Why do I have more visitors than replays?

Propel needs to receive two data bursts from the visitor’s browser before revealing the replay, as “the replay may be unplayable or incomplete with only a single burst of data.” The system creates visitor records on the first data burst, which explains why you see more visitors than playable replays.

Very short visits under five seconds often result in only a single data burst before visitors leave. Since short visits comprise the majority of traffic on most e-commerce sites, this creates a significant gap between visitor counts and replay availability.

Additionally, there’s a retention difference: “Propel retains replays for 30 days, however we currently retain visitor records indefinitely.” This means the visitor count will increasingly exceed replay numbers as time passes.