Shopify started rolling out an important Analytics update on September 21, 2026.
The update is being deployed between September 21–23 and changes how Shopify measures sessions and several metrics calculated from those sessions.
For Shopify merchants, this means something important:
Your sessions, conversion rate, bounce rate or add-to-cart rate could suddenly change even if absolutely nothing changed on your store.
Shopify announced the change in its official Shopify Analytics session measurement improvements update.
If you manage a Shopify store, run CRO experiments or compare performance month over month, you need to account for this change before drawing conclusions from your Analytics data.
What changed in Shopify Analytics?
There are three major changes Shopify merchants should know about.
1. Identified bot sessions are now filtered by default
This may be one of the most noticeable changes for stores receiving significant automated traffic.
Shopify can classify sessions as coming from humans or bots.
Following the September Analytics update, identified bot sessions are filtered out by default from session-related reports.
In reports that support Shopify’s Human or bot session filter, merchants can still adjust the filter and include bot sessions.
Shopify explains the functionality in more detail in its bot filtering documentation.
Why does this matter?
Imagine your store previously recorded:
100,000 sessions
2,000 orders
2% conversion rate
If Shopify determines that 10,000 of those sessions were identified bot traffic and removes them from the default session reporting, you could now have:
90,000 sessions
2,000 orders
Your store didn’t suddenly become better at converting customers.
Your orders didn’t increase.
Your marketing didn’t necessarily improve.
But your displayed conversion rate can increase because Shopify changed which sessions are included in the calculation.
This is particularly important for businesses making CRO decisions or working with a Shopify development agency to improve storefront performance.
2. Sessions no longer automatically end at midnight UTC
Shopify is also changing how the beginning and end of a session are determined.
Previously, session measurement could split customer activity when it crossed midnight UTC.
With the new methodology, Shopify bases sessions on continued customer activity rather than automatically ending them at midnight UTC.
This should provide a more natural representation of a customer’s shopping journey.
A visitor browsing your store before and after midnight shouldn’t necessarily appear as two completely separate shopping sessions simply because the UTC date changed.
Shopify explains these changes in its official guide covering changes to sessions and conversion rate in Shopify Analytics.
3. Some sessions without a traditional pageview are now counted
Another important change involves customer journeys that don’t begin with a normal storefront pageview.
For example, a customer might open a cart or checkout link directly.
Under Shopify’s updated methodology, some of these interactions can now qualify as sessions even if the journey doesn’t contain a standard pageview.
This can have the opposite effect of bot filtering.
Bot filtering could reduce reported sessions.
Counting additional legitimate shopping journeys could increase them.
That means different Shopify stores may see different effects from the update.
There isn’t one universal percentage by which every store’s Analytics numbers will change.
Which Shopify Analytics metrics can change?
Sessions aren’t the only number affected.
Because many ecommerce metrics are calculated using sessions, Shopify says the change can affect metrics including:
- Sessions
- Conversion rate
- Add-to-cart rate
- Reached checkout rate
- Checkout conversion rate
- Bounce rate
- Pageviews per session
- Online store visitors
- Searches
So imagine your Shopify conversion rate changes from 2.4% to 2.7% after September 21.
Normally, you might immediately investigate what caused the improvement.
Was it your new product page?
A better advertising campaign?
A theme update?
Improved site speed?
A checkout change?
A new upsell?
A custom feature added through Shopify app development?
Those might still be responsible.
But from September 21 onward, there is another possibility you need to consider:
Shopify changed how the underlying sessions are measured.
What isn’t changing?
There is an important distinction between session-based Analytics metrics and actual commerce activity.
According to Shopify, this session measurement update does not change:
- Orders
- Sales
- Customer counts
This gives merchants an important reference point when investigating unusual Analytics changes.
Suppose sessions suddenly fall significantly after the update, while:
- Orders remain stable
- Revenue remains stable
- Customer counts remain stable
You shouldn’t immediately conclude that your marketing traffic collapsed.
Part of the difference could come from Shopify’s updated session measurement or bot filtering.
The reverse is also true.
If your conversion rate suddenly increases while sales and orders remain largely unchanged, don’t immediately assume that your latest CRO experiment was responsible for the entire improvement.
Look at the underlying business metrics first.
September 21 should become a new Shopify Analytics baseline
This is probably the most important takeaway from the update.
Shopify itself recommends treating the change as a new baseline for session-based metrics.
That means merchants should be careful when comparing periods such as:
August 2026 vs September 2026
September 2025 vs September 2026
Before September 21 vs after September 21
Historical data hasn’t simply been rewritten so that every previous session is measured using exactly the same methodology as sessions after the update.
Shopify also notes that bot classification applies to sessions from October 7, 2025 onward, which adds another consideration when making historical comparisons.
For stores with extensive reporting requirements — particularly larger merchants using Shopify Plus development and custom reporting integrations — this methodology change should be documented internally.
Otherwise, someone looking at a dashboard several months from now could see a sudden shift in conversion rate and assume that something dramatic happened to the business.
The actual explanation might simply be:
Shopify changed the way sessions were measured.
What Shopify merchants should do now
There’s no reason to stop using Shopify Analytics or discard your historical data.
Instead, add context to it.
When reviewing performance around September 21–23, look beyond one metric.
A useful way to analyse performance is:
Revenue → Orders → Customers → Sessions → Conversion behaviour
If your conversion rate jumps but revenue and orders remain relatively flat, investigate the Analytics methodology before attributing the entire improvement to CRO.
If sessions drop but revenue remains stable, look at whether bot filtering may explain part of the difference.
If sessions increase, consider whether Shopify is now recognising legitimate customer journeys that previously weren’t counted.
And if you report Shopify performance to clients, management or investors, annotate September 21, 2026 in your reporting.
That one note could prevent a lot of confusion later.
Don’t judge a CRO experiment only by the new conversion rate
This update is especially relevant for CRO.
Imagine that on September 18 you launch:
- A redesigned product page
- New product recommendations
- A faster cart drawer
- New checkout messaging
Then on September 22 your conversion rate increases.
Normally, that looks like a successful experiment.
But your experiment now overlaps with a major Shopify Analytics methodology change.
You need to separate:
Actual customer behaviour changes
from
Analytics measurement changes
before deciding that the experiment worked.
The same principle applies if conversion rate decreases.
Don’t immediately roll back a change simply because Analytics moved during the rollout period.
Look at orders, sales, customer behaviour and other supporting metrics first.
Shopify Analytics vs Google Analytics
You may also notice that Shopify Analytics and tools such as Google Analytics don’t report exactly the same session numbers.
That isn’t necessarily a bug.
Different analytics platforms can use different:
- Session definitions
- Bot detection systems
- Cookie rules
- Attribution models
- Privacy controls
- Tracking methods
Shopify’s September update makes this even more important when comparing Shopify Analytics against third-party reporting platforms.
The objective shouldn’t necessarily be to make every analytics platform show exactly the same number.
The objective is to understand what each platform measures and to use a consistent baseline when judging performance.
Shopify Analytics is getting cleaner — but your baseline changed
Overall, the direction of the update makes sense.
Shopify is trying to give merchants a cleaner view of real shopper activity by filtering identified bot traffic more consistently and recognising legitimate shopping journeys that don’t always include a traditional pageview.
But whenever measurement changes, historical comparisons become more complicated.
So if you’re operating a Shopify store, remember this date:
September 21, 2026.
If your sessions, conversion rate, bounce rate or add-to-cart rate suddenly move around this date, don’t immediately assume something changed with your customers.
Something may have changed with the way Shopify measures them.
For stores requiring custom storefront functionality, Analytics integrations or more complex ecommerce development, explore our Shopify development services or custom Shopify app development.
Official Shopify resources
You can read Shopify’s own documentation here:
Shopify Analytics session measurement improvements
Changes to sessions and conversion rate in Shopify Analytics
Bot filtering in Shopify Analytics and reports
You can also visit Shopify for more information about the ecommerce platform.