What changed: Shopify updated the sessions experience in Analytics to focus the default sessions view on human visitors where the Human or bot filter is available, classify bot/system traffic more consistently, and keep valid shopper journeys visible even when they don't include a standard pageview.
Who is affected
The source covers merchants using Shopify Analytics; it does not specify a particular plan, region, or business size limitation.
What it means for your business
A merchant comparing reports from before and after September 21, 2026 may see different sessions, conversion rate, add-to-cart rate, reached checkout rate, checkout conversion rate, bounce rate, pageviews per session, online store visitors, and search numbers, without this meaning their actual traffic or customer behavior changed.
What to do
Treat September 21, 2026 as a new baseline and avoid directly comparing session-based metrics like sessions and conversion rate across that date. Continue tracking order, sales, and customer counts as before, since this update does not change them.
When it takes effect
Starting September 21, 2026.
Source: https://changelog.shopify.com/posts/shopify-analytics-session-measurement-improvements
