Measurement & definitions

The exact definition behind every metric in Live Product Insights — active viewers, product views, cart activity, attribution, conversion, revenue, and trending rules.

Every number in Live Product Insights is computed from the definitions on this page. When a metric and a marketing description ever disagree, this page wins. Merchants can rely on these definitions; developers and support teams can use them to interpret any value the app shows.

​

Live activity metrics

Metric	Definition
Active viewers	Distinct sessions that sent a valid heartbeat within the active window. Default 60 seconds, configurable from 10 to 600 seconds. Sessions drop out as soon as heartbeats stop.
Product views	Count of valid product-view events. Refreshes and repeat visits are deduplicated per session and product within the view dedupe window — default 30 minutes, configurable from 5 to 1,440 minutes.
Currently viewed	Products with at least one active viewer right now.

Active viewers and views are never mixed. A shopper who keeps a product page open for ten minutes is one active viewer and — thanks to dedupe — one view.

​

Cart metrics

Metric	Definition
Add-to-cart events	Count of cart-add events. A distinct-session variant shows how many different sessions added the product.
View-to-cart event rate	Add-to-cart events ÷ product-view events in the same window. This is an event rate, not a visitor conversion rate.
Cart removals	Counted only where the storefront reliably exposes the event; removals that happen after checkout begins are not observable.
Net additions	Additions minus removals in the window.

​

Purchase metrics

​

Orders

Orders come from Shopify webhooks. Test orders are excluded unless the store opts in, and cancelled orders are always excluded from every order, revenue, and conversion metric.

​

Attribution

An order is attributed to a product only when all of these hold:

1. The order arrived with a cart token.
2. The cart token matches a session that added products to its cart.
3. Those cart additions fall inside the attribution window before the order was created — default 7 days, configurable from 1 to 30 days.

Orders with no matching token are still counted as orders, but they are labelled not attributable. Orders ingested by the background catalog sync carry no cart token, so they are never attributed — attribution is always webhook-driven.

​

Derived purchase metrics

Metric	Formula
Product conversion	Attributed orders ÷ distinct view sessions. Shown only when attribution is supported in the window.
Cart-to-order rate	Attributed orders ÷ distinct sessions that added to cart.
Revenue	Line price × quantity − line discounts, excluding tax and shipping, minus refunds prorated per unit. Cancelled orders reversed.
Average order value	Revenue ÷ qualifying orders, store-wide.

​

Trending and comparison rules

• Comparisons always use equal-length periods: this week against the previous seven days, never a partial period.
• A percentage change is only reported when the baseline is above zero; otherwise the value is shown as new rather than as an infinite percentage.
• Trending requires at least 10 views in the previous period and growth of 30% or more.
• Declining requires at least 10 views in the previous period and a drop of 30% or more.
• Rising interest requires growth of 30% or more in views or cart additions.

​

Internal thresholds reference

Threshold	Value	Where it applies
Trend minimum baseline	10 prior-period views	Trending, declining, rising
Trend bands	±30%	Trending up, declining, rising interest
Product pair co-view minimum	5 shared sessions	Frequently viewed together
High views, low cart	≥50 views and add rate ≤50% of store rate	Insights and opportunity detection
High cart, low purchase	≥10 cart sessions and ≤50% of store cart-to-order rate	Insights and opportunity detection
Low stock	Merchant threshold (default 10 units)	Low-stock and restock insights
Restock lead time	Merchant-set supplier days	Restock urgency insights
Sales velocity window	Rolling 7 days	Products page velocity column
New product	Created within the last 30 days	New product performance
Hourly heatmap minimum	24 hour-buckets of data	Best time to promote

​

Why the app never guesses

Live Product Insights never shows a causation claim, a projected number, or a placeholder count. Three rules follow from the definitions above:

• The storefront counter hides instead of showing zero. A “0 people viewing” badge would imply the page is being watched and found wanting — so nothing renders until a real viewer is present.
• Cart activity is never presented as orders. The two numbers measure different things and are never swapped.
• Metrics that depend on attribution are hidden or labelled when the tracking method cannot support them, rather than filled in with an estimate.

See Settings for the configurable windows, and Privacy for how events are collected and consented.