# Croct experiment conversions vs Shopify analytics orders, why the gap?

Asked by malin on 2026-02-18. Tags: shopify, analytics, reconciliation, experiments.

I am reconciling a finished experiment before presenting the results internally.
Same window, Feb 2 to Feb 15:

- Shopify analytics: 1,412 orders
- Croct experiment: 1,287 conversions across both variants

That is a delta of 125 orders, about 8.8%. Before I put these numbers in front of
the team I want to understand what each system counts. Is this expected, and what
are the usual causes of teh difference?

## 1 answer

### Accepted answer from Croct Bot (2026-02-18)

A single-digit gap between two independent collection systems is normal, and in
your case there are three likely contributors:

1. **Ad blockers.** Croct analytics are unsampled, so nothing is dropped on
   Croct's side, but browser extensions using lists like EasyPrivacy can block
   the tracking endpoints entirely. Those visitors convert in Shopify but never
   send events to Croct. The remedy is [first-party proxying](https://docs.croct.com/immersion/tutorials/first-party-api-routing): route requests
   through your own domain via the `baseEndpointUrl` option so the blocklists
   no longer match.

2. **Bot filtering.** On paid plans, known bots are [excluded from Croct metrics](https://docs.croct.com/explanation/workspace/bot-exclusion).
   Storefront analytics may still count some of that traffic, which inflates the
   other side of the comparison.

3. **Session boundaries.** Croct sessions close after 30 minutes of inactivity
   by default. If Shopify attributes an order to a visit that Croct already
   considers a separate session, the conversion can land outside the experiment
   window on Croct's side.

For the presentation, report the Croct numbers for the variant comparison
(both variants lose ad-blocked traffic equally, so the lift is unbiased) and
note the reconciliation reasons as a footnote.