SmartLab is a SmartPush solution that uses SHOPLINE's identity-matching technology to recognize anonymous website visitors and turn them into email-addressable leads. With SmartLab, you can automatically send targeted discount offers to these leads through two campaign types: Win Back Anonymous Visitors, which re-engages visitors once they're matched to an email address, and Expand High-Potential Customers, which reaches out to algorithm-recommended leads with similar shopping behavior. This guide explains how to turn on data sharing, set up each campaign type, and view their performance.
| Note: This feature is available to selected merchants only. Contact your SHOPLINE account manager to enable it for your store. |
Prerequisites for Using SmartLab
Before you begin, make sure your store meets the following requirements:
- Plan: Your store must be on the Standard plan or higher, including offline top-up plans. SmartLab is not available on Free plans, plans with only paid email verification or paid SMS add-ons, or SHOPLINE Enterprise plans. If your store doesn't qualify, the SmartLab page shows an upgrade prompt instead.
- Audience Region: The email region of your audience must both be the United States or Canada.
- Access: SmartLab is currently available to selected merchants only. If you don't see the SmartLab tab in your admin panel, contact your SHOPLINE account manager to request access.
Turning On Data Sharing for SmartLab
Data sharing must be turned on before you can set up either SmartLab campaign type. To turn on data sharing:
- Go to Solution > SmartLab in your SmartPush admin panel.
- Read the data sharing explanation on the page, then click Enable Sharing.
- Once enabled, a Data Sharing toggle appears under Settings > Data Sharing > SmartLab. You can turn this off at any time.
| Important: Turning off Data Sharing automatically pauses both Win Back Anonymous Visitors and Expand High-Potential Customers. Your campaign settings are kept, and you can resume each campaign after you turn Data Sharing back on. |
Setting Up Win Back Anonymous Visitors
Win Back Anonymous Visitors automatically emails a discount offer to a visitor as soon as SmartLab matches them to an email address. To set it up, complete the following three steps.
Step 1: Setting the Discount Code
- Set the discount percentage (for example, 15% off).
- Set a discount threshold, or choose no minimum purchase amount.
- Set a custom validity period for the code.
- Click Next to save your discount settings and continue.
Notes:
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Step 2: Adding Brand Content
Fill in the following fields:
- Logo: Uses the logo from your Brand settings by default. If you update it here, the change also applies to your Brand settings. If no logo is set, upload one.
- Hero Image: Upload an image to feature in the email.
- Brand Story: Enter a short description of your brand.
The email preview on the right updates as you fill in these fields. Click Next to save and continue.
Step 3: Setting the Redirect Page
- URL: Enter the custom page shoppers land on after clicking the email.
- UTM parameters: Set automatically to utm_source=smartpush, utm_medium=email, utm_campaign=smartlab01. These values can't be edited.
Click Finish to activate the campaign.
| Note: If you exit before completing all three steps, your progress is saved, but the campaign won't start running until you finish Step 3. |
Managing Your Win Back Anonymous Visitors Campaign
Once your campaign is active, the SmartLab page shows its performance dashboard along with Edit Settings and Pause options.
- Edit Settings: Takes you back to Step 1 with your current settings retained. Change any field, then click Save to apply the change immediately, or Next to continue to the following step.
- Pause: Stops the campaign immediately, including any emails already queued to send, and stops the landing page popup from appearing. Your settings are kept, and you can resume the campaign at any time.
SmartLab also pauses the campaign automatically when:
- You turn off Data Sharing.
- Your plan is downgraded below the required tier.
- Your email sending quota is used up.
- Your email channel is flagged by risk control.
| Note: SmartLab does not resend emails for the period a campaign was paused — sending simply resumes once you turn the campaign back on. |
Viewing Win Back Anonymous Visitors Performance
The Win Back Anonymous Visitors dashboard has three sections. Use the time filter (Last 7 Days, Last 30 Days, or Last 90 Days — defaults to Last 7 Days) at the top of each section; custom date ranges aren't supported.
- GMV Contribution: Shows Sales (revenue attributed to orders that used a Win Back Anonymous Visitors discount code), Leads (unique visitors identified from anonymous site activity), and Matches (unique visitors successfully matched to an email address), plus daily trend charts for sales and leads.
- Campaign Performance: Shows Delivered, Opens, Unique Open Rate, Clicks, and Unique Click Rate, plus a daily performance chart.
- Conversion Funnel: Shows the drop-off from Sent through Delivered, Opens, Clicks, and Orders, so you can see where visitors leave the journey.
Setting Up Expand High-Potential Customers
Expand High-Potential Customers’ setup follows the same three-step flow as Win Back Anonymous Visitors, with a few differences noted below.
Step 1: Setting the Discount Code
- Set the discount percentage, threshold (or no minimum), and validity period, the same way as for Win Back Anonymous Visitors.
- Click Next to save your discount settings and continue.
| Note: The discount percentage for Expand High-Potential Customers is also shown directly in the email body. The unique discount code itself still stays hidden until the shopper clicks through to the landing page. |
Step 2: Adding Brand Content
- Hero Image: Upload an image to feature in the email.
- Brand Story: Enter a short description of your brand.
Recommended products are selected automatically for each lead and don't require manual setup. Click Next to save and continue.
Step 3: Setting the Redirect Page
- URL: Enter the custom page shoppers land on after clicking the email.
- UTM parameters: Set automatically to utm_source=smartpush, utm_medium=email, utm_campaign=smartlab02. These values can't be edited.
Click Finish to activate the campaign.
Managing Your Expand High-Potential Customers Campaign
As with Win Back Anonymous Visitors, the SmartLab page shows a performance dashboard along with Edit Settings and Pause options once the campaign is active.
- Edit Settings: Takes you back to Step 1 with your current settings retained. Change any field, then click Save to apply the change immediately, or Save and Continue Editing to move to the following step.
- Pause: Stops the campaign immediately and stops the landing page popup from appearing. Your settings are kept, and you can resume the campaign at any time.
The same automatic pause conditions apply as for Win Back Anonymous Visitors: turning off Data Sharing, a plan downgrade, running out of email quota, or your store or domain being flagged by risk control.
Viewing Expand High-Potential Customers Performance
The Expand High-Potential Customers dashboard uses the same Last 7 Days / Last 30 Days / Last 90 Days time filter (defaulting to Last 7 Days) as Win Back Anonymous Visitors.
- GMV Contribution: Shows Sales (revenue attributed to orders that used an Expand High-Potential Customers discount code) and Potential Customers (leads matched and successfully sent an email that day), plus daily trend charts.
- Campaign Performance: Shows Delivered, Opens, Unique Open Rate, Clicks, and Unique Click Rate, plus a daily performance chart.
- Conversion Funnel: Shows the drop-off from Sent through Delivered, Opens, Clicks, and Orders.
Important Notes for SmartLab
- Both campaign types send through SmartPush's shared sending domain — no custom domain setup is needed.
- Each campaign type can send up to 5,000 emails per store, per day.
- Win Back Anonymous Visitors uses your email sending quota. Expand High-Potential Customers also uses your email sending quota, but does not use your contact quota.
- SmartLab campaigns run independently from the rest of SmartPush — they don't appear in your Campaigns, Flows, or Popups lists, and their data isn't included in the Analytics tab.
- If a shopper unsubscribes from a SmartLab email, they won't receive further SmartLab emails, following your store's standard unsubscribe rule.
- A SmartLab landing page popup won't appear if your store has a separately configured "Popup - EDM Source" popup for the same click.
- Performance data updates with a one-day delay (T+1).
Frequently Asked Questions About SmartLab
Q1: Can the same shopper receive more than one SmartLab email on the same day?
No. SmartLab checks whether your store has sent that contact any email in the last 24 hours before sending. If it has, the new SmartLab email is skipped.
Q2: What happens if a shopper clicks the same SmartLab email more than once?
They'll see the same discount code every time. A new code is generated only the first time they click through.
Q3: Will I receive the emails I missed while my campaign was paused?
No. SmartLab does not send emails retroactively for the period a campaign was paused.