Someone might click an ad on their phone, browse later on a tablet, and complete the purchase on a laptop. Without cross-device tracking, it looks like three separate people. That’s bad for attribution, bad for optimizing ad spend, and bad for understanding your customers.

What is cross-device tracking?

Cross-device tracking connects a shopper’s activity across multiple devices and sessions. Instead of treating each visit as a new person, it recognizes when someone comes back on any device, helping to track user activity across devices.

Example: A shopper clicks a Meta ad on their phone. They add a product to their cart but don’t check out. That evening, they pick up their tablet, visit your store again, and buy the product. Without cross-device tracking, the purchase won’t be attributed to the original ad click.

There are two main ways this connection happens:

• Deterministic tracking - recognizes users through clear identifiers like email addresses, login details, or unique click IDs.
• Probabilistic tracking - uses patterns in devices, browsers, and behaviour to estimate when different sessions belong to the same person.

Both methods have their place. Deterministic is more accurate but relies on the user being logged in or sharing details. Probabilistic helps fill in the gaps when clear identifiers aren’t available.

Why does cross-device tracking matter for Shopify stores?

Without cross-device tracking:

• Attribution is wrong: You’ll either miscredit or completely miss the marketing channels that actually drove sales. Additionally, privacy concerns must be addressed by complying with regulations like GDPR and CCPA to ensure data security and maintain customer trust.
• Retargeting fails: If someone browses on their phone but buys on their desktop, your retargeting strategies might treat them as a new visitor, leading to ineffective campaigns.
• Customer journeys appear broken or incomplete: You’ll see shorter, messier paths than your customers actually take, making it hard to optimize your funnel.

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Example: A returning customer who usually shops via their desktop might open your email campaign on mobile and browse new arrivals. Later, they purchase from their work laptop. Without cross-device tracking, your email platform might not link that engagement to the purchase. That leads to underreporting on your email revenue. Cross-device tracking benefits businesses by providing accurate data for better decision-making.

How TrackBee uses cross-device tracking to build better Shopper Profiles

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TrackBee doesn’t just patch gaps between devices. It builds Shopper Profiles: enriched records of each visitor’s behaviour across devices and sessions.

Here’s how it works and why it matters:

Smarter identification

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TrackBee collects and combines data points like:

• Email addresses
• Ad click IDs
• First & last name
• Buy behaviour
• On-site behaviour

This means even when someone switches devices, or returns weeks later, there’s a high chance TrackBee can recognize them and reconnect their sessions.

Example:
A shopper clicks an Instagram ad on their phone but abandons their cart. Two weeks later, they visit your store on a tablet using a different browser. Thanks to click ID recovery and other identifiers, TrackBee links both visits to the same person.

Data enrichment

Shopper Profiles don’t just stitch visits together. They enrich your first-party data by storing valuable attributes:

• Browsing patterns
• Product interests
• Purchase behaviour
• Ad engagement history

This creates a more complete, actionable view of each shopper, even when they haven’t logged in.

Improved attribution

By combining cross-device and cross-session data, TrackBee ensures that the correct source or campaign gets credit for a conversion. Even if that conversion happens on a completely different device than the original ad click.

Example:
A visitor clicks a Google Shopping ad on their work laptop but later completes the purchase on their home desktop. Without TrackBee, this would show up as a direct sale or even be missed entirely. With Shopper Profiles, the sale is accurately attributed to Google Ads.

Enhanced email and ad performance

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TrackBee’s enriched profiles sync with tools like Klaviyo and Meta:

• Abandoned cart and browse abandonment flows perform better because they can reconnect anonymous visits across devices.
• Retargeting audiences stay accurate, reducing wasted ad spend and improving ROAS.

Cross-platform data synergy

When you connect multiple ad platforms (like Meta, Google Ads, TikTok, and Pinterest), each platform learns from the same Shopper Profiles.

That means:

• Each platform’s algorithm trains on the same customer data.
• Audiences stay consistent across channels.
• Attribution improves everywhere—not just on a single platform.

Result:
Your campaigns become more efficient, and scaling across platforms gets easier because your data works together instead of in silos.

TrackBee users have reported:

• Up to 213% more revenue from abandoned cart flows.
• 20% higher ROAS on Google Ads in just two months.

And this all works automatically once TrackBee is integrated into your Shopify store—no complicated setups or manual data matching required.

What about cross-browser tracking?

Shoppers don’t just change devices. They also switch browsers. Someone might start browsing in Safari but complete their purchase in Chrome. Or they may use different browsers for work and personal use.

Without cross-browser tracking, these data points can’t be linked together, even if they happen on the same device. Cross-browser tracking ensures accurate tracking of user activity on the website, providing a complete view of the customer journey. Analyzing browsing patterns helps link sessions across different browsers, offering deeper insights into user behavior.

Conclusion

Cross-device tracking isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s essential for any Shopify store trying to understand its real customer journeys, allocate ad spend properly and grow efficiently.

Investing in cross-device tracking helps Shopify stores allocate marketing spend more efficiently and maximize returns.

TrackBee’s Shopper Profiles connect the dots, giving you accurate attribution, better retargeting, and a clearer picture of how people actually shop. This contributes significantly to the success of Shopify stores by enabling data-driven decisions and optimized marketing approaches.

See how TrackBee works →

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