Is it possible to for a sales channel to read orders placed via the online store?

[jql194]

We have a sales channel app that has read_only_own_orders permission applied to it.

Does Shopify allow sales channels to read orders that were placed outside of the sales channel? We'd like to do this for referral tracking

[_JB]

Hey @jql194,

I can confirm that it's currently not possible for sales channel apps to read orders that were created on a different channel. If your app is a sales channel, you will only see your own orders when using the Orders API, and will only receive order webhooks for orders created by your channel.

If you share how you're currently tracking referrals, I can try to help come up with a way to do this while working within this limitation.

[jql194]

Thanks for the clarification @_JB 

We're actually not sure what the best way forward is going to be for tracking referrals in that case. One option being explored is to use utm parameters and try to infer things from script tags.

Do you have any other options or suggestions?

[_JB]

Hey @jql194,

I was thinking something along the same lines using UTMs. Script tags on the storefront are probably a good idea so you can store the UTMs client side (Shopify also sets a few cookies with the UTM values, but those aren't versioned and can change at anytime), and another script tag on the thank you page to capture the values.

Don't hesitate to reach out if you run in to any issues with the implementation.