Fredhopper Insights FAQ

This article answers the most common questions about Fredhopper Insights: what it is, how it works, what it measures, and how to get started.

What is Fredhopper Insights?

Fredhopper Insights is the centralized reporting and analytics hub within the Fredhopper eco-system. It provides merchandisers with a real-time view of shopper behaviour, performance metrics, and A/B test outcomes across their ecommerce site.

Learn more:  You can find all Insights documentation here.

How does Fredhopper Insights collect data?

Fredhopper Insights collects data through front-end tracking, implemented via the Fredhopper Front-End Tracker (also called the Activity Tracker). The tracker is installed on your website and captures user activities, including page loads, searches, clicks, product views, adds to basket, and purchases, and sends these behavior signals to the Fredhopper Insights in real time.

Note: Without the Fredhopper Tracker implemented, no user activity data is collected and Insights cannot display any metrics.

What can Fredhopper Insights be used for?

Fredhopper Insights is used to analyze shopper behaviour, evaluate the performance of merchandising configurations, and support data-driven optimization decisions. It enables merchandisers to:

• Track impressions, clicks, adds-to-basket, and revenue for each business rules, such as rankings, campaigns, facets, etc.
• Measure variant performance across key metrics in A/B tests
• See which products are getting attention, ending up in baskets, and actually selling versus under-performing
• Visualize and compare strategies and segments to understand shopper journeys
• Track the real-time impact of actions taken in Merchandising Studio

What is required to use Fredhopper Insights?

Fredhopper Insights requires front-end tracking to be implemented on your site. This is a prerequisite: without a successful tracker implementation, no user activity is recorded and Insights dashboards will show no data.

To use A/B testing within Insights, A/B testing must also be enabled as part of your Fredhopper configuration. Your Crownpeak Technical Consultant will confirm which products and services are enabled for your instance.

Learn more: For more information on how to set up front-end tracking see front-end tracking setup guide.

What is a Fredhopper triggered entity?

A Fredhopper triggered entity is any piece of configuration set within the Fredhopper platform that is applied to influence results on your website. Triggered entities include:

• Facets: Filters shoppers use to narrow results
• Ranking rules: Rules that control how products are sorted on listing pages
• Result modifications: Configurations that adjust which products appear and where
• Campaigns: Additional content such as texts or items

Warning: Image campaigns are not tracked and are excluded from Insights metrics.

Triggered entities are the primary unit of measurement in Insights. Impressions, conversions, revenue, and other metrics are all attributed to the triggered entity that was active when the shopper action occurred.

Learn more: For more information on the metrics recorded see Metrics: Definitions and examples.

What page types are tracked in Fredhopper Insights?

Fredhopper Insights metrics are calculated across three main page types:

• PLP (Product Listing Page): Category-based product lists; the page returned when a shopper navigates through the site's category structure.
• SLP (Search Listing Page): The page returned after a shopper performs a search query.
• PDP (Product Detail Page): The page showing full information about a single product.

What is an impression in Fredhopper Insights?

In Fredhopper Insights, there are two types of impressions:

Total impressions are counted each time a product appears within a Fredhopper triggered entity, or each time a triggered entity is loaded or reloaded on the front end. Actions that trigger an impression include:

• Page load or refresh
• Performing a search
• Navigating to a page
• Filtering, paging, or using the back button

Unique impressions are based on user micro journeys rather than sessions. A unique impression is counted once per micro journey, regardless of how many times the entity reloads within that journey.

Actions that add to total impressions but do not add a new unique impression include:

• Interacting with facets without changing category
• Navigating to a different page within the same category (e.g. moving to page 2 of search results)

The micro journey-based definition of unique impressions gives merchandisers more granularity into site interactions than a session-based approach. 

Learn more: For the full definition of a micro journey, see What is a user micro journey? below.

What is a user micro journey in Fredhopper Insights?

A user micro journey is the core unit of attribution in Fredhopper Insights. A micro journey is a sequence of actions a shopper takes during a single session. The micro journey:

• Begins when a shopper interacts with a Fredhopper triggered entity (such as loading a page influenced by a ranking rule).
• Ends when the shopper makes a purchase within the entity's influence, changes category, or navigates to a different part of the website — at which point a new micro journey starts.

Purchases, revenue, adds-to-basket, and unique impressions in Insights are all attributed based on micro journeys, not full sessions. This means a single shopper session can contain multiple micro journeys.

Example: A shopper searches for "blue winter scarf" (micro journey 1 begins, a ranking rule triggers), views a PDP, then searches for "winter scarf" (micro journey 2 begins, the same ranking rule triggers again). The ranking rule receives two unique impressions — one per micro journey — even though both searches occurred in the same session.

How are purchases and revenue attributed in Fredhopper Insights?

Purchases and revenue in Fredhopper Insights use a last-click attribution model, as documented in Metrics: Definitions and examples.

Purchases: A purchase is attributed to a Fredhopper triggered entity each time a shopper buys a product that was returned by that entity. Purchase counts measure the number of purchase events in a micro journey, not the volume of units. Buying 10 units of a product in one micro journey counts as one purchase event, not ten.

Revenue: Revenue is attributed to a triggered entity if the purchased product was reached via that entity. Revenue is calculated as the number of units purchased multiplied by the unit price. For example, purchasing 2 units at €53 each attributes €106 to the entity.

Important: A single currency per tracker key must be used, and currency conversion must be handled before events are sent to Insights. The merchant is responsible for sending the correct product count, order, and unit price.

How does Fredhopper Insights support A/B testing?

A/B testing is a feature within Fredhopper Insights. When A/B testing is active, different shoppers receive different variants of a page (based on their session ID), allowing merchandisers to compare how different configurations perform against each other.

A/B tests can be run across multiple Fredhopper features including ranking rules, result modifications, and search configurations. Insights provides the metric data, including impressions, conversions, and revenue, needed to evaluate each variant.

Learn more: You can find more information in A/B testing here.

Why is Fredhopper Insights showing no data?

If your Fredhopper Insights dashboard is showing no data, the most likely cause is that the Fredhopper Tracker has not been implemented, or has not been implemented correctly. Insights relies entirely on front-end tracking: without the tracker sending user activity events to the Fredhopper platform, no metrics can be populated.

Other possible causes to investigate:

• Tracker firing issues: The tracker is implemented but events are not being sent correctly. Check that the tracker is firing on the relevant page types (PLP, SLP, PDP).
• No active triggered entities: Metrics are only attributed when a triggered entity (ranking rule, facet, result modification, or campaign) is active on the page.

Learn more: For more information on how to set up front-end tracking see front-end tracking setup guide.

What is the business value of Fredhopper Insights?

Fredhopper Insights enables data-driven optimization of the shopper experience, replacing guesswork with measurable evidence. It delivers value across two areas:

• For merchandisers: Real-time visibility into which configurations are driving engagement and revenue, with the ability to compare strategies through A/B testing rather than relying on intuition.
• For search teams: Insight into which search terms convert and which lead to dead ends, enabling continuous refinement of search relevance and ranking strategies.