for detailed conversion tracking within a sandbox environment, ensuring secure and accurate data collection.

Migration of Tracking Systems

Merchants must ensure that all current tracking scripts are compatible with the new system by migrating them to Customer Events, thereby preventing disruptions in conversion tracking.

Efficient Data Utilization

With Google Tag Manager (GTM) integration, Analyzify ensures that checkout data is managed and transmitted efficiently, enabling comprehensive tracking of crucial events such as adding shipping information, contact information, and payment details.

Regular Updates

Analyzify stays up-to-date with Shopify’s latest enhancements, ensuring that tracking codes and integrations remain compatible and functional over time.

Data Privacy Compliance

By utilizing Shopify’s customer privacy API and consent management tools, Analyzify ensures that merchants' tracking methods comply with GDPR and other data privacy regulations.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Concerns

• Are additional scripts on Shopify still working? Yes, additional scripts are still working although they are marked as deprecated.
• When will additional scripts on Shopify be deprecated? Additional scripts will become completely unusable on August 28, 2025.
• Should I upgrade the “Thank you page”? What are the benefits? Yes, upgrading allows the use of new customization features and ensures compatibility with future updates.
• Will my conversion tracking break if I upgrade to Checkout Extensibility? Your conversion tracking will not break as long as you replace your current additional scripts with pixels in customer events and use app blocks in the editor.
• Do I need a developer to upgrade to the Thank you page & Order status page? Can I upgrade myself? If you are comfortable making changes in the Shopify editor and working with pixels and app blocks, you may be able to upgrade yourself. However, consulting with a developer or support team is advisable if unsure.
• Will I be able to revert the upgrade if needed? Yes, you can revert the Checkout Extensibility feature you published by clicking the Revert button in the Shopify editor.

Conclusion

Shopify’s Checkout Extensibility represents a significant enhancement in customization and tracking capabilities for all Shopify plans. By transitioning to this new system, merchants can ensure their tracking mechanisms remain effective and compliant while benefiting from increased security and stability.?

Professional tools like Analyzify provide the necessary support to navigate these changes smoothly. Regular updates, professional support, and compliance with data privacy regulations further enhance the robustness of these solutions.

If you are unsure about handling these changes on your own, seeking professional help is advisable to avoid any disruptions in your tracking mechanisms.