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Shopify Partner API Attribution
Practical guidance on shopify partner api attribution for Shopify app founders.
Tracking and Attribution · ~5 min read
The Shopify Partner API is the one attribution source that needs no code in your app, which makes it tempting as a way to skip integration work. It is genuinely useful, but it has hard limits that decide how far it can take you.
What it gives you
- •Install and uninstall events for your app, with the store's myshopify domain and a timestamp.
- •Transactions: the charges merchants pay, which is how you compute revenue and commissions.
In other words, it tells you which stores installed and what they paid. That is a lot, and it is enough to run revenue-share commissions off real charges.
What it does not give you
The Partner API does not tell you which partner drove an install. It has no partner field. It also does not expose merchant contact details, orders, catalog, or the store's own Shopify plan, because that data lives in the Admin API, which only your installed app can access, not a third-party partner tool. So the Partner API answers who installed and paid, not who referred them.
The analytics gap
The common workaround is to join the install event to a partner's link click through analytics like GA4 and BigQuery. In practice this is unreliable. The install event is fired server-side by Shopify with its own identifier, which frequently does not match the browser session where the partner link was clicked, and one identifier can collapse many unrelated stores together. Analytics-based attribution should be treated as a suggestion a human confirms, not a source of truth.
How to actually use it
Use the Partner API for what it is good at: pulling installs and revenue so your commissions compute from real charges. Pair it with a reliable referral signal, a forwarded code or a surviving cookie, for the who-drove-it part. The Partner API is the money side; the link or code is the credit side. You need both.
Practical checklist
- ✓You use the Partner API for installs and revenue, not for deciding who drove an install
- ✓You pair it with a forwarded code or cookie for partner credit
- ✓You treat analytics-based partner matches as suggestions to confirm, not truth
Common mistakes
- ✕Expecting the Partner API to tell you which partner referred a store
- ✕Trusting an analytics join between clicks and server-side install events
- ✕Assuming you can pull merchant contact or order data through a partner integration
How this works in PartnerDock
PartnerDock connects to your Shopify Partner API to sync installs and revenue and compute commissions from real charges. For partner credit it relies on the reliable signals, a forwarded code or the click cookie, and where only a direct ?mref= link exists, it surfaces analytics-based matches as suggestions in your Referrals queue for you to confirm, never as automatic payouts.
Try PartnerDock FreeFAQ
Can the Partner API tell me which partner referred a store?+
No. It has no partner field. It tells you which stores installed and what they paid. Partner credit has to come from a link, a forwarded code, or manual attribution.
Can I get merchant emails or orders through it?+
No. That is Admin API data, which only your installed app can access with the merchant's granted scopes, not a third-party partner tool.
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Referral Links
Practical guidance on referral links for Shopify app founders.
Click Tracking
Practical guidance on click tracking for Shopify app founders.
Manual Merchant Attribution
When links aren't enough: how to credit a partner for a store they genuinely referred, and keep it honest.