How to add a post-purchase survey to Shopify
A post-purchase survey asks your customer a question after they have paid. Because the order is already placed, the survey can’t hurt your conversion rate, and the buyer still has your store open.
This guide covers where the survey can go in Shopify, what to ask, how to set it up, and how to test it on a live store. Most of the time goes into choosing the question. The setup itself takes a few minutes.
Where a post-purchase survey can go
Shopify has two pages after checkout that can show an app block:
| Page | When buyers see it |
|---|---|
| Thank you page | Right after paying, once per order. |
| Order status page | Later, when they come back to check on the order, usually from the link in their confirmation email. |
Put the survey on both. The Thank you page brings in most answers. The Order status page picks up the people who closed the tab straight away and come back two days later to see where their parcel is.
Both pages are built in Shopify’s checkout editor, so a survey has to be an app block that you place there. Theme code and the old “Additional scripts” box don’t run on these pages. If an older survey of yours has disappeared, this guide explains why.
Orders that never see the survey
Some orders never reach a Thank you page, so they will never have an answer. Expect this for point-of-sale orders, recurring subscription orders, orders that staff create in the admin and mark as paid, and orders that come in from marketplaces or other sales channels. When you compare answers with your total sales, leave those orders out.
What to ask
If you ask one thing, ask “How did you hear about us?”. Your ad platforms can tell you which clicks came before a sale. Only the customer can tell you that a friend mentioned you at dinner. The guide to that question covers which options to offer.
If you want more, these work well as a second or third question:
- “Why did you buy today?” with options like a gift, restocking, a sale, or trying something new. The answers tell you which reason to lead with in your next campaign.
- “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend?” on a 0–10 scale. One month’s score says little; watch how it moves over a quarter.
- “Anything we could do better?” as an open text box. Most replies are a few words. Now and then someone tells you the size guide is wrong, and that one is worth all the others.
Stop at three. Each extra question costs you a few answers, and the first question is the one that matters. Show one question at a time, so the survey never looks long.
Leave questions optional. People who don’t want to answer a required question usually close the survey, and you lose their other answers too.
Set up your post-purchase survey in Shopify
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Install Post Purchase Surveys from the Shopify App Store and open it.
The app asks for access to orders only, to read order totals and add tags. It doesn’t ask for your customer records.
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Edit the survey. It starts with “How did you hear about us?” already filled in.
Add more questions from the presets if you want them. Each setting is explained in the survey editor docs.
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On the app’s Home page, click Open checkout editor. It opens the Thank you page.
You can also go to Settings → Checkout → Customize and choose Thank you in the page menu at the top of the editor.
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Click Add app block, choose Post-purchase survey, and save. Then pick Order status in the page menu, add the same block, and save again.
Only you or your staff can add blocks to these pages. No app can do it for you.
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Back in the app, switch Survey is live on.
New surveys start switched off, so customers never see one you are still writing.
The survey uses short English texts such as “Quick question” and “Send answer”. If your store sells in another language, change them to your own words in the app.
Test it on a live store
On a development store, check out with Shopify’s Bogus Gateway. On a live store, you have two options:
- Turn on test mode in Shopify Payments and pay with Shopify’s test card numbers.
- Or create a 100% discount code for yourself, place a real order for $0 (choose free shipping or pickup), and cancel the order afterwards.
Then check these things:
- The survey shows on the Thank you page. Answer it.
- A few minutes later, open the order in Shopify. If the option you picked has an order tag, the tag is on the order.
- Each order can answer once, so use a new order for each test.
A single test answer won’t show up in the reports. Post Purchase Surveys never shows an answer that fewer than 3 buyers gave, so one customer can’t be singled out.
Check your answer rate
After a week, compare the number of answers with the number of online orders in the same days. That share is your answer rate. If it is much lower than you expected, check that the block is on both pages and that the survey is live, then look at the first question: a long or vague question is the usual cause.
Before you compare one option with another, wait for about 30 answers for each option. Below that, a couple of orders can swing the result either way.
Post Purchase Surveys adds the survey as a checkout block, links each answer to its order and keeps customer details in Shopify. Install it from the Shopify App Store and follow the steps above.