What is this page?
The Purchase Journey page (also known as Customer Journey or Cohort Journey) visualizes product-to-product paths across separate purchases by customers acquired in the selected period. Its Sankey diagram shows the strongest displayed paths through their first eligible purchase, second purchase and later purchases within the analysis window. These are observed associations, not proof that a product causes repeat purchases. Eligible history and display limits affect what you can see.
When you open a new cohort or date selection for the first time, Dashboardly may briefly show Preparing customer journey while it builds the complete historical view. You can leave the page and return later. If a completed view is already available, it remains visible with an Updating state until the newest synced orders are included. Dashboardly does not combine an incomplete calculation with the completed result.
If Dashboardly is briefly updating the service behind this page, Purchase Journey automatically retries the complete read before showing an error. If the service remains unavailable, no partial journey is substituted; use Try Again after the update finishes.
Key Metrics on This Page
The page surfaces metrics in two layers: summary cards at the top of the page, and a Key Insights panel below the Sankey diagram.
Summary Cards (top of page)
A row of four cards summarizes the selected acquisition cohorts and their analysis windows:
- Acquired Customers: Unique identified buyers whose first eligible order in the available synced history falls in the selected acquisition dates, using the shop timezone. Journey orders must be non-sample and have status AWAITING_SHIPMENT, IN_TRANSIT, DELIVERED or COMPLETED. Returned orders are excluded by default. Available import history and your plan's visible-order limits can affect the population; this is not every buyer who ordered during the selected dates.
- Avg. Journey Retention: Within each cohort, the average share of acquired customers reaching each observed repeat-purchase step. When several cohorts are combined, their rates are weighted by acquired-customer count. This differs from the second-purchase rate in Retention & Drop-off; it is not an average of calendar-month retention.
- Journey Net Sales: The P&L Net Sales value of eligible orders placed by these acquired customers within each customer's analysis window, in the shop currency. The formula matches P&L Net Sales, but the cohort population and order dates can differ from a calendar-period P&L. Orders without canonical P&L values are excluded from value KPIs and shown in the data-quality warning, rather than treated as known zero-value orders.
- Best Retained Cohort: The acquisition cohort with the highest average journey retention among the cohorts in this view, using the same repeat-step measure as Avg. Journey Retention.
Key Insights Panel (below the Sankey)
Four insight cards are generated automatically from your customer data:
- Retention & Drop-off: The share of acquired customers reaching a second eligible purchase, the step with the biggest measured drop-off, and that drop-off rate. This second-purchase rate is distinct from Avg. Journey Retention. A path hidden by display limits is not a drop-off.
- Top Entry Products: Attributed products in customers' first eligible orders, with customer shares and available average-price information. They describe observed entry points, not a guaranteed acquisition or repeat-purchase effect.
- Net Sales Insights: Journey Net Sales, average Journey order Net Sales, average acquisition order Net Sales, and the total acquired customers in the selected view.
- Journey Analysis: The most popular displayed purchase path and the selected timeframe. This is not a causal explanation or a generated recommendation.
Purchase Flow
- What it shows: The sequence of products customers buy over time, displayed as a flow diagram.
- Important: Each step represents a separate eligible order, not every item in a basket. One item is attributed to that order; Products groups it by product, while Product Variants (SKU) keeps variants distinct. Flow width represents the customers following the displayed path.
First Purchase Distribution
- What it shows: The attributed product from each acquired customer's first eligible order in the available synced history.
- Important: A frequent entry product is an observed first-purchase association. An older missing order can change which purchase is identified as first; the diagram does not reconstruct unavailable history or show every item in that first basket.
Repeat Purchase Paths
- What it shows: After their first purchase, which products do customers buy next?
- Important: Repeated Product A to Product B paths can suggest a pairing to investigate. Separate-order association alone does not prove that a bundle or campaign will improve retention.
Drop-off Rate
- What it shows: The percentage of customers who do not make another purchase after each step.
- Important: Drop-off means no later eligible purchase was observed within the analysis window. Recent cohorts have less follow-up time, and missing history can affect the result. Hidden paths are not additional drop-offs; the chart does not reveal why someone did not buy again.
Features
Sankey Diagram
The main visualization is a Sankey (flow) diagram showing:
- Left side: Acquisition cohorts followed by attributed first-purchase products
- Flowing right: Subsequent purchases for customers who bought again
- Line width: Proportional to the number of customers in that path
- Colors: Different colors for different products to make paths easy to follow
Hover over any flow line to see the exact number of customers and the products involved.
Insight Metrics
Below the Sankey, Key Insights summarizes the selected acquired customers and their eligible journey orders:
- Retention Rate -- what percentage of customers make a second purchase
- Drop-off Stage -- the purchase step with the biggest measured drop-off within the analysis window, not the number of paths hidden by display settings
- Top Entry Products -- attributed first-purchase products, customer shares and available price information
- Net Sales Insights -- Journey Net Sales, average Journey order Net Sales, average acquisition order Net Sales and total acquired customers; missing canonical values are excluded from value KPIs
- Journey Analysis -- the most popular displayed path and selected timeframe
Filters
- Timeframe -- choose acquisition dates, including Custom dates. The selection identifies first eligible purchases, not all shop orders in that period. The follow-up analysis window starts separately at each customer's first eligible purchase; changing the timeframe can change that window.
- Journey Level -- switch between Products and Product Variants (SKU). Each order contributes one attributed item. This is a grouping control, not a number-of-purchases control.
- Display Options -- use Entry products, Min. customers and Paths per cohort / step to limit the visible paths. Search entry products focuses the entry-product selection. Hidden paths are not counted as drop-offs; the displayed diagram is not an exhaustive list of all products or journeys.
Product Focus
Use Search entry products and the Display Options controls to focus the diagram. Hover over a node or flow to inspect the displayed customers and products. The chart does not provide click-to-highlight-all-paths navigation.
Actionable Takeaways
Use observed journey patterns as hypotheses to investigate, not guaranteed effects of a product or campaign:
- Identify gateway products -- investigate products frequently attributed to first purchases and their observed repeat paths
- Explore product bundles -- consider separate-order pairings for further testing; this diagram is not a same-basket analysis
- Target drop-off points -- use follow-up marketing at the stage where most customers stop buying
- Review your catalog -- compare observed paths while allowing for different follow-up time, incomplete history and display limits
Common Questions
What does a wide flow line mean?
A wider line means more customers followed that path. For example, a wide line from Product A (first purchase) to Product B (second purchase) means many customers buy Product B after Product A.
Why do most customers drop off after the first purchase?
The chart cannot establish a buyer's motivation. It shows no later eligible purchase observed within the follow-up window, not a prediction that the customer will never return. Check the cohort's age, synced history and value warnings before interpreting a large drop-off. Display limits can hide paths but do not turn them into additional drop-offs.
How is this different from the Customers page?
The Customers page provides identified-buyer rows and the available details for a selected buyer; TikTok-provided contact or address fields can be missing or masked. Purchase Journey instead summarizes acquired-customer paths across separate eligible orders. Cohort Retention is a separate calendar-month retention view, not the same measure as average journey retention. There is no separate Customer LTV navigation page to open.
Can I see which products customers buy together in the same order?
Purchase Journey follows separate orders over time and attributes one item to each order. It is not a complete basket or co-purchase report. For the items in a single order, open that order's details on the Orders page.
How far back does the journey data go?
Acquisition dates select customers by their first eligible purchase in the available history. Each selected customer's subsequent eligible orders are followed within that customer's analysis window, so those orders can occur after the selected acquisition dates. The follow-up window depends on the timeframe and is not unlimited; newer cohorts may not yet have that much observed history. Missing imports and visible-order limits also constrain the result. A longer selection does not guarantee complete lifetime journeys.