In the previous sections, we described the core foundations of using Heap. Much of what we described requires some critical steps to be taken during implementation to connect information about your customers so that you can answer the business questions you have today, and others that come up in the future.
Below is a quick view of the implementation checklist, for full documentation, review Setting Up Heap.
✓ Install Heap and confirm that it’s up and running on all domains – once you’ve done so, you can use projects and environments to keep your different data sources organized
❏ Web
❏ iOS
❏ Android
❏ Server
❏ Review specification and implementation documents.
❏ Implement identify calls to answer business questions that require user identity data to answer.
❏ Implement server-side events to track events that happen outside of the domains where Heap is running.
❏ Integrate third party integrations like your marketing automation tool, CRM,
payment processor, and more.
❏ Configure your external data warehouse (optional).
❏ Review documentation on data governance, event naming, and categories to make sure your data stays organized.
Data Sources
You’ll likely need to set up some connections with other data sources to pull in data that is not available in Heap. Here are the core and enhanced data connections recommended for eCommerce businesses.
| Core | Email Marketing | Payments | eCommerce |
| Enhanced | CRM | Attribution | Customer Success |
| Enhanced | Marketing automation | Business Intelligence | Advertising |
| Enhanced | Personalization and A/B testing | Web Chat | In-app prompts |
API Specs for User Properties
Here are key user properties that we recommend tracking via addUserProperties API calls so that you can conduct analysis based on user and segment information.
Core
| User Trait | Description |
| createdAt | datetime of user registration |
| id | unique universal id |
| user’s email address |
Enhanced
| firstName | lastName | phone | address |
| accountType | firstPurchaseDate | purchaseCount | purchaseTotalValue |
| birthdate | gender |
Manual Events & Event Properties
Manual events can be configured to augment the Heap autocaptured event data. We previously suggested two core events for eCommerce that should be tracked manually. Here is the recommended implementation of those events.
Marketing Events
| Type | Event | Events Trigger | Properties | Identify Call? | Domain |
| Core | Completed Order | Triggered when the user completes a purchase from the cart and the transaction is successfully processed | revenue order Total order ItemCount orderShipping orderTax orderDiscount | yes | Server |
| Enhanced | Purchased Product | Every line item triggers a unique event (so if 5 items are purchased on an order, then 5 events are generated) | itemId itemName itemPrice itemSku itemCategory | yes | Server |
Data Governance
There are plenty of tools and best practices to keep your data clean and organized in Heap. Learn more about how to use our data governance features for management, control, and monitoring by reviewing our Data Governance guide.