What to Ask Customers After Purchase

A Practical Guide for Shopify Brands

Post-purchase surveys are one of the most effective ways for Shopify brands to understand their customers. When shown immediately after checkout, surveys consistently outperform email surveys in both response rate and quality of answers.

The key is knowing what questions to ask, when to ask them, and how to use the answers.

This guide covers the most effective post-purchase survey questions Shopify brands use today, including attribution, NPS, CSAT, and open-ended customer feedback, with real-world patterns drawn from brands using post-purchase surveys on Shopify.

Why Post-Purchase Surveys Work Better Than Email Surveys

Email surveys rely on customers opening an email, clicking through, and responding later. Most don’t.

Post-purchase surveys appear directly on the Shopify thank-you page, when:

The purchase decision is still fresh
Customers are more willing to respond
No extra steps are required

That’s why Shopify brands consistently see higher response rates and more honest feedback from post-purchase surveys compared to email-based surveys.

Attribution Questions: Where Shopify Customers Really Come From

Understanding attribution is the most common reason Shopify brands run post-purchase surveys.

Analytics tools show clicks. Customers explain intent.

High-performing attribution questions

How did you first hear about us?
What influenced your decision to buy today?

When asked post-purchase, these questions reveal:

Which channels introduced the brand
Which channels actually drove conversion
The role of referrals, word-of-mouth, and offline discovery

This is why many brands rely on post-purchase attribution surveys on Shopify to complement their analytics tools.

In practice, most brands use fixed response options (paid ads, email, social, search, friend) with an optional “Other” field. This keeps reporting clean while still surfacing unexpected insights.

NPS Surveys: Measuring Customer Sentiment on Shopify

Net Promoter Score (NPS) surveys help Shopify brands understand long-term customer sentiment in a simple, repeatable way.

Core NPS question

How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? (0–10)

Essential follow-up

What’s the main reason for your score?

Post-purchase NPS surveys on Shopify are commonly used to:

Identify promoters early
Surface friction in the buying experience
Track sentiment changes after site, pricing, or product updates

Keeping NPS surveys short improves completion rates and makes the feedback easier to act on.

CSAT Surveys: Measuring Satisfaction at Key Moments

Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) surveys are best used to measure satisfaction with a specific interaction rather than overall brand perception.

Common CSAT question

How satisfied are you with your experience today?

CSAT surveys work particularly well after:

Checkout
Shipping confirmation
Customer support interactions

Many Shopify brands use CSAT alongside NPS, not instead of it, to capture both immediate satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

Open-Ended Feedback That Leads to Action

Open-ended survey questions often provide the most valuable insights, but only when framed well.

Vague questions lead to vague answers. Specific questions drive action.

Effective open-ended questions

What almost stopped you from buying today?
What could we improve about your experience?
What did you like most about shopping with us?

Across Shopify brands featured in the Grapevine Spotlight Series, these types of questions consistently surface:

Conversion friction
Messaging gaps
UX and trust issues

Most brands limit open-ended feedback to one question per survey to avoid overwhelming customers.

Surveying New vs Returning Customers

Not every customer should see the same post-purchase survey.

A simple split between new and returning customers dramatically improves the quality of insights.

New customers

Attribution questions
First-purchase experience feedback
Decision-making drivers

Returning customers

NPS trends
Loyalty drivers
Reasons they continue to purchase

Segmenting surveys this way keeps them short while still collecting relevant data.

How Often Should Shopify Brands Run Surveys?

Survey fatigue is usually caused by poor timing or too many questions, not by surveys themselves.

Best practices:

Ask one or two questions at a time
Rotate questions over time
Avoid surveying every single order

Unlimited-response pricing models make it easier to test, iterate, and collect consistent feedback without worrying about volume limits.

Bringing It All Together

The most effective post-purchase surveys on Shopify are:

Shown immediately after checkout
Short and focused
Designed to answer specific business questions

Start with attribution. Layer in NPS or CSAT. Add open-ended feedback once you’re ready to act on it.

Post-purchase surveys aren’t about collecting more data. They’re about collecting better customer insights at the right moment.

If you want to get started without worrying about response limits or complex setup, tools like Grapevine Surveys are built specifically for this: Shopify-native post-purchase surveys with unlimited responses at a fixed price.