Are you running an eCommerce store ? If yes, then you would probably know about the importance of Google Analytics. 

In case, you are not aware of Google Analytics then you will get to know about this after reading the blog. 

Analytics is one of the most important things that every eCommerce store owner should know. Without analytics, you can’t analyze the performance of your store. 

Google Analytics is a free service offered by Google for tracking & analyzing the website traffic. This is a powerful tool that is very easy to set up & can show you how much traffic is coming to your website. 

Why do you really need Google Analytics?

If you are running a physical store, then it becomes quite easy for you to analyze your customer’s behavior & can easily calculate the number of sales & profit. 

Suppose if you are running an online store then it becomes difficult for you to analyze the performance factors of your store. In that case, you really need to use Google Analytics. 

This tool will help you to find out the sources from where traffic is coming, the customer’s behavior, and also helps you to better understand the sales funnel.

With Google Analytics, you can better understand the performance factors and take the necessary measures to improve your marketing.

How to set up Ecommerce tracking through Google Analytics?

1. First of all, create a Google Analytics account with your Gmail ID. 

2. Once you have signed up with Google Analytics, create a new account by choosing your website & following all the steps.

3. Click on the “Get Tracking ID” and you will get a script. The script will look like this;

4. Open your Shopify store Admin and go to “Settings” & paste the script into the field provided.

 

After verifying the website with the Google Analytics account, the last step is to turn ON the eCommerce tracking option in Google Analytics. 

 

• Sign in to Google Analytics.

• Click Admin, and navigate to the view you want.

• In the VIEW column, click Ecommerce Settings.

• Set Enable Ecommerce to ON.

• Click Save.

 

How does Google Analytics work for your eCommerce store?

Google Analytics is the best way to extract the valuable information that will help you to understand the performance of your store in a meaningful manner. It includes four steps:

1.Data collection

The first step in this process is to collect the data in real-time. 

A JavaScript code is used to track that data & this code is placed in the website’s markup. Once this code is inserted into the website, it starts to collect the data & transfer that information to the Google Analytics servers. 

The information includes the date and time of the session, device type, operating system, screen resolution, location, etc. This proves to be really helpful for you while improving the performance of your store & increasing sales.

2. Data Processing

Data processing is very important because raw data is not valuable until it is processed and displayed in a meaningful way. 

Once the user’s data is collected by the JavaScript code, it is sent to Google’s service to process it in an understandable way.

Google converts the raw data into meaningful metrics that are helpful in evaluating the performance of the eCommerce store. One of the most important metrics for an eCommerce store is revenue. 

If the ROI of your store is high then it means that you are making profits. If this does not happen then your business is at the loss. Through data processing, you can analyze the revenue of your store easily.

3. Data configuration 

Once the data is processed, it is manipulated to fulfill some configurations. Let’s understand this with an example;

Suppose you want to exclude the traffic coming from your office IP address to the store. It is a good idea to do this because you will search your website so many times in a day and when you check the data in Google Analytics, you will see huge traffic. But in reality, it’s not beneficial data for you to analyze the performance of your store. 

When you exclude your office data then you can actually see who is visiting & interacting with your website. This will really help you to take the steps that are necessary to increase the ROI of your store.

In Google Analytics, it is essential to create different views of your website in order to have the most accurate data.

 

4. Data Reporting

Google Analytics provides a number of reports with valuable information that will help you to analyze your store performance. 

Google Analytics breaks down the reports into different categories like;

• Real-Time – This report will show you the user activity on your site in real-time.
• Audience – This report will show you in-depth about who is on your site.
• Acquisition – This report will show you how many users found and arrived at your website.
• Behavior – This report will show you the behavior of your users when they visit your website. 
• Conversions – This report will show you the number of sales and conversions of your store.

When you will access Google Analytics, you will get the “Report” option on the left side menu. From there, you can access the reports & download the data.

Conclusion:

Google Analytics for eCommerce will naturally look a little different than Google Analytics for restaurants, service providers, and other types of businesses. The focus is more on revenue, transactions, and how website usage is driving sales in measurable, concrete ways.

While setting up the eCommerce tracking side of things does take time, it gives you so much valuable, actionable information you can use to improve your site to drive more sales.

What do you think?  Do you use Google Analytics for eCommerce? Which tracking features do you find most helpful? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!