Why It Is Critical to Use a Single profileId Across All User Events

Introduction

In customer analytics and personalization systems, maintaining a consistent profileId for every user across all events is essential. This ensures that both pre-identified and post-identified user actions can be accurately tracked, analyzed, and attributed to the correct individual.

What is profileId?

profileId is a temporary identifier that represents a user before they have explicitly registered or logged into the system. It enables the platform to uniquely identify anonymous users and track their activity (e.g., product views, clicks, and interactions).
Once a user identifies themselves (e.g., through sign-up, login, or another authentication mechanism), their actions can also be linked by userId across different sources. At this stage, events with different profileIds can be merged into a single user profile via userId.
However, merging is only possible after the user is identified. This means that all anonymous actions leading up to identification depend entirely on the correct usage of a consistent profileId.

Why Pre-Identification Tracking Matters

The pre-identification phase is just as important as the post-identification one. For example:

• A new visitor comes to the website and starts browsing products.
• If product-related analytics (views, cart additions, purchases) are tracked under one profileId, while other user interactions are recorded under a different one, the connection between product engagement and user behavior may not be fully preserved.
• If that visitor never registers, their product-related activity and other actions may remain disconnected, making it difficult to get a holistic view of their journey.

Business Impact of Inconsistent profileId Usage

When product engagement events and general user events are not consistently tied to the same profileId, businesses may encounter challenges such as:

• Limited personalization: Experiences that rely on product history (e.g., recommending items a user viewed to encourage purchase) may not have access to the full context.
• Reduced opportunity capture: Without a unified view of product-level engagement, personalized recommendations may be less precise, impacting conversion potential.
• Partial analytics: Certain behavioral patterns, such as browsing intent or abandoned carts, may not be fully visible.

Case: Split Event Tracking by ProfileId

On some sites, product analytics and user action analytics are currently being recorded under separate profileIds due to an implementation setup choice. This creates a data misalignment: product-related events and other interactions are not being unified at the pre-identification stage. As a result, personalization flows and experiences that depend on a complete user-product interaction history are more limited in their effectiveness.

Conclusion

For businesses, it is critical to send all events — product-related and general — with the same profileId. This ensures:

• Accurate tracking of pre-identified user actions
• Proper merging with userId once the user is identified
• Seamless personalization and recommendations
• Better conversion rates and revenue optimization

Maintaining a consistent profileId across all user events is not an error-prevention measure — it is a configuration best practice that enables businesses to get the most value out of their analytics and personalization efforts.