Choose the event you want to explain
Product discovery can occur before a visit, in an assistant or across several retailers. Start with an observable event: a merchant link was displayed, a referral arrived, a checkout completed or an order was fulfilled. Do not substitute a model citation for an attributed sale. Define what your system can actually observe.
Keep the merchant layer visible
A brand’s product can be shown with a third-party retailer’s purchase link. That is different from the brand’s direct store receiving the visit. Profound’s documentation explicitly distinguishes shopping artifacts and merchant links. When evaluating a measurement tool, ask for a sample export that preserves the product, surface, query, merchant and time.
Avoid causal shortcuts
A rise in visibility followed by a rise in orders does not establish causation. Record promotions, stock changes, query-set changes and tracking changes. Separate provider-reported metrics from independently observed outcomes. V1 has no authenticated order data and makes no revenue attribution claim.