Content Sources

Overview

Ultimate Social Proof displays real-time notifications from multiple content sources to build trust and encourage purchases. Each source provides different types of social proof, and you can enable or disable them individually to match your store's needs.

The app intelligently selects which notifications to show based on what's happening in your store right now. When multiple sources have data available, the app rotates through them to keep notifications fresh and engaging.

Available Content Sources

Recent Purchases

Shows notifications like "Sarah from New York bought Blue Wireless Headphones" when customers complete orders.

This is typically the most powerful form of social proof because it demonstrates real buying activity. The notification includes:

• Customer's first name
• City and region (when available)
• Product name and image
• Time since purchase (e.g., "2 hours ago")

On product pages, purchase notifications are filtered to show only purchases of that specific product. On other pages (home, collections, cart), the app shows recent purchases from across your entire store.

When a product has multiple recent sales, the app may also show aggregate notifications like "12 people bought this in the last 24 hours" to highlight popular items.

Recent Reviews

Displays customer reviews with star ratings, such as "★★★★★ Amazing quality! - Mike".

Review notifications include:

• Star rating (1-5 stars)
• Review excerpt
• Reviewer's name
• Reviewer avatar (when available)

This source requires connecting a compatible review app. The notification appears with "(if connected)" in the theme editor because it only activates when review data is available.

Live Visitors

Shows real-time browsing activity like "8 people are viewing this right now" or "Someone from London is browsing".

Live visitor notifications create urgency by showing that other shoppers are interested in the same products. The app tracks:

• Total number of active visitors (within the last 5 minutes)
• Visitor locations (city, region, country)

On product pages, the count reflects visitors viewing that specific product. On other pages, it shows store-wide visitor activity.

By default, visitor counts only appear when at least 3 people are viewing (to avoid showing low numbers). You can adjust this threshold in the app settings.

Store Stats (Fallback)

Displays milestone messages like "Trusted by 2,300+ Customers" or "Join 5,000+ Happy Shoppers".

Store stats serve as a fallback when other real-time data isn't available. This ensures your store always has some form of social proof displaying, even during slow periods or when you're just starting out.

You can customize the milestone numbers and messages in the app settings to match your store's actual customer count or order history.

How to Enable or Disable Sources

You control which content sources are active through your Shopify theme editor:

1. Go to Online Store > Themes in your Shopify admin
2. Click Customize on your active theme
3. Navigate to the page where you've added Ultimate Social Proof
4. Click on the Social Proof Toast block
5. Scroll down to the Sources (Autopilot) section
6. Toggle each source on or off using the checkboxes:
   • Recent purchases - Shows customer purchase notifications
   • Recent reviews (if connected) - Shows review notifications
   • Live visitors - Shows real-time browsing activity
   • Store stat fallback - Shows milestone messages
7. Click Save to apply your changes

All sources are enabled by default. We recommend keeping multiple sources active so the app can choose the most relevant notification for each visitor.

How Sources Are Prioritized

The app uses intelligent weighting to decide which notifications to show:

1. Context-aware selection - On product pages, product-specific data (purchases of that item, viewers of that page) takes priority over store-wide stats.
2. Recency - More recent activity is prioritized. A purchase from 1 hour ago is more compelling than one from 2 days ago.
3. Thresholds - Some notifications only appear when thresholds are met:
   • Live visitors require a minimum count (default: 3) before displaying
   • Multi-sale notifications require multiple purchases to show aggregate counts
4. Rotation - When multiple sources have valid data, the app rotates through them to keep notifications varied and engaging.
5. Fallback chain - If real-time sources (purchases, visitors) have no data, the app falls back to store stats to ensure something always displays.

Best Practices

• Keep multiple sources enabled - This gives the app more options to show relevant, timely notifications.
• Set realistic store stats - Your fallback messages should reflect actual customer counts to maintain trust.
• Connect your review app - Adding reviews as a source provides another powerful form of social proof.
• Let the app learn - The longer you run the app, the more purchase and visitor data it collects, making notifications more compelling over time.

Troubleshooting

No notifications are showing

Check that at least one source is enabled in the theme editor. If you've just installed the app, it may take some time to collect purchase and visitor data. The store stats fallback should still display immediately.

Only store stats are showing

This usually means there's no recent purchase or visitor activity. The app requires real orders (not test orders) and actual visitors to populate these sources. Give it a day or two of normal store traffic.

Visitor counts seem low

By default, visitor counts only display when at least 3 people are viewing. If you have lower traffic, you can adjust the minimum threshold in the app settings, or rely on the store stats fallback during slower periods.