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Why might Instant be underperforming in reporting platforms that rely on UTM's on Checkout Links

If you use UTM-based reporting, you may notice that Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Checkout flows don’t always show full click attribution in tools like Google Analytics, Triple Whale or Shopify. This is caused by how Shopify handles checkout URLs.

Why UTMs Can Drop on Checkout Links

Instant AI includes UTM parameters on every email link. However, Shopify can strip UTMs from URLs that point directly to the checkout. When this happens, external analytics tools can’t track the click event and may under-report revenue or clicks for these flows. This only affects checkout links. Storefront links such as to your home-page keep UTMs intact. Instant AI’s in-app reporting is not affected because we use first-party click and open tracking rather than relying solely on UTMs.

The flows most impacted are Abandoned Cart and Abandoned Checkout. These flows are designed to maximise conversions by taking shoppers straight to the purchase page and auto-applying any configured coupon. The trade-off is that checkout links are more likely to lose UTM data in external tools. If you aren't using external tools for measuring attribution and relying on these UTM parameters, we recommend continuing to link to the checkout (default behaviour) to optimise conversions. 


How to Ensure Accurate UTM Tracking

If your reporting depends heavily on UTMs, our team can switch your flows to use storefront links instead of checkout links. This preserves UTMs and restores consistent attribution across third-party tracking tools. 

To request this change, contact help@instant.one or your CSM. Once updated, UTM tracking should appear normally in your external reporting within around seven days.

If you’re unsure whether this affects your store, look out for signs such as Abandoned Cart or Checkout appearing under-reported in third-party tools, while Abandoned Browse appears disproportionately higher. Your CSM can help review your account and confirm whether storefront-linking is the right approach for your reporting setup.