Documentation
Profile Location
How Quotient determines where your customers are located
Understanding where your customers are located is crucial for personalized marketing. Quotient uses multiple data sources to build an accurate picture of each customer's location.
How We Determine Location
We use three main sources to determine customer location, in order of priority:
1. Order Billing Addresses
When a customer makes a purchase on your Shopify store, we get their billing address. This is our most reliable source of location data since customers typically enter their real address for billing purposes.
For example, if Jane places an order and enters a billing address in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, we'll use this as her primary location. This helps ensure marketing emails she receives are relevant to her region.
2. Shopify Customer Default Address
If a customer hasn't placed an order but has saved a default address in their Shopify account, we'll use this as their location. This is often accurate since customers typically save their home address for future purchases.
For instance, if Tom creates an account and saves his address in Seattle, Washington, but hasn't made a purchase yet, we'll use Seattle as his location.
3. Analytics Events
As a last resort, we use location data from analytics events (like page views or clicks) captured during website visits or interactions with your marketing campaigns. While less precise than billing or saved addresses, this helps us understand where visitors are browsing from before they provide any address information.
How We Choose Between Sources
We follow a strict priority order to always use the most reliable location data available:
- Most recent order billing address (highest priority)
- Shopify customer default address
- Analytics event location (lowest priority)
This means that:
- If a customer has made a purchase, we'll always use their billing address
- If they haven't ordered but have a saved address, we'll use that
- Only if we have neither will we fall back to their analytics event location
As customers interact more with your store - from browsing to creating an account to making purchases - our understanding of their location becomes increasingly accurate.
Why Location Matters
Knowing where your customers are helps you:
- Send emails at the right time for their timezone
- Create location-specific campaigns (like "Free Shipping to California")
- Personalize content based on regional preferences
- Comply with regional marketing regulations
For example, you might want to:
- Send a special promotion just to customers in New York
- Ensure customers in Australia receive emails during their daytime
- Notify West Coast customers about a pop-up shop in Los Angeles