Setting Up Google Analytics E-сommerce

The e-commerce feature is designed to analyze data on purchases, financial transactions, as well as traffic and user engagement on websites and applications. Both e-commerce and Google Analytics are aimed at optimizing online business – thanks to them, you can find out which products or services are in the greatest demand, which traffic sources bring more conversions, which stages of the sales funnel need optimization and other useful information.

What is e-commerce?

The Google Analytics e-commerce tool is a special feature that allows you to track and analyze data on purchases and sales of goods and services on your website or application. With this tool, you can measure such metrics as the number of transactions, revenue, average check, conversion path, returns and more. And better understand the needs and behavior of your customers, optimize your marketing and sales strategy, and identify opportunities for growth and improvement.

What is the difference between standard e-commerce and advanced?

The standard tool is designed to create and manage online stores and is focused mainly on more typical metrics. Using and setting up advanced e-commerce provides additional features, such as:

• integration with various payment systems, such as PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay and others;
• analytics and reporting on sales, traffic, conversion and other metrics;
• marketing tools (email newsletters, coupons, discounts, gift cards, etc.) and more.

In general, the GA4 e-commerce service does not divide functionality into categories. It independently tracks many important parameters, and the rest can be configured at your discretion.

Main functions of e-commerce in Google Analytics

E-commerce allows you to analyze user behavior on the site related to the purchase of goods or services. What are the main functions it performs? Let’s dwell on this in more detail.

Measuring key marketing metrics

These include:

• Number of transactions – that is, the number of times users made a purchase on the site. This indicator shows the total sales volume and can be used to calculate the average check and revenue per visitor.
• Revenue is the amount that users spent on the purchase of goods or services on the site. This metric reflects the overall profitability of the site and can be broken down into revenue from each product, category, or traffic channel.
• Conversion is the percentage of site visitors who make a purchase. This metric shows how effective the site is at converting visitors into buyers. It is often used to compare different traffic sources, pages, or audience segments.
• Average order value is the average amount a user spends on a single purchase. This metric can be used to determine the optimal pricing strategy or to offer additional products or services.

Each stage of the sales funnel has its own conversion, that is, the percentage of users who move on to the next stage. By analyzing the conversion at each stage, you can identify weaknesses, as well as identify possible ways to improve the user experience and increase conversion.

Comparing the effectiveness of different traffic channels

You can analyze metrics at certain intervals – this will help you objectively evaluate user activity and track their specific actions.

Conversion assessment at all stages of the sales funnel

A sales funnel is a sequence of actions that a user must complete on a site to make a purchase. For example, a sales funnel may consist of the following stages:

• browsing the product catalog;
• adding a product to the cart;
• placing an order;
• confirming payment.

Each channel has its own efficiency: the ability to attract and convert users into customers. By analyzing the efficiency of different traffic channels, you can determine which of them are the most profitable for the site and optimize the budget and marketing strategy.

Analysis of the share of unfinished orders

If a user added a product to the cart but did not complete the purchase, this may be due to various reasons, for example:

• high price;
• complicated checkout process;
• lack of information, etc.

By analyzing the share of unfinished orders, you can identify problems and barriers that prevent users from completing purchases, as well as offer solutions that can increase conversion and site revenue.

Detailed revenue for each product

Google Analytics e-commerce allows you to understand which products are the most popular and profitable for the site, as well as identify possible ways to improve the assortment. To do this, you should use the “Product Efficiency” module. It is presented in the form of a graph and a table.

How Web Analytics Helps Business

Setting up E-commerce

Setting up Google Analytics e-commerce consists of the following steps.

Step 1: Select the “Administrator” tab

Log in your Google Analytics account and go to the “Admin” section. Here you will find three columns: “Account”, “Property” and “View”. You need the latter.

Step 2: Select the desired view

If you do not have any active views yet, to create one, click on the “Create view” button. And then customize it, adjusting it for different purposes. For example, for audience segmentation.

Step 3: Find the “E-commerce settings” item

You will find it in the “View” column. After clicking on the item, you will see two switches.

Step 4: Activate e-commerce

The first switch allows you to track basic sales data, such as the number of transactions, revenue, average order value and others. The second allows you to track additional data about user behavior on the site.

Move the “Enable e-commerce tracking” switch to the “ON” position. If you also want to activate advanced e-commerce tracking, move the corresponding switch to the “ON” position. Don’t forget to click the “Save” button to apply the changes.

Step 5: Place the tracking code on the site

Once the Google Analytics e-commerce setup is almost complete, you need to place the tracking code on your resource. It consists of two parts. The basic Google Analytics code should be placed on all pages of the site, and the additional code for e-commerce – on sales-related pages, such as product pages, shopping carts and order confirmations. The tracking code can be placed manually using the editor or automatically using Google Tag Manager.

Nuances of setting up e-commerce in Tag Manager

To track and analyze e-commerce data on your site, you can use Google Tag Manager (GTM). This is a free tool that allows you to manage various tags on your site without having to make changes to its source code. Setting up e-commerce includes the following steps.

Adding a site to the system

The first step is to add your resource to the Google Tag Manager system. To do this, you need to:

1. Register or sign in to your Google account.
2. Go to the Google Tag Manager website and click the “Create an account” button.
3. Enter the account name and container name (this is the name that will be displayed in GTM for your site).
4. Select the “Web” container type and click the “Create” button.

After that, copy the container code that appears on the screen and paste it into your site code immediately after the opening tag of each page.

Create a tracking tag

To do this, do the following:

1. Select your container.
2. Click the “Add new tag” button and give it a name.
3. Click the “Select tag type” button and select Google Analytics: Universal Analytics.
4. Enter the GA tracking ID (this is the number that starts with UA-, you can find it in your GA account settings).
5. Select the “Transaction” tracking type and click the “Enable Enhanced Ecommerce” button.
6. Next, click the “Select a trigger to run this tag” button and specify “All pages”.

Create a tracking trigger

Now you need to create a trigger that will run the tracking tag only on the order confirmation page.

To do this, you need to:

1. Go to your Google Tag Manager account and select your container.
2. Click the “Triggers” button and then the “New” button.
3. Give the trigger a name, for example, “Order confirmation”.
4. Click the “Choose trigger type” button and select “Page view”.
5. Click the “Some page views” button and select the condition by which the order confirmation page will be determined.
6. Save the trigger and go back to editing your tracking tag.
7. Change the trigger for firing this tag from “All pages” to “Order confirmation”.
8. Save the tag and publish the changes to your container.

Adding codes to the site

The Google Analytics e-commerce setup is completed by adding codes to the site that will transmit data to Google Tag Manager. You can find the Google Tag Manager code in the “Administration” section. It needs to be inserted into the head section on all pages of your site. The Google Analytics code is located in the “Tracking information” section. We place it in the body or head section on all pages of your site.

Analytics in Marketing: Why is it so Important?

What can be tracked using e-commerce?

Google Analytics e-commerce allows you to track the following user actions:

• viewing a list of products in a catalog, category, manufacturer or promotion;
• viewing search results on the site;
• viewing detailed information about a product;
• adding or removing a product from the cart;
• starting, continuing or completing an order;
• confirming a purchase;
• returning or canceling an order, etc.

Google Analytics 4 e-commerce is not just a tool, but a whole system that will help you develop and improve your e-commerce site. With its help, you can study all aspects of the buying process, from attracting and interactions to conversion and repeat purchases. You will be able to analyze various data on purchases, transactions and user behavior, create and view different reports, segment your target audience, apply filters and much more. All this will give you the opportunity to optimize your business, increase sales, improve customer engagement and loyalty, and identify the weaknesses and strengths of your site. Therefore, if you are not using e-commerce yet, we strongly advise you to do so as soon as possible.

And if you need a professional Google Analytics e-commerce setup, Octoix specialists are always ready to help.