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Work through these checks before going live, and return to them when tracking data looks wrong in Engage.

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Verify the script and cookies

  1. Go to your e-com site.
  2. Open the developer console and go to Sources.
  3. Search for analytics and confirm you are loading the expected script version, and the right one for your environment.
  4. Go to Application → Cookies and select the site running the tracking.
  5. If you are identified or logged in, look for the _vaI cookie.
  6. If you are not identified, look for the _va cookie.
The _vaI cookie

The _vaI cookie

Tracking script used

Tracking script used

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Verify product views

  1. Go to your e-com site.
  2. Open the developer console, go to Network and select the Fetch/XHR tab.
  3. Visit any product on the site.
  4. You should see a call to the Collect endpoint.
  5. In the payload, te should be your tenant/account name.
  6. t (type) should be productview.
  7. If you are identified, check that ci holds the same ID as the _vaI cookie — and nothing else.
The locale in a product view payload does not have to match the locale in your cart payloads, and it is not used to identify anything. It does, however, need to match a product feed for abandoned browse to trigger.
Finding the payload

Finding the payload

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Verify cart changes

  1. Go to your e-com site.
  2. Open the developer console, go to Network and select the Fetch/XHR tab.
  3. Place an item in the cart.
  4. You should see a call to the Collect endpoint.
  5. In the payload, t (type) should be cart. Check the items[] array against what’s actually in your cart.
  6. If possible, complete the purchase.
  7. A new Collect event should fire with an empty cart, confirming the purchase was registered.
Verify tracking cart changes 1

Verify tracking cart changes

Verify tracking cart changes 2

Verify tracking cart changes

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Checklist: script and identification

1

The script loads on non-product pages

The script must load on landing pages, category pages and any other non-product page. If an email link lands on a page without the script, identification fails.
2

No empty events on page load or navigation

Confirm that simply loading or navigating between pages sends no events.
3

Events are sent for anonymous visitors

Events should be sent when no _vaI cookie exists. Engage connects anonymous events to a contact once they are identified.
4

Email-link identification works

Arrive via an email link and confirm events are sent and _vaI is set correctly. A visitor can be identified without being logged in.
5

Login identification works

Log in and confirm that setContactId() sets _vaI correctly and that events are sent with the identification in place.
6

Trailing slashes don't break identification

_vaI should be set whether or not the URL has a trailing slash.
  • With: www.site.se/?vtid=LTq-P1eRKU2s8CWc5KPe5w
  • Without: www.site.se?vtid=LTq-P1eRKU2s8CWc5KPe5w
Then navigate further into the site and confirm _vaI is not cleared.
7

A new vtid overwrites the old one

_vaI should update when a different vtid is used. Set vtid to a4fa7a46-23b0-4523-b09c-5462053e7627, then change it to 3fbe3a2d-9157-4d29-acf0-259ce4a3dee7 and confirm the cookie follows.
8

sessionId is present in the payload

Abandoned browse will not trigger without it. The script adds it automatically; if you use the tracking API, you must add it yourself.
9

The script matches the environment

Running the production script in staging, or the staging script in production, means no tracking at all.

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Checklist: cart tracking

1

Cart events carry the correct locale

The cart’s locale must match both a product feed in Engage and the language version of the site, if you run a multimarket site.
2

Cart updates outside checkout

Try every way of changing the cart: add an item, remove an item, change quantity, empty it. Does the quantity update when the same item is added a second time? What happens when you remove the last item? Carts can usually be updated from the product page and a popup as well — and sites built as SPAs tend to behave inconsistently.
3

Cart updates inside checkout

Checkout usually behaves differently from the rest of the site. Is there a difference between setting quantity to zero and removing the item? What happens when all items are removed? Can you add new items from checkout? Does any of it differ with and without vtid?
4

Moving in and out of checkout

Update the cart on both the checkout page and elsewhere, moving back and forth. Confirm no incorrect or duplicate events are sent.
5

emptyCart() fires after a completed purchase

Without this, the cart stays populated in Engage and can trigger an abandoned cart email to someone who already bought.

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Checklist: product views and products of interest

1

itemId matches the SKU in the article register

To detect whether a purchase followed a product view, Engage matches the itemId from the view against the SKU in the article register on the receipt.
2

No duplicate events for the same SKU

A product page should fire one productview per unique itemId/SKU. Several events on one page are fine only if they are for different SKUs.
3

Product views fire however the page is reached

Product pages can be reached from the landing page, checkout, another product page, the menu or the cart. Test each route. Sites built as SPAs don’t do full page loads, which frequently causes events to be missed.

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Common implementation errors

  • A cart event isn’t sent for every update. Every change — add, remove, quantity change, empty — must generate a cart event to the Collect endpoint. These changes happen in different contexts (product page, cart popup or sidebar, checkout) that often behave differently.
  • The cartRef changes for the same cart. cartRef must be unique per cart and identical across all of that cart’s events. Invalid or changed cartRef values on remove-product and empty-cart events are a frequent cause of missing abandoned cart emails.
  • Duplicate cart or product view events. One cart update should produce exactly one cart event, and actions that aren’t cart updates (such as page loads) should produce none. A product page should produce no more than one productview per unique SKU.

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Common identification errors

  • The _vaI cookie is cleared after being set by vtid. A visitor identified by an email link is identified without being signed in. Calling setContactId() with an empty or null value in that state wipes the identification. Only call it when your site has actually identified someone.
  • No cart or product view events before checkout or sign-in. Don’t limit events to the checkout page, or to signed-in visitors. Anonymous events are connected retroactively.
  • _vaI isn’t set when the email link ends in a slash. Some websites strip trailing slashes without preserving the query string, so vtid is lost. For example www.mysite.com/myproduct/?vtid=uaz2QuT9NEez_eAsr8hEeQ becomes www.mysite.com/myproduct.

Read more about identification and cookies