How can PHP be used to track and analyze customer referral sources in an online shop setting?

To track and analyze customer referral sources in an online shop setting using PHP, you can utilize cookies to store the referral source when a customer first visits the website. This information can then be passed along through the checkout process and stored in a database for analysis. 

// Set the referral source in a cookie when a customer first visits the website
if(!isset($_COOKIE['referral_source'])) {
    $referral_source = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
    setcookie('referral_source', $referral_source, time() + 3600); // Cookie expires in 1 hour
}

// Retrieve the referral source from the cookie during the checkout process
$referral_source = isset($_COOKIE['referral_source']) ? $_COOKIE['referral_source'] : 'Direct Traffic';

// Store the referral source in a database for analysis
// Replace 'your_database_connection' with your actual database connection code
$pdo = new PDO('mysql:host=localhost;dbname=your_database', 'username', 'password');
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('INSERT INTO customer_referrals (referral_source) VALUES (:referral_source)');
$stmt->bindParam(':referral_source', $referral_source);
$stmt->execute();

Keywords

PHP tracking analyzing customer referral sources online shop

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