This guide walks you through connecting Alia to Attentive so that SMS subscribers collected through your Alia popup are routed to the correct Attentive journey. The integration requires steps on both the Attentive side (creating a dedicated sign-up unit) and the Alia side (authorizing the connection and entering the sign-up unit ID).
Prerequisites
Before you begin, make sure you have:
An active Attentive account with at least one journey created (e.g. a "Welcome New Subscribers" flow)
Admin or Manager access to your Attentive account
Access to your Shopify store with the Alia app installed
Step 1: Contact Attentive Support
In your Attentive dashboard, click on the Live Chat button located in the top right corner.
In the chat, send the following message:
"I’m looking to create a signup source for an API."
Step 2: Answer Attentive’s Questions
The Attentive support team will ask you a few questions to set up the signup source. Here's how you should respond:
Question | Your Response |
Will you be collecting emails, phone numbers, or both? | Both emails and phone numbers |
Will subscribers check a box for consent or type their info? | Typing their info |
Where will this signup source be implemented? | On-site |
Will the messages sent be marketing or transactional? | Marketing |
What should the signup source be titled? | Alia API |
Step 3: Provide Journey and Offer Details
Attentive may also ask:
Which Welcome Journey do you want the signup source connected to?
What offer would you like to be associated (optional).
To find the correct Welcome Journey:
Look at what your current popups are connected to inside your Attentive dashboard.
Use the same journey for consistency.
Step 4: Wait for Setup
Once you provide the information, Attentive’s team will create the signup source for you. This can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours.
Once Attentive creates the unit, they will provide you with a Sign-Up Unit ID, a numeric value (e.g. 1187425). Save this ID; you'll need it in Step 5.
💡 Why can't I use an existing sign-up unit? Existing units tied to Attentive's native popups don't have the API enabled. Using the wrong unit means subscribers won't be added to your Attentive account correctly.
Step 5: Connect Attentive inside Alia
Someone with both Shopify store access and Attentive account access needs to complete this step.
Open the Alia app inside your Shopify admin.
Navigate to the Integrations tab.
Find Attentive and click Connect.
You will be redirected to Attentive's authorization page, make sure you are logged into the correct Attentive account for this store before authorizing.
Authorize the connection. You will be redirected back to Alia.
💡 When the Attentive authorization page opens, confirm you are authorizing the right brand account. If multiple Attentive accounts are open in the same browser, authorizing the wrong one will cause subscribers to be logged under a different account's API key, a common source of integration issues.
Step 6: Enter the Sign-Up Unit ID in Alia
After the connection is authorized, Alia will ask for your Marketing API / Sign-Up Unit ID.
Paste the Sign-Up Unit ID provided by Attentive support (from Step 4).
Save the setting.
Each Alia popup can be mapped to a specific sign-up unit ID, which determines which Attentive journey fires when someone subscribes. If you run multiple popups with different offers (e.g. a standard welcome vs. a promotional discount), each popup should have its own sign-up unit with its own linked journey.
Understanding Opt-In Types
Attentive defaults to double opt-in for SMS. With double opt-in, subscribers receive a confirmation text and must reply Y before being fully added to your list. This means:
Subscriber counts in Alia's Reports and Attentive's Signup Unit Report will not match because Alia tracks all popup submissions, while Attentive only counts confirmed double opt-ins.
If your popup's success screen doesn't prompt users to reply Y, SMS opt-in rates may appear lower than expected. So with Attentive integration, we'd suggest updating your popup's success screen to say something like:
"Check your texts and reply Y to get your discount code!"
This improves SMS opt-in completion rates.
If you want a single opt-in (subscribers are added immediately upon form submission without a reply-Y step), you must request this from Attentive — it requires their explicit approval and cannot be changed unilaterally. Contact Attentive support to request single opt-in be enabled on your API unit.
Once they approve it, you can enable single optin in the Attentive integration settings inside Alia to complete the single optin.
Switching Journeys for a Different Popup or Campaign
If you want a specific popup (e.g. a seasonal promotion) to trigger a different Attentive journey than your default welcome flow, you can override the global sign-up unit at the individual popup level. This means different popups can send subscribers to different Attentive journeys without affecting your account-wide integration settings.
Request a new sign-up unit from Attentive support: Follow Steps 1 through 4 above to have Attentive create a new sign-up unit linked to the new journey (e.g. a BFCM welcome flow or a specific promo offer). Get the new Sign-Up Unit ID.
Open the specific popup in Alia that you want to route to the new journey.
Locate the popup-level integration settings in the right-hand side menu. Under the Attentive field, you will see the global sign-up unit ID currently in use. Replace it with the new sign-up unit ID you received from Attentive.
Save the change. From this point on, subscribers collected through this popup will be sent to the new sign-up unit and trigger its linked journey, while all other popups continue using the global sign-up unit.
💡 If you would like to A/B test two offers, you need to set up separate API units for each popup with respective journeys in Attentive. Please refer to this article for the steps on how to do it.
What Data Is Passed to Attentive?
When Alia creates or updates a subscriber inside Attentive, we pass the following information:
Phone Number
Sent when collected on the popup
Email Address
Sent alongside the phone number when collected
Sign-Up Source ID
A unique ID configured per-merchant to track the origin of the lead (your API sign-up unit ID)
Subscription Type
Set to
MARKETINGby default for all Alia-collected subscribers
Single Opt-In Flag
An optional setting depending on your account configuration, requires Attentive's approval to enable (see the opt-in section above)
Custom Fields
Alia automatically syncs various popup, offer, and survey properties into Attentive custom fields
Custom Fields Passed by Alia
Depending on the actions a visitor takes, Alia may send additional custom fields and events to Attentive such as:
Profile Information
alia_campaign— The title of the Alia segment the user interacted withalia_popup— The specific title of the popup or flowAny additional custom profile properties collected during the signup experience
Reward Claimed
Alia discount code
Alia discount text
Alia discount expiration
Poll & Quiz Responses
Survey or poll question text
The visitor's submitted answer
Common Questions
Why are our subscribers appearing in the wrong Attentive account?
This usually means the authorization in Step 5 was completed while the wrong Attentive account was active in the browser. Disconnect and reconnect the integration, making sure to authorize the correct account. If the wrong API key is still in use, Attentive support can confirm which account's key is being sent in the API requests.
Why are my SMS opt-ins not showing up in Attentive?
Check the following in order:
Confirm the sign-up unit ID entered in Alia matches the Attentive unit exactly.
Confirm the unit is API-enabled (not a native popup unit).
If double opt-in is active, verify subscribers are completing the Y reply step.
Check if single opt-in option has been enabled in Alia without the approval from the Attentive team. If yes, disable the option in Alia.
Sign-up unit ID field asks for "Marketing API" - what does that mean?
This refers to the numeric ID of your API-enabled Attentive sign-up unit. It is not a separate API key. You can find it in Attentive under Sign-Up Units next to the unit name.
Why is it taking Attentive support too long to create the sign-up unit?
During holidays or peak periods, Attentive may handle requests via email rather than live chat. Allow extra lead time when planning go-live dates and flag to your Alia CSM so they can follow up if needed.
Can I segment users based on survey responses?
Yes. Survey responses and survey question properties are synced into customer profiles and can be used for segmentation. Please refer to this article on how to do it.
Why is my welcome flow not firing?
To troubleshoot your welcome flow not firing in Attentive, please refer to this article.