Shopify events and campaigns

After you connect the app and approve Shopify’s requested permissions for order, cart, and checkout tracking (read_orders, write_pixels, read_customer_events), order, checkout, and checkout-step events start arriving without a separate Pushwoosh tracking screen. See Prerequisites and Part 1 for the approval step. Storefront browsing (product views and add-to-cart) also needs Push Init Embed ON.

Tracking covers three independent event groups. Each needs different access, so turning one off does not pause the others:

• Order paid and checkout: arrive from Shopify even if the theme embed is off
• Storefront browsing (product views and add-to-cart): need the theme embed ON
• Checkout steps: need Shopify’s checkout-tracking permissions from Part 1 (write_pixels and read_customer_events), approved separately from the order-tracking permission (read_orders) above

Before you connect the app, check how Pushwoosh handles money and date attribute types for PW_OrderCreated and PW_AbandonedCart. A wrong type sent before you catch it can’t be fixed retroactively.

Order paid and checkout events

Use these for post-purchase messaging (PW_OrderCreated), abandoned-checkout journeys or segments (PW_AbandonedCart / PW_AbandonedCartUpdate), and purchase conversion mapping. They arrive from Shopify even if the shopper blocks browser tracking:

Requires the app connected and read_orders approved

No extra toggle beyond that: connect the app in Part 1 and approve Shopify’s order-tracking permission (read_orders). Unlike storefront browsing, these events don’t depend on the theme embed being on.

Event name in Pushwoosh	When it fires
PW_OrderCreated	An order is paid
PW_AbandonedCart	A shopper starts checkout
PW_AbandonedCartUpdate	The shopper adds, removes, or changes items during an existing checkout

These correspond to the order and checkout notifications Shopify sends to Pushwoosh automatically (the orders/paid, checkouts/create, and checkouts/update webhooks, listed under Synchronized entities).

Shopify’s own Flow condition, the checkouts/create webhook, and the Products block’s Cart source are three different things that all get called cart abandonment. Pick the one that matches what you’re building, using the table below.

What you want to build	What to use
Reminder from Shopify Flow (Shopify’s own Cart abandonment condition)	Shopify Flow + Pushwoosh send notification action. Not the PW_AbandonedCart event names.
Reminder or segment in Pushwoosh from checkout started or cart changed	Customer Journey or segment on PW_AbandonedCart / PW_AbandonedCartUpdate
Show the shopper’s cart items inside an email	Products block Cart source (uses the PW_AbandonedCartID tag at send time). Separate from which trigger started the journey.

How these events behave. checkouts/create only means a checkout was started. Shopify hasn’t decided it’s abandoned, and no order has been confirmed either.

While the shopper edits checkout, PW_AbandonedCartUpdate fires again for the same checkout and overwrites the cart stored from PW_AbandonedCart. Reminder emails that use Cart source pick up the latest items at send time. You don’t need a second journey trigger only to refresh the cart.

PW_AbandonedCart and PW_AbandonedCartUpdate set the PW_AbandonedCartID tag on the shopper, which is what Cart source reads at send time. PW_OrderCreated clears it right away, so a shopper who already checked out skips the block instead of getting a reminder for a cart they no longer have. See What happens when you send PW_OrderCreated for the exact clearing behavior.

A shopper who starts checkout twice re-enters the journey only if you allow it

By default, a Customer Journey doesn’t re-enter someone who’s already in it, so a second checkouts/create from the same shopper while their first abandoned-cart journey is still running is ignored, not restarted. Turn on Allow re-entry on the trigger if you want each new checkout to reset their reminder timing instead. See Control whether users can re-enter the campaign.

Attributes of order and checkout events

PW_OrderCreated and PW_AbandonedCart include:

Attribute	Description
orderId	The order or checkout identifier
email	The shopper’s email
totalPrice	The order or cart total
shippingAmount	The shipping cost
taxAmount	The tax amount
discountAmount	The discount amount
currency	The currency code
items	The cart’s line items
customerId	Only for registered customers, not present for guest checkouts
orderUrl	The order status page for PW_OrderCreated, or the abandoned checkout’s recovery URL for PW_AbandonedCart and PW_AbandonedCartUpdate. Use it to build a “Complete your purchase” link or button.
createdDate	When the order or checkout was created
abandonedDate	PW_AbandonedCart and PW_AbandonedCartUpdate only. When the cart was last touched, not when it was first created

Get the money and date attribute types right

Pushwoosh infers each attribute’s type from the first event it sees, and that inference is unreliable for money and date fields like totalPrice, shippingAmount, taxAmount, discountAmount, and createdDate/abandonedDate above. A whole-number price like 129 infers as an integer, which then truncates 129.90 to 129 on every later event.

Haven’t connected the app yet? Declare PW_AbandonedCart and PW_OrderCreated with the correct types before you do, using the table in Create the events in your Control Panel. Skip that guide’s Send the events from your backend step. The Shopify integration already sends them for you.

Already connected? Check the types now: go to Audience → Events in the Control Panel, open PW_AbandonedCart and PW_OrderCreated, and compare each attribute against the same table. Fixing a wrong type there corrects it going forward, but any value already sent under the wrong type is gone for good.

Guest checkouts can still send order and cart events, but without a registered customer ID on the event.

PW_AbandonedCartUpdate carries the same attributes. If your account also has the Magento integration connected, its orders and abandoned carts post to these same event names, so a segment or journey built on PW_OrderCreated / PW_AbandonedCart catches both stores, and the attribute types above apply to both too. Magento has no equivalent to PW_AbandonedCartUpdate, because it doesn’t track in-progress checkout edits.

items in particular arrives from Shopify with only a few fields filled in.

Cart items are enriched from your Product Catalog

The items Shopify sends on PW_AbandonedCart and PW_AbandonedCartUpdate carry only productId, name, sku, quantity, and price. Pushwoosh fills in whatever else that item is still missing, such as description, imageUrl, productUrl, category, and other catalog fields, from the matching product in your connected Product Catalog (see Automatic product catalog connection) whenever a productId matches. There’s nothing extra to send for this. A product missing from the catalog just keeps showing with the fields Shopify sent.

Storefront browsing events

Use these for browse-abandonment segments or journeys, and for email recommendation strategies that need product views (for example Based on what they viewed). See How to set up product recommendations in email.

Requires Push Init Embed ON

Turn Push Init Embed ON in Part 4. Same theme embed as web push. Nothing else to add to the theme.

If the embed is off, or a shopper blocks its script, you lose product views and add-to-cart only. PW_OrderCreated and PW_AbandonedCart still arrive from Shopify.

Both events are collected by the same theme embed. Nothing else to add to the theme once Push Init Embed is ON:

• PW_ProductViewed: the shopper opens a product page.
• PW_AddToCart: the shopper adds an item to cart without reloading the page, which is how most Shopify themes do it.

Two things to check before you build on these events

• PW_ProductViewed counts every page load, with no filtering. Reloads, repeat views in the same visit, and even bot traffic all count the same as a real product view. A recommendation strategy built on this event inherits that noise.
• PW_AddToCart only fires if your store’s Add to cart button doesn’t reload the page. Test this yourself: click Add to cart in your store and watch what happens. Does just the cart counter update, or does the whole page refresh? Most Shopify themes do the first, updating the counter without reloading (a background request to /cart/add). If your theme reloads the page instead, PW_AddToCart will never fire, but PW_ProductViewed and the order/checkout events still work fine either way.

Attributes of storefront browsing events

Both events include:

Attribute	Description
items	The viewed or added product(s), each with productId, name, sku, quantity, price
totalPrice	The combined price of items
productUrl	The page the shopper was on
currency	Only when the storefront exposes it

A message that shows totalPrice needs a fallback for when currency is missing, since the number alone doesn’t say which currency it’s in.

Neither event carries email or customerId as an attribute. The shopper is identified the same way the rest of the theme embed does it, through the SDK session tied to the metafield User ID (see Part 2), not through the event payload.

PW_ProductViewed and PW_AddToCart’s items carry the same fields Shopify sends before enrichment: productId, name, sku, quantity, price. Pushwoosh doesn’t fill in the rest of the catalog fields for these two events, the way it does for PW_AbandonedCart’s items (see Cart items are enriched from your Product Catalog above).

A recommendation strategy that needs full product details, like Based on what they viewed, looks them up from your Product Catalog by productId when the message renders. See How to set up product recommendations in email for what each strategy needs.

Checkout step events

Use these to see where people drop off before purchase, and to message people who started checkout but did not reach a paid order.

Requires pixel-related app permissions

Approve the checkout-tracking permissions Shopify asks for when you connect the app (write_pixels and read_customer_events). See Part 1 for that step. No theme embed step. Shopify reports these milestones automatically once those permissions are approved (technically, via Shopify’s Web Pixel).

• PW_CheckoutContactInfo: the shopper entered their contact information.
• PW_PaymentInfoSubmitted: the shopper submitted their payment details.

A completed sale is PW_OrderCreated from the section above, not these two events.

PW_AbandonedCart only tells you a checkout started. These two events mark two later points in the same checkout, in that order: contact info first, payment details second. A shopper who reached PW_PaymentInfoSubmitted and never got a following PW_OrderCreated got further than one who only triggered PW_AbandonedCart, so a message built on that stage can address a stalled payment specifically, instead of a generic cart reminder.

Attributes of checkout step events

Both events include:

Attribute	Description
items	The checkout’s line items, each with productId, name, sku, quantity, price
orderId	The checkout token, or the Shopify order ID once the checkout has one
totalPrice	The checkout total
email	Only when the checkout has one. A phone-based checkout (no email entered) sends the event without it.
currency	Only when the checkout has one

Check that it works

Do the matching action in the store, then confirm the event name shows up in Pushwoosh. The event itself is processed in real time, but the two places you’d check it react differently to a name Pushwoosh hasn’t seen before:

• In the Event dropdown when you create a segment by events, a new name appears right away.
• In the Event dropdown when you add a Customer Journey trigger, a new name can take up to 10 minutes to show up (that dropdown is cached). If you don’t see it yet, wait rather than assume the integration is broken.

Test action	Event
Pay a test order	PW_OrderCreated
Start a checkout	PW_AbandonedCart
Change items in that checkout	PW_AbandonedCartUpdate
Open a product page (Push Init Embed ON)	PW_ProductViewed
Add an item to cart	PW_AddToCart
Enter contact info at checkout	PW_CheckoutContactInfo
Submit payment info at checkout	PW_PaymentInfoSubmitted

Use the events

After you know which event you need, use it in two places:

• As a trigger or segment condition: pick it in the Event dropdown when you create a segment by events or add a Customer Journey trigger.
• In the message text: on the message step, turn on Personalize message with event attributes and pick the attribute (for example the order total from PW_OrderCreated). You can also insert the attribute with a Liquid placeholder. See Dynamic Content and Liquid Templates in journeys.

For paid orders, you can also map PW_OrderCreated as a conversion event so Shopify purchases feed RFM segmentation, journey attribution, and Product block statistics.

Example campaigns

Each one fires at a different point in the shopper’s path, so they reach different audiences: how far someone got before dropping off, or whether they reached checkout at all, decides which one applies.

• Abandoned-cart reminder. Catches every shopper who started checkout, no matter how far they got: the widest audience here. Build it as a Customer Journey: trigger on PW_AbandonedCart, wait for PW_OrderCreated, then send an email with a Cart source block to whoever hasn’t paid. See How to set up an abandoned cart campaign for the full setup.
• Follow-up for stalled checkouts. Catches only shoppers who got as far as entering contact info but never paid, a narrower slice of the audience above. Segment on PW_CheckoutContactInfo, then exclude anyone who also has PW_PaymentInfoSubmitted or PW_OrderCreated.
• Recovery for a stalled payment. Catches shoppers who reached payment but never completed the order, further along than the follow-up above and mutually exclusive with it. Segment on PW_PaymentInfoSubmitted, then exclude anyone who also has PW_OrderCreated.
• Browse recommendation email. Catches shoppers who looked at products but never started checkout at all, a different audience from the reminders above. Use PW_ProductViewed with the Products block’s Based on what they viewed strategy. See How to set up product recommendations in email.