How to Use Hotjar and Clarity to Understand Shopify User Behavior

How to Use Hotjar and Clarity to Understand Shopify User Behavior

If you run a Shopify store, chances are you're constantly looking for ways to improve user experience, increase conversions, and understand why visitors drop off. That’s where behavior analytics tools like Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity come into play.

In this blog, we’ll show you how to integrate and use Hotjar and Clarity on Shopify to uncover real customer behavior—through heatmaps, session recordings, scroll depth, and more.

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🔍 What Are Hotjar and Microsoft Clarity?

• Hotjar is a popular behavior analytics tool that offers heatmaps, session recordings, feedback polls, and surveys to help you visualize user interactions.

• Microsoft Clarity is a free tool that provides similar features, including heatmaps, scroll tracking, session replays, and rage click detection.

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⚙️ Why Use These Tools with Shopify?

Both tools give you visibility into:

• Where users are dropping off

• Which sections they click on (or ignore)

• What parts of your funnel need fixing

• What frustrates users (rage clicks, dead clicks, etc.)

• How mobile and desktop users behave differently

This data is invaluable for:

• Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

• UX/UI improvements

• A/B testing strategies

• Identifying bugs or slow-loading elements

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🛠️ How to Set Up Hotjar on Your Shopify Store

Step 1: Sign up on Hotjar

Create a free account and add your Shopify store as a new site.

Step 2: Copy the Tracking Code

Once you’re inside the dashboard, Hotjar gives you a JavaScript tracking code snippet.

Step 3: Add Code to Shopify

1. Go to Shopify Admin → Online Store → Themes

2. Click Edit Code on your current theme.

3. Open the theme.liquid file.

4. Paste the Hotjar tracking code just before the </head> tag

5. Save and publish.

🔄 Data usually starts showing in Hotjar within 30-60 minutes.

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🛠️ How to Set Up Microsoft Clarity on Shopify

Step 1: Sign up on Microsoft Clarity

Log in with your Microsoft or Google account and create a project.

Step 2: Copy the Clarity Tracking Code

Clarity gives you a script that looks like:

<script type="text/javascript">
   (function(c,l,a,r,i,t,y){
      c[a]=c[a]||function(){(c[a].q=c[a].q||[]).push(arguments)};
      t=l.createElement(r);t.async=1;t.src="https://www.clarity.ms/tag/"+i;
      y=l.getElementsByTagName(r)[0];y.parentNode.insertBefore(t,y);
   })(window, document, "clarity", "script", "YOUR_PROJECT_ID");
</script>

Step 3: Paste Code into Shopify

Same process:

1. Go to Online Store → Themes → Edit Code

2. Open theme.liquid

3. Paste the Clarity code above </head>

4. Save and you're done.

⏱️ Clarity usually starts tracking in under an hour.

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📊 Key Features to Explore

Feature	Hotjar	Clarity
Heatmaps	✅ Clicks, scrolls, and movements	✅ Clicks and scrolls
Session Recordings	✅	✅
Rage Clicks	❌ (on paid plan)	✅
Funnels	✅ (with setup)	❌
User Feedback Polls	✅	❌
Price	Freemium (paid plans for more)	100% Free

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🔥 Tips to Get the Most from These Tools

1. Compare Hotjar and Clarity data to spot consistent behavior trends.

2. Filter by device to optimize separately for mobile and desktop.

3. Watch recordings of abandoned carts and identify what's going wrong.

4. Use scroll maps to see if CTAs and pricing are placed too low.

5. Run A/B tests and validate them with behavior recordings.

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🧠 Final Thoughts

Shopify's built-in analytics can tell you what is happening (like bounce rates and exits), but tools like Hotjar and Clarity reveal why it's happening.

By integrating these tools into your Shopify store, you’ll gain deep behavioral insights that lead to smarter design, better user experience, and higher conversions.

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💡 Need Help Setting This Up?

At RootSyntax, we help Shopify brands not just build beautiful stores—but optimize them with data-driven insights.
👉 Contact us to integrate Hotjar, Clarity, GA4, and more.