Why Post-Purchase Surveys Matter More Than Ever

Marketing attribution is broken. Personalization is underutilized. Conversion rate optimization is often guesswork. The solution lies in capturing authentic customer insights at the moment of highest engagement – immediately after purchase.

We tapped into 10 of the top agencies in Shopify and ecommerce to uncover the most valuable post-purchase survey questions they use for their clients. These go beyond the typical “how did you hear about us” survey question—they’re high-impact questions that unlock actionable insights and drive real business results.

Here’s what the best in the business are asking—and more importantly, how they're turning those responses into measurable results for acquisition, retention, and product strategy.

The Questions That Uncover Game-Changing Insights

1. “How did you hear about us?” (with geo-targeting) - Elumynt

💡 Why it’s valuable: Verifies platform-reported ROAS and helps scale spend efficiently.

🚀 How it’s used: Calculating adjusted ROAS using Fairing’s revenue extrapolation. As well as running geo holdout tests to measure incrementality.

📂 Category: Attribution & Measurement

Elumynt is an elite paid media agency known for its incrementality testing and ROAS optimization across Meta, TikTok, and Google. Grace Pietsch, Director, Ecommerce Growth Strategy.

2. “What was the main reason you decided to purchase today?” - Valenz Media

💡 Why it’s valuable: Improves cross-channel attribution beyond last-click models.

🚀 How it’s used: Matching survey responses to UTMs and order data, as well as assigning weighted multipliers for offline channels like podcasts.

📂 Category: Attribution & Measurement

Valenz Media specializes in performance marketing and podcast attribution, helping brands understand the impact of non-digital touchpoints. Drew Valenzuela, Head of Media.

3. “How did you hear about us?” - Vaulted Oak

💡 Why it’s valuable: Provides real attribution data, rather than relying solely on ad platform reporting.

🚀 How it’s used: Comparing responses against marketing spend and adjusting channel investment based on post-purchase insights.

📂 Category: Attribution & Measurement

Vaulted Oak develops digital architecture and provides ongoing support & maintenance for Shopify and WordPress. We are part of Barrel Holdings and a closely affiliated sibling agency to Barrel, a leading digital agency focused on direct-to-consumer experience design. David Ries, Account Director.

4. “How are you planning to use the product you purchased?” - Zettler Digital

💡 Why it’s valuable: Understanding customer intent helps brands create better personalization strategies.

🚀 How it’s used: Responses are synced into Klaviyo custom profile properties, enabling dynamic email content based on use case, segmentation for lifecycle marketing, and lookalike audiences built from real customer insights

📂 Category: Personalization & Segmentation

Zettler Digital specializes in paid media and retention strategies, helping brands maximize performance across Meta, Google, and Klaviyo. Fairing customers work with Zettler Digital to refine email personalization using survey responses. Ben Zettler, Founder.

5. “What additional products would you like us to develop?” - Yetrics

💡 Why it’s valuable: Brands can prioritize product development based on actual demand, not assumptions.

🚀 How it’s used: Real-time tracking in Looker Studio dashboards, word clouds highlight trending requests, and for monthly reports rank most requested colors/products.

📂 Category: Personalization & Segmentation

Yetrics is a data-driven growth agency focused on CRO and product marketing for Shopify brands, particularly in apparel and accessories. Yash Mori, Owner.

6. “What types of communications would you prefer to receive?”- SmartSites

💡 Why it’s valuable: Customers self-segment, leading to higher engagement and lower unsubscribes.

🚀 How it’s used: Klaviyo profile properties for personalized email content & segmentation.

📂 Category: Personalization & Segmentation

SmartSites is a full-service digital agency with a strong focus on email automation and lifecycle marketing. Ashley Ismailovski, Director of Email Marketing.

7. “What was your intent for this purchase?”- Naughton & Bird

💡 Why it’s valuable: Helps accelerate the second purchase and drive retention.

🚀 How it’s used: Automated post-purchase Klaviyo flows segmented by intent.

📂 Category: Personalization & Segmentation

Naughton & Bird is an email and retention-focused agency, helping brands scale LTV through better Klaviyo segmentation. Matt Naughton, CEO.

8. “What almost stopped you from buying today?”- Barrel

💡 Why it’s valuable: Uncovers hidden conversion blockers that analytics alone can’t detect.

🚀 How it’s used: Tagging responses in Fairing to identify trends, cross-checking hesitation points with cart abandonment data, and running A/B tests to address recurring objections (e.g., pricing, trust, UX).

📂 Category: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Barrel is a UX-focused agency that helps Shopify brands optimize their websites, email flows, and checkout experiences. Lucas Ballasy, CEO.

9. “In your mind, what is the product’s biggest benefit to you?” - Enavi

💡 Why it’s valuable: Helps brands refine product positioning and PDP copy using real customer language.

🚀 How it’s used: Integrating survey responses into enhanced short descriptions on PDPs, leading to 12-15% higher add-to-cart rates

📂 Category: Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)

Enavi focuses on conversion optimization and retention, particularly for DTC brands scaling their paid channels. Sheldon Adams, Head of Growth.

10. “What do you plan to use our product for the most?” - QRY

💡 Why it’s valuable: Uncovers new use cases and audience insights.

🚀 How it’s used: Monthly data reviews inform positioning and product strategy.

📂 Category: General Research

QRY is a growth strategy firm, focusing on customer insights and product positioning. Samir Balwani, CEO.

What We Learned from the Best in Ecommerce

1. Attribution isn't just broken—it's incomplete. As Elumynt, Valenz Media, and Vaulted Oak all demonstrated, survey data reveals significant blind spots in platform-reported attribution, helping brands capture the full picture of their marketing performance.

2. Personalization drives revenue when built on customer-declared data. Zettler Digital, SmartSites, and Naughton & Bird are all leveraging customer responses to create more targeted segmentation, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates.

3. Customer objections are your roadmap to conversion wins. Barrel's approach of identifying hesitation points directly from customers provides a clear blueprint for CRO initiatives that address real barriers to purchase.

4. Product positioning should reflect actual customer use cases. As QRY and Enavi showed, understanding how customers actually use your products often reveals opportunities to refine messaging and product development priorities.

Final Thought

The agencies featured in this article aren't just collecting post-purchase data as a nice-to-have—they're integrating these insights into their core strategies to drive measurable improvements for their clients. In a privacy-first world where third-party data continues to erode, direct customer insights have become essential infrastructure for high-performing brands.

🚀 Ready to build your attribution infrastructure? Get started with Fairing today.