Most ecommerce brands do not lose growth in one big, dramatic moment.

It usually happens quietly.

A campaign starts underperforming. A landing page converts a little worse than usual. A customer hits friction and drops off before checkout. Paid acquisition continues to run, but revenue doesn’t grow as it should.

That’s where the new Nector.io + Out of the Blue (OTB) integration matters.

It brings together two parts of growth that are usually managed in silos: acquisition visibility

and customer retention.

With this integration, Nector can connect merchants to OTB, launch the OTB onboarding flow, track onboarding completion, and access acquisition analytics once the merchant becomes active. The integration supports reporting across channels, campaigns, ads, and landing pages.

The result is simple: brands get a better way to understand what’s happening before the purchase — and a stronger way to keep customers coming back after it.

Why this integration matters

Most ecommerce teams already know they need both acquisition and retention.

But in practice, those systems often live far apart.

Your paid team is looking at ROAS, CAC, clicks, and conversions. Your retention team is focused on loyalty, repeat purchases, referrals, and customer lifetime value. Both teams are trying to grow the same business, but they’re often working from different tools, dashboards, and signals.

That disconnect slows everything down. The Nector + OTB integration helps close that gap.

Out of the Blue helps merchants connect acquisition data and access performance analytics.

Nector helps merchants turn those customers into repeat buyers with loyalty, rewards, referrals, reviews, and VIP experiences.

Together, they create a more complete growth loop for Shopify brands.

What the integration does

At the product level, the flow is straightforward.

When a merchant wants to get started with OTB analytics, Nector can call OTB’s partner Connect API using the merchant’s Shopify domain, store name, and email. OTB then resolves the merchant or creates a new tenant and returns an access token, onboarding status, and a redirect URL that can be opened in the browser.  

The onboarding status can be:

• CREATED
• ONBOARDING
• ACTIVE

Once the merchant becomes ACTIVE, Nector can pull acquisition analytics from OTB across channels, campaigns, ads, and landing pages.  

So this isn’t just a sign-in layer or a basic app connection. It’s a workflow that takes merchants from setup to usable insight.

The integration workflow between Nector and OTB

At a high level, the workflow looks like this: Nector.io enables merchants to connect with Out of the Blue through a guided onboarding flow. Once setup is complete, eligible acquisition insights can be surfaced across channels, campaigns, ads, and landing pages, helping brands connect acquisition performance with retention outcomes.

1. Nector sends merchant details to OTB
2. OTB creates or resolves the merchant account
3. Nector opens the OTB onboarding flow
4. The merchant connects their data sources
5. Nector checks onboarding status
6. Once active, Nector fetches acquisition analytics

This is what turns the integration into a real product workflow rather than just a backend connection.

What analytics does OTB return?

The response includes four data shapes:

• timeseries_current
• timeseries_previous
• total_metrics
• channel_breakdown

That gives merchants a view of:

• current-period performance
• previous-period comparison
• aggregate totals
• per-channel breakdowns

Available metrics include:

• Revenue
• Spend
• Orders
• Computed ROAS
• Platform ROAS
• CaC
• CTR %
• Conv %
• Clicks
• Impressions

So rather than a flat export, the integration gives Nector access to a structured analytics response that is easier to work with and easier to interpret.

Browser login flow

When the redirect_url is opened, the browser flow works automatically:

1. The browser loads the OTB login page
2. The access token is exchanged for a session
3. A session cookie is set
4. The user is redirected based on onboarding status

That means:

• Merchants who are new go to the onboarding experience
• Merchants who are already active go straight to the dashboard

The browser session lasts 24 hours. After that, Nector can call the Connect API again to get a new redirect_url.

Error handling and rate limits

Like any production integration, this one includes clear error states.

Connect API errors

• 400 — missing required fields
• 400 — invalid shop domain
• 401 — invalid credentials
• 403 — email conflict
• 429 — rate limit exceeded

Data API errors

• 400 — missing required query parameters
• 401 — invalid credentials
• 404 — tenant not found
• 404 — invalid resource
• 409 — merchant not active
• 429 — rate limit exceeded

Why this workflow matters for Nector

What makes this integration valuable is not just that Nector can connect to OTB. It is that the workflow is clear, practical, and merchant-friendly.

Nector can:

• Initiate the connection
• guide the merchant into onboarding
• Stay in sync with onboarding progress,
• Unlock analytics access once onboarding is complete

That creates a much smoother handoff between setup and insight. And for Shopify brands, that matters. Because the easier it is to connect systems, the easier it becomes to build a growth stack that actually works together.

Final thoughts

The new Nector + Out of the Blue integration is best understood as a workflow.

Nector starts the merchant journey. OTB handles onboarding and source connection.

Nector tracks progress. And once the merchant becomes active, Nector can access acquisition analytics across channels, campaigns, ads, and landing pages. That is what makes this integration useful.

It is not just a technical connection between two platforms. It is a cleaner path from merchant setup to acquisition insight, with less friction along the way.

Want to see how Nector helps Shopify brands build stronger retention?

Create a fully branded loyalty program with rewards, referrals, reviews, and VIP tiers — and turn more first-time buyers into repeat customers across all channels.

Book a demo