Messages not appearing on your storefront

This is the most common issue. Work through these steps in order — most problems are caught in the first three steps.

Check that the theme embed is enabled

Go to your Shopify admin > Online Store > Themes > Customize. In the left sidebar, click "App embeds." Find ProofNudge and make sure the toggle is on. Click Save. This is the most common cause of messages not showing — the embed gets disabled during theme changes or theme switches.

Verify the campaign is active

Open the ProofNudge app in your Shopify admin. Check that your campaign's status is "Active" (not "Draft" or "Paused"). A campaign must be active for its messages to appear on your storefront.

Check targeting rules

Your campaign's targeting controls which product pages show messages. If you've targeted specific products, collections, or tags, make sure the product page you're testing actually matches those rules. Try temporarily setting targeting to "All products" to confirm messages work.

Check conditional logic

If your messages use conditional logic (e.g., "show only when viewer_count_current > 10"), the conditions might not be met on the page you're testing. Try temporarily removing conditions to see if the message appears. New stores often have low traffic numbers that don't meet thresholds.

Check for JavaScript errors

Open your browser's developer tools (F12 or Cmd+Option+I) and check the Console tab for errors. Look for any errors mentioning "proofnudge." If you see a network error for the ProofNudge script or API, check your browser extensions — ad blockers sometimes block third-party scripts.

Verify the page is a product page

ProofNudge messages only appear on product pages (URLs containing /products/). They do not appear on collection pages, the homepage, or cart pages. Make sure you're testing on an actual product page.

Wrong data showing in messages

If messages appear but the numbers seem incorrect, check these common causes.

Viewer count shows 0 or 1

The real-time visitor count tracks active sessions on a product page. If you're the only visitor, the count will be 1. This is expected behavior — ProofNudge shows real data, not inflated numbers. Use conditional logic to hide the message when the count is below a threshold (e.g., viewer_count_current > 3). See our template examples for recommended thresholds.

Purchase counts seem low

ProofNudge tracks purchases from the moment you install the app. It does not retroactively import historical order data. If you just installed, purchase counts will start from zero and build over the first few days and weeks. Variables like order_count_pastweek need a full week of data to show meaningful numbers.

Stock count doesn't match Shopify

The inventory_quantity variable comes directly from your Shopify product data at the time the page loads. If you've just updated inventory in Shopify, it may take a few minutes for the change to propagate to the storefront. Hard-refresh the product page (Ctrl+Shift+R) to see updated values.

Rankings not showing

Best seller rankings are calculated from actual sales data. A product needs at least one sale within the ranking period to receive a rank. If a product has no recent sales, the rank variable will be empty and the message won't display (assuming you have a condition like collection_rank <= 5).

Messages appearing on wrong pages

If messages show on products where they shouldn't, the issue is usually in your targeting configuration.

Review campaign targeting

Open your campaign in the ProofNudge admin and check the targeting section. Make sure you've selected the correct targeting mode: "All products," "Specific products," "Specific collections," or "Specific tags." If you have multiple campaigns, they may overlap — a product can match multiple campaigns.

Check for overlapping campaigns

If you have multiple active campaigns, a product might match more than one. ProofNudge will show messages from all matching campaigns. Review all active campaigns and adjust targeting so they don't overlap unintentionally. Read the placements and targeting guide for best practices.

Verify product tags and collections

If targeting by tag or collection, double-check that the product's tags and collection memberships in Shopify match what you've configured in ProofNudge. Tags are case-sensitive. Collections must be the exact Shopify collection, not a custom grouping.

Styling and layout issues

If messages appear but look wrong — cut off, overlapping other elements, or unstyled — these steps will help.

Message overlapping other elements

Check the z-index of the ProofNudge message container. By default, messages use a z-index that works with most themes, but some themes have very high z-index values on elements like sticky headers or modals. Add custom CSS to adjust: .proofnudge-message { z-index: 999; }. See the full CSS customization guide for more options.

Message text is cut off or too small

Some themes apply overflow: hidden or restrictive max-width styles to their product containers. This can clip ProofNudge messages. Inspect the message element in your browser's dev tools to identify which parent element is causing the clipping. You can override it with:

.proofnudge-message {
  max-width: 100%;
  overflow: visible;
  font-size: 14px;
}

Image overlay not positioned correctly

Overlay messages require the parent image container to have position: relative. Most themes do this by default, but some use position: static. If the overlay appears outside the image, add to your theme CSS:

.product__media-item {
  position: relative;
}

Replace .product__media-item with your theme's actual product image container class.

Messages look different on mobile

ProofNudge supports separate desktop and mobile placements. If messages look wrong on mobile only, check that you've configured mobile-specific placement in your campaign settings. You can also use CSS media queries to adjust styles. See the mobile section of our CSS customization guide.

Pixel not tracking events

If your purchase counts, cart counts, and viewer counts are all staying at zero, the web pixel may not be firing.

Verify the pixel is installed

Go to your Shopify admin > Settings > Customer events. You should see "ProofNudge" listed as a custom pixel with status "Connected." If it's not listed, reinstall the ProofNudge app — the pixel is added automatically during installation.

Check for ad blockers

Some browser ad blockers and privacy extensions block web pixels. Try visiting your store in an incognito/private window with extensions disabled. If events start tracking, the issue is a browser extension on your testing device. Note that your customers likely won't all have ad blockers — the data will still be meaningful.

Wait for data to appear

There's a short delay between when events fire and when they appear in your ProofNudge dashboard and message variables. Page view and cart events typically appear within 1-2 minutes. Purchase events may take up to 5 minutes to process and update aggregate counts.

Test with a real page view

Visit one of your product pages in a normal browser session (not the theme editor preview). Wait 30 seconds, then check the ProofNudge dashboard for recent events. The theme editor preview does not fire pixel events.

Performance concerns

ProofNudge is designed to have minimal impact on page load speed.

  • Script size: The ProofNudge initialization script is under 8KB gzipped and loads asynchronously. It does not block page rendering or affect your Lighthouse score.
  • API calls: Messages are fetched from edge servers (low latency). The request happens after the page has rendered, so it doesn't affect perceived load time.
  • Web pixel: The tracking pixel runs in Shopify's Web Worker sandbox, completely isolated from your storefront code. It cannot affect your page's performance.
  • If pages feel slow: Open your browser dev tools > Network tab and filter by "proofnudge." Check the timing of ProofNudge requests — they should complete in under 200ms. If they're slower, it may be a temporary network issue. If the issue persists, contact support.

Still stuck?

If none of the above resolves your issue, email us at support@proofnudge.com with:

  • Your store URL
  • The campaign name and message ID having issues
  • A screenshot of the problem (if visual)
  • Any console errors from your browser dev tools

We typically respond within a few hours during business days. You can also revisit the getting started guide to verify your initial setup is correct.