ATTN Shopify Brands: Here’s How to Optimize Your Tracking for Checkout Extensibility

If your Shopify conversion data has looked off lately, you’re not imagining things. Shopify has completely re-engineered how store checkouts work. That update, called Checkout Extensibility, replaces old checkout systems with a faster, safer, and more scalable model. 

Checkout Extensibility offers merchants access to an evolving suite of capabilities and apps designed to enhance checkout security, streamline connecting marketing tags, and simplify customizing checkouts. It also forces brands to rethink their tracking architecture or risk broken analytics and disabled tracking.

Approaching Shopify’s latest checkout system can seem daunting at first, but with a clear plan, you can preserve your data integrity and keep your growth momentum. Read on to get a lay of the land and recommendations about how to proceed as we dive into a broad look at Checkout Extensibility and the nitty gritty of adapting your tracking connections.

Backbone’s Analytics team specializes in optimizing tracking configurations for Shopify stores. Reach us at info@backbone.media to make sure your data foundation is ready for what’s next. 

Key Components of Checkout Extensibility

Shopify’s new checkout structure is designed to make online transactions faster, safer, and more adaptable for the future. 

Consolidated options for managing marketing tags:

• Shopify has deprecated the use of checkout.liquid and additional scripts for Thank You and Order Status pages.
• Brands must now have their tracking scripts connected with either custom pixels, which are created in your Shopify Admin panel under Customer Events, or native sales channel apps.

Improved tag and website performance:

• Tags are loaded in an isolated sandboxed environment. This means:
  • Tags are loaded faster and with less risk of being delayed or blocked by browser restrictions.
    • Shopify tells brands to expect, on average, a 1% increase in overall conversion rate.
  • Website functionalities and page load speed are insulated from tag errors or bugs.

More flexible and powerful checkout customization:

• Shopify's rapidly growing ecosystem of checkout customization apps creates new opportunities to build fresh features and expand the capabilities of existing apps.

How Brands Should Respond

Addressing these changes with a strong approach now is essential to ensure your tracking stays reliable as Shopify continues to evolve.

We recommend the following steps for adapting your tracking to Checkout Extensibility: 

Step 1: Prepare

Start by assessing your store’s current tags and tracking assets. Look for deprecated assets in your checkout.liquid file and the Thank You and Order Status page’s additional scripts to determine what you’ll need to update. Any marketing tags or tag managers must now be connected with either a custom pixel or with a Shopify sales channel app.

• Take inventory of all tracking scripts.
• Determine and map out the migration path for each.

There is no one-size-fits all approach when deciding to use Shopify native sales channel apps, GTM, or a mixture of both. Each option opens different paths depending on your goals and resources. We dive into the key differences and considerations for each below.

Step 2: Update

Once you’ve determined your chosen approach for each platform, it’s time to rebuild your connections and clear out legacy scripts. 

• Based on your migration plan, configure your new checkout.
  • Follow Shopify’s guidelines for app and GTM custom pixel set up.
    • Search for app-specific documentation here: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/online-sales-channels
      • GTM custom pixel: https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/promoting-marketing/pixels/custom-pixels/gtm-tutorial
  • Test and validate your new checkout configurations.
  • With the new checkout in place, remove legacy scripts.
  • Keep a record of all migration paths and new tag locations.

Step 3: Publish

Once you’ve updated your store and removed legacy assets, it’s time to publish your new Thank You and Order Status pages. After upgrading, make sure to monitor changes.

• In your Shopify admin, go to the Configurations section in Checkout and click Open upgrade report.
• Click Upgrade from the Upgrade guide.

Choose Your Tracking’s Migration Path: Apps, GTM, or Both

Generally speaking: 

• Sales channel apps are quick to set up and require little to no technical expertise but sacrifice any advanced or custom tracking capabilities and full data visibility.
• GTM, preferred by many, is a great option as long as brands have the required technical expertise and bandwidth. GTM enables advanced tracking capabilities and full data visibility, is scalable for any future tracking needs, and allows brands to manage and optimize tracking for all marketing channels in one place. Reach out to us at Info@Backbone.Media with any questions or for help with this.

GTM alone may not be the best approach for your team given the resources needed to launch. Relying solely on Shopify’s sales channel apps when your KPIs call for more advanced or customized tracking can undermine measurement and media effectiveness.

Brands should aim to bridge Shopify’s new checkout system with their broader analytics needs and know what to expect from the connection methods they choose.

Table 1: Sales Channel Apps vs. GTM

Use this table to help determine migration paths for your marketing tags.

Special case: Meta

• Shopify’s Facebook & Instagram sales channel app automatically connects to the Meta Conversions API (CAPI), when used for pixel integration. This is helpful for brands without server-side infrastructure: it grants the benefits of API tracking without the added cost or time needed for manual set up. That said, for brands with more custom tracking needs or wanting full data visibility, it’s best to host Meta tags and CAPI connection in a tag management environment (i.e. GTM).

When a Blended Approach Makes Sense

Choosing one platform’s migration path doesn’t always determine the best way to update all platforms. For some brands, using either GTM or sales channel apps alone will serve their needs and offer reliable attributed conversion data. Others may see stronger results from a blended approach that uses both. For example: 

• When a brand doesn’t have server-side tracking but does have custom or advanced tracking goals, we often recommend:
  • Connecting the Meta pixel and CAPI via Shopify’s built-in app.
  • Creating a GTM custom pixel for connecting other platforms like GA4 and Google Ads.

A blended approach gives brands flexibility they need while keeping the tracking connections streamlined and manageable.

Looking Ahead

Clear, verified tracking ensures your analytics stays accurate and your marketing dollars stay accountable. Here’s why:

• Ensures conversions, revenue, and events are attributed accurately
• Avoid under-reporting that can skew ROAS and campaign optimization
• Keeps your data model compliant with Shopify’s checkout system
• Prevents data gaps as legacy methods sunset
• Supports more reliable testing, remarketing, and channel insights

Shopify’s move to Checkout Extensibility signals a broader trend in measurement toward safer, faster, and more privacy-conscious data pipelines. That’s good news, as long as your tracking infrastructure keeps pace.

Whether you choose to rely on Shopify’s integrated apps, build your own GTM framework, or combine both, the keys are alignment with your measurement goals and internal capabilities.

Need a Second Set of Eyes?

Backbone’s Analytics team has helped many Shopify brands comply with Checkout Extensibility. Email info@backbone.media—we’ll audit, rebuild, and optimize so your Shopify performance doesn’t skip a beat.