Connecting Shopify sets up the live link and starts pulling new data, but it does not automatically reach back through years of history. You pull your history once, yourself, with the Backfillbutton. It's the step that turns a fresh, empty-looking dashboard into accurate years of P&L, cohorts, and trends.
How to run it
- Open Settings → Stores.
- On the connected store card, click Backfill data.
- Pick how far back to go, 1, 2, 3, or 5 years (2 years is the default and is plenty for most).
- Start it. A live progress bar with an estimated time shows each step. You can keep working while it runs.
What it pulls
- Orders + daily revenue, refunds, COGS basis, back the full depth you chose.
- Customers, for RFM, cohorts, and LTV.
- Catalog + inventory, and Shopify Payments payouts.
- Ad spend and Klaviyo, but only the most recent ~90 days, because the ad and email platforms don't expose long history the way Shopify orders do. The nightly sync keeps them current from there.
Connect your other channels first
The ad-spend and email steps only run for channels that are already connected when you open the backfill. If you backfill before connecting Meta or Klaviyo, those steps simply skip, no harm done. Just connect the channel, then click Backfill dataagain. It's safe to re-run any time: already-synced rows aren't duplicated, so a re-run only fills in what's new.
Tip
If your dashboard looks empty
That's the normal state right after connecting, it just means you haven't pulled history yet. Run the backfill and it fills in. (A prompt on the dashboard will nudge you toward it too.)